| Disclaimer: All names and locations presented in the following page are fabricated for the purpose of a 9th grade, second term World History project. All similarities/correspondences to real life are purely coincidental.
Letters to the Editor
Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica
I find it oftentimes irritating when misinformed people rant on about what little value the Aztecs saw in human life. In fact, I find the reverse to be true. Humankind was created from the blood of the gods; therefore, it should only be proper to repay with the greatest gift the ancient Aztecs could offer, namely, human blood.
Kenneth Bryant
Medford, Massachusetts
Soil erosion and the “noble savage”
Usually, I find two extreme views concerning the American Indians: either they’re backward and primitive, or noble-hearted and free from the corruption of modern society. Personally, I found both views to be stereotypical and false. I encountered an article in the last issue of your magazine where the author argued for anti-desertification measures based on ancient Mesoamerican farming techniques. May I alert you that considerable soil erosion has been detected in deposits assigned to the Tarascan civilization 2300 years ago. Classic Indian agriculture, therefore, was just as environmentally damaging as colonial agricultural.
Susan Harkness
Detroit, Michigan
Monte Verde doesn’t deserve the publicity
Since Mesoamerica Quarterly is only issued four times annually, I had especially anticipated with impatience your forthcoming article on Monte Verde. I’d like to point out that at the 1997 “inspection” of the site, there was no “site” left to see. According to Dillehay’s own admittance, everything had been bulldozed away back in 1988. There is, in actuality, no tangible evidence at all.
Robert L. McKee
Akron, Ohio
Monte Verde Spells Death Knell for Evolution?
Please explain how crude stone artifacts can be found this late in the human evolutionary sequence, yet in the most unlikely geographical setting. The evolutionist contention that there is a smooth gradation between the various forms in the sequence can finally be revealed as pure and desperate imagination.
George Suttle
Lake Worth, Florida
Mental Health of the Aztecs
In the article entitled “Neuroses in Ancient Aztecs” in the previous issue, the author asserted that the everyday environment was stressful, rigid, and gruesome. However, to the Aztec accustomed to such an environment, public sacrifices and torture would have seemed normal religious rites. Perhaps we should learn to look at other cultures in a more objective lens.
David Blackthorne
Calgary, Alberta
Copyright ©2001-2003, Allegra H., all rights reserved. Please contact me via e-mail if you wish to reproduce this material.
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