’It’s not that they were violent,’ an archaeologist said about child-sacrificing pre-Christian cultures of Guatemala. 'It was their way of connecting with the celestial bodies.'
(LifeSiteNews) -- A news story about an archeological discovery in Guatemala is raising eyebrows for a comment by one particular "expert" who downplayed the notion that child sacrifice is “violent.”
On April 7, the Guatemalan Culture and Sports Ministry announced the discovery of an altar used for human sacrifice by the ancient Teotihuacan culture, in the present-day Tikal National Park.
"The remains of three children not older than 4 years were found on three sides of the altar," lead archeologist Lorena Paiz said of her team’s pre-Aztec find, which was the result of a year and a half of work. "The Teotihuacan were traders who traveled all over the country (Guatemala). The Teotihuacan residential complexes were houses with rooms and in the center altars; that's what the residence that was found is like, with an altar with the figure representing the storm goddess."
While the story itself is straightforward, CBS News’s April 9 report quoted an archaeologist unaffiliated with the team, María Belén Méndez, as noting that the find confirms "that there has been an interconnection between both cultures and what their relationships with their gods and celestial bodies was like.”
"We see how the issue of sacrifice exists in both cultures. It was a practice; it's not that they were violent, it was their way of connecting with the celestial bodies," she added.
It is this comment that caused a stir among readers, taken aback by the notion of "non-violent" child sacrifice.
“What you need to understand about that type of misrepresentation is that it is vital to upholding leftwing dogma on ‘colonization’ and the supposed evils of capitalism,” responded RedState front-page contributor Bonchie. “In that telling, these tribes would have flowered into a peaceful utopia without Western intervention. Further, they were morally superior to the Spanish invaders despite sacrificing children to false gods, perpetuating the most brutal form of slavery in history, and murdering each other with reckless abandon. If the left loses that framing, their entire worldview, which centers on Western cultures being the only ones capable of evil, collapses.”
Many observers have also long noted that, despite modern civilization fancying itself as far more enlightened than its ancestors, child sacrifice persists in the form of abortion.
While abortion is largely committed for utilitarian reasons, with no ritualistic significance attached by abortionists or seekers, its defenders do frame it as a necessary sacrifice for women’s lifestyle and career options, its political supporters place an importance on its availability that many have compared to a secular “sacrament,” and groups such as the Satanic Temple even commit what they describe as “abortion rituals.”
