This morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune features one of the over-the-top exercises in political correctness that have made it a national laughingstock. Today the paper celebrates not just Minnesota's burgeoning Mexican population, but the Mexicans' observance of their Aztec roots: "Mexican roots, Minnesota homes."

The story puts a benign face on a fabricated pagan ritual bizarrely at odds with the authentic tradition to which it alludes. Here's how the story opens, purple prose and all: "Little Joaquin Diaz awoke abruptly to the potent, primitive beat of a single drum and a circle of brilliant pheasant plumes dancing above him. Joaquin, just 54 days old, soon lay peacefully in his mother's lap again, next to a makeshift altar bursting with ears of corn, oranges, red carnations and burning incense. Dancers in full, feathery Aztec regalia whirled around Joaquin in a ritual that his ancestors once practiced to welcome newborns into their world and their ways.

"His eyes open, Joaquin seemed content as his mother, Mayra Almendariz, placed him in the arms of friend Yannely Sanchez, who had agreed to be the boy's godmother. He shivered as Sanchez peeled off his pajamas and rubbed corn mush on every inch of his silky cinnamon skin. After wrapping red bandana strips on his head, wrists and ankles, Sanchez covered her godson in a loincloth she had made. Joaquin was now Uemazatl, which in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs means 'the elder deer.' Joaquin didn't know it yet, but the recent weekend ceremony held in his honor at a St. Paul school cafeteria transcended time, distance and international borders to symbolize his family's embrace of its indigenous roots. The corn ceremony, along with other rituals that can be traced to the Aztecs and other Indians native to what is now Mexico, are becoming more visible in the Twin Cities as people of Mexican heritage establish a stronger presence in Minnesota."

Below is one of a series of photographs that accompany the Star Tribune's article, this one with the caption: "Joaquin Diaz Friday was bathed in corn mush by his godmother Yannely Sanchez in a ritual practiced by his ancestors. The Aztec ceremony welcomes newborns to the world."

Anyone even vaguely familiar with Aztec rituals knows that their most notable component was human sacrifice. A far more authentic observance of the Aztec tradition than smearing corn meal on a baby's face would begin with tearing Joaquin's chest open and ripping his heart out. It would conclude with cooking Joaquin's limbs and eating them. I've adapted the following paragraphs from descriptions of Aztec practices available on the Web.

Even today, it is hard to comprehend the extent or rationale of the ritual sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs. It is estimated that from 15,000 to as many as 250,000 people per year were sacrificed by the Aztec royalty. Sacrificial victims were taken to the top of pyramids where, upon a ritual flat stone table, they had their chests cut open and their hearts ripped out. Then the bodies of the victims were rolled down the steps of the pyramids. The steepness of the pyramids facilitated rolling the bodies down them to the bottom.

The concepts underlying the practice of ritual sacrifice were about as sophisticated as the ritual itself. Critical to understanding the motivation behind the ritual sacrifices is the concept of "tonalli," which means "animating spirit." The tonalli in humans was believed to be located in the blood, which concentrates in the heart when one becomes frightened. This explains the gods’ hunger for the heart. Without this sacrifice, all motion stops, even the movement of the sun. So when the Aztecs made their sacrifices, as far as they were concerned, they were keeping the sun from halting in its orbit.

And of course it was Aztec mythology that supported these barbaric practices. As an agricultural society, Aztec civilization was greatly affected by the forces of nature; Aztec mythology consequently revolved around the worship of gods who represented the earth, rain, and the sun. The appeasement of such gods through human sacrifice was an indispensable part of Aztec religion. According to one Aztec belief, the sun required daily offerings in order to ensure that it would rise again the next day.

Particularly thirsty for blood was the war god, Huitzilopochtli. On the other hand, Quetzalcoatl was a kinder, gentler god. Quetzalcoatl only demanded the sacrifice of animals such as snakes and butterflies.

The victims of these ritual slaughters were usually warriors captured by the Aztecs in battles or tributes from vassal states in the form of humans offered up for sacrifice. But these human sacrifices were not simply propitiatory. They were also of great practical utility to the Aztec practice of cannibalism. The Aztecs ate virtually all of the their sacrificial victims -- as noted above, as many as 250,000 people per year.

After the victims' hearts were removed and the bodies tossed down the pyramid steps, the limbs were removed and later cooked. Cooked human bodies were looked upon as great delicacies, which explains why only Aztec royalty, not the common people, were allowed to engage in cannibalism. The favorite parts for the Aztecs to munch on were the hands and thighs. The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, was reported to have been partial to cooked thighs served with tomatoes and chili pepper sauce. The need for new sacrificial victims was one factor that pushed the warlike Aztec to continuously seek new territory and peoples to conquer.

All of which leads me to ask the question: Why? Why does the Star Tribune so relentlessly publicize and celebrate the bizarre myths of multiculturalism in such a nauseating manner? I hope to return to the subject later today.

Posted by Scott at 11:24 AM  |    |  

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