Did human sacrifice help lower violence? New research in Peru leaves intriguing question
Scholars react Aside from practicing human sacrifice, people in the valley may have engaged in other practices that helped lower levels of interpersonal violence, researchers who were not involved in the new study told Live Science.
Key points
- However, despite the occurrence of human sacrifice, levels of violence unrelated to sacrifice were actually quite low in the Lambayeque Valley.
- Other human sacrifice findings include more than 200 children found near the modern-day town of Huanchaco who were sacrificed sometime between 600 and 800 years ago, possibly during an El Niño.
- The findings mean that despite the presence of human sacrifice, the amount of violence unrelated to sacrifice was low.
Despite engaging in human sacrifice, the people who lived in the Lambayeque Valley of northern Peru had low levels of violence, a new study of their remains finds.
It's important to remember that other areas of Peru also practiced human sacrifice but didn't have the same low levels of interpersonal violence.
Additional details
- It's thought that at least some of these mass sacrifices were attempts to appease the gods in the wake of El Niño, a periodic weather phenomenon that can lead to intense rains and flooding in Peru and droughts in other parts of South and Central America.
- In their paper, Klaus and Snyder noted that societies that originated in the highlands, such as the Tiwanaku, Wari and Inca had to grapple with poorer soils and cold temperatures, and these challenges may have been a factor in increasing the levels of interpersonal violence.
- (Image credit: Haagen Klaus) "Ritual violence may have alleviated non-ritual violence by creating spaces where social tensions could get worked out in a few different ways," Klaus said.
- The "evidence of sub-lethal and lethal violence forceful enough to break bone is significantly higher in some areas of Peru's highlands," Klaus said.
- Access to these resources may have helped alleviate interpersonal violence in the valley by providing more food resources, they wrote.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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