Acquired Tastes: World Cannibalism  

Some argue ecological necessity made the Aztecs cannibalize. The argument is that famine and drought and poor protein diet compelled the Aztecs to cannibalize. 

 

But the Aztec diet was large and diverse. The Aztecs ate dogs, turkeys, Muscovy dogs, deer, rabits, fish, turtles, birds. The Aztecs ate snakes, lizards, wasps, flying ants, insect larvae. The red worm ezcahuitli was an Aztec delicacy that the war god Huitzilopochtli called "truly my flesh, my blood, my substance." The Aztecs had two vegetable sources of protein: Chia and Quinoa. The Aztecs ate an algae called tecuitlatl that contains all eight amino acid. Tecuitlatl would have met the Aztec's protein needs by itself. Had the Aztecs not had these foods, they still would have had eight varieties of corn and twelve varieties of beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Aztec empire drew tribute to Tenochtitlan. The Codex Mendoza illustrates what tribute was. A large part of tribute was food. The four staple grains that were brought to Tenochtitlan - corn, beans, chia, huauhtli - could have sustained a population of 60,000 to 150,000. 

 

Table 1 shows the amount of grains that would be enough to feed an adult by the dietary requirements of the Food and Agriculture Orginization-World Health Orgination (FAO-WHO):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2 shows the amount of tribute recieved and amount of people that could be fed by the standard in Table 1 for one year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Aztecs built chinampas. Chinampas were tracts of land furrowed beneath the surface of Lake Texacoco. Chinampas were not affected by drought. One hectare (2.5 acres) of Chinampa could feed 20 people. There were 9,000 estimated chinampas in Lake Texacoco in the early 16th century. Chinampas would have fed 180,000 people.

 

The Aztecs would have been able to feed between 240,000 and 330,000 people. Estimates put Tenochitlan's population at 300,000. The protein thesis is invalid.

 

Moreover, cannibalism was not an instant reaction to famine. The worst famine happened in 1450. There were four successive crop failures. The Aztecs first ate from food surpluses stored in previous years. The surpluses ran out and people died, but the Aztecs did not eat the dead. The Codex Aubin mentions that the dead were eaten by wild animals. And during the Spanish siege of Tenochitlan the Aztecs ate tree bark, but they did not eat people.

 

​Aztec cannibalism did not occur during famine. Aztec cannibalism occured during harvest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Aztecs reacted to famine by farming and conquering more. Famine compelled the Aztecs to expand their Chinampas. Aqueducts and improved irrigation systems allowed the Aztecs separate salt and freshwater for the agriculture. Famine compelled the Aztecs to expand their territory. The Codex Mendoza shows that the Aztecs conquered 1.39 towns per year under Itzcoatl and Motecuhzoma I, and 2.6 towns per year under successive rulers until the Spanish arrived.

 

Regardless, human flesh is not a good source of protein. Aztec nobles were privelaged with eating people. Aztec nobles were 25 percent of Tenochitlan's population, or 75,000. The daily protein requirement  is .71g per kilogram of body weight. Assume that the average noble weighs 60 kg. The yearly protein requirement for Aztec nobles can be found by (.71g X 60kg)(75,000)(365). The yearly protein requirement for Aztec nobles is 1.2 X 10^6 kg. Given the population Central Mexico (25,000,000 X .25 = 6,250,000), the yearly protein requirement would be 97 X 10^6 kg.

 

Factors must be considered. Sacrifices to certain gods like the rain god Tlaloc were not consumed. Sacrificed women and children would give less protein than sacrificed men. The nobility only ate the extremeties of sacrifices. The body's extremities account for 35 percent of total body weight. The shoudlers, arms, legs, buttocks of a 60kg sacrifice would give only 1.81kg of protein. 

 

Five to ten percent consumption of a population is required to keep it. There were 15,000 sacrifices per year in Tenochtilan and 250,000 sacrifices per year in Central Mexico. Even without considering factors that diminish the sacrifices eaten, the protein from Aztec sacrifices does not satisfy population need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is little to suggest that the Aztecs ate people from ecological necessity. It begs the question: why?

 

Religion offers a better explanation. The Aztecs committed sacrifices to thank the gods for good fortune. Whenever there was a corn or vegetable harvest, there was sacrifice and cannibalism to thank Panquetzaliztli for the corn or Tepeilhuitl for the vegatables. Quecholli (c.f. Table 3) was dedicated to the god of the hunt Mixcoatl. If the hunt was successful many people were killed and eaten in honor of Mixcoatl. Cannibalism was a way to commune with the Gods. The Aztecs believed that eating human flesh was the same as eating godly flesh. The belief is associated with the Aztecs' psychotropic drug of choice, teonanácatl (psilocybe mexicana). In Nahuatl, teonanácatl translates as "flesh of gods."