Ralph L. Roys discusses sacrifice among the Maya; dogs and turkeys were sacrificed, as were people.
- Type
- Book
- Source
- Ralph L. Roys Non-LDS
- Hearsay
- Direct
- Reference
Ralph L. Roys, “Lowland Maya Native Society at Spanish Contact,” in Handbook of Middle American Indians, ed. Robert Wauchope, 16 vols. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965), 3:674
- Scribe/Publisher
- University of Texas Press
- People
- Ralph L. Roys
- Audience
- Reading Public
- Transcription
SACRIFICES. Sacrifices were made of one’s own blood and of dogs, wild turkeys, other wild animals, and even some reptiles. In times of public calamity human sacrifice was considered necessary. War captives were preferable, but slaves or children were often sufficient. The last were especially acceptable to the rain gods, and sometimes their bodies were thrown into a cenote. The famous sacrifices to the rain gods in the great cenote at Chichen Itza need no mention here. Of especial interest is an account of an arrow sacrifice, which must have been a fairly late innovation in Yucatan. (Landa 1941, pp. 115-21; RY, 1:276; Scholes and Roys, 1938, pp. 611-16; Scholes and Adams, 1938, 1: 78-80, and passim; Roys, 1933, App. B.)
- Citations in Mormonr Qnas
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