Structural violence and physical death at Tlatelolco
Selecting the chronically malnourished for sacrifice at a Late Postclassic Mesoamerican city (1300-1521 CE)
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 11865249 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Kelly Elaine Blevins (0000-0002-5740-639X, Durham University, autor de correspondencia), Madeline McGrane (Arizona State University), Josefina Mansilla Lory (0000-0002-1581-6462, National Institute of Anthropology and History), Salvador Guilliem Arroyo (National Institute of Anthropology and History), J E Buikstra (0000-0003-0206-0165, Arizona State University) |
| Año | 2022 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2022-04-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sí |
| Open Access | No |
| Tipo | PREPRINT |
| Editorial | Center for Open Science (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.31235/osf.io/ua87m |
| OpenAlex | W4223575876 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citas recibidas | 1 |
| Referencias citadas | 5 |
Human sacrifice in Mesoamerican cities was diverse, highly ritualized, and remains incompletely characterized. Knowing who was selected for ritual violence is essential for interpreting specialized mortuary deposits and furthering research on Mexica society. To understand the structure and variability of sacrificial and mortuary practices, we examine here three burial contexts from Tlatelolco, a densely populated city in the heart of the Triple Alliance. The interment contexts of Paso a Desnivel (n=45) and Grupo Norte (n=52) had been excavated from within the ceremonial center near the Tlatelolco Templo Mayor, and Atenantitech (n=40) from a bordering calpulli or neighborhood. To establish which contexts are likely sacrificial deposits, we compare the age-at-death distributions, biological sex, and perimortem ritual trauma across these sites. We seek to understand if social status determined sacrificial inclusion by using metabolic and infectious disease as proxies for resource inequality. We find that the residential deposit approximates an attritional mortality distribution and that ceremonial center deposits primarily comprised non-adults, who also presented with significantly higher rates of metabolic and infectious disease than the non-adults from the residential site. Informed by previous studies and the ethnohistorical literature, we propose that impoverished individuals living on the margins Mexica society were chosen as sacrificial victims. High prevalence of metabolic and infectious disease co-morbidity indicate that these individuals endured long-term nutritional deficiency, apparently vitamin C. Further, variation in age, pathology, and perimortem treatment among ceremonial center deposits reveal the striking diversity of ritualized killings in a prominent Mexica city
Archaeology · Biology · Ethnology · Geography · Sacrifice · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Yucatan peninsula · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Demography · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Medicine · Ecology · Gerontology
| Obras citantes distintas | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citas por año | 1 |
| Intervalo de citas | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Velocidad de citación | current |
| Altamente citado | No |