Sunday, May 3, 2020

Brant Gardner on Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism in Moroni 9:8-10


In Moroni 9:8-10, we read the following:

And the husbands and fathers of those women and children hey [the Lamanites] have slain; and they feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them. And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue—And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery.

Commenting on this pericope, Brant Gardner wrote:

History: These verses are some of the most historically interesting in the Book of Mormon, because they are both right and wrong, and the way that they are wrong is right! Mormon is cataloguing a set of Lamanite practices that have counterparts in Mesoamerican practices as well. Mormon describes four elements: rape, human sacrifice, torture, and eating human flesh. Rape is not a known accompanying practice in Mesoamerican warfare, but the sad history of humanity tells us that we should not be surprised to find rape and war in the same context.

Human sacrifice is very well known and well documented for Mesoamerica. While the Aztec sacrifices are the best known, there are indications of human sacrifices going much further back in time, even beyond Book of Mormon times [2]. Torture was a Maya practice, knowledge of which is amplified by dramatic new evidence. The Maya appear to have been particularly cruel and intervene in their tortures. When the murals of Bonampak were restored, a grisly motif was blood dripping from the captives’ fingertips. Either the captives’ fingernails had been pulled off or their fingertips had been cut off [3].

Eating human flesh is best known from Aztec times. Pieces of the victims were cooked and distributed to be eaten. Because this was a religious rite, it would be unfair for us to label it cannibalism because of the connotations we bring to that label [4]. For the Aztecs, it would be more accurate to see it as a rather too-literal “sacrament” of flesh. Where the Christian symbolically eats the flesh of the Savior, the Aztecs literally ate the flesh of their sacrifices.

All of these descriptions are accurate for Mesoamerica. However, Mormon describes the Lamanites feeding the father’s flesh to women and children who “devour their flesh like unto wild beasts.” Here is where Mormon gets it wrong, but he gets it wrong in precisely the right way. Historically, ritual cannibalism (which is always a religious ritual, never mere food) has always been greeted with strong revulsion by non-eating cultures. A typical response by the non-eating population is to overstate the case and make the actions of those “other people” even more reprehensible. Therefore, Mormon tells us that the flesh of the fathers is fed to the wives. This practice makes us recoil in horror, which it is intended to do. However, it is unlikely to be historically accurate. (Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Volume 6: Fourth Nephi Through Moroni [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 399-400)


Notes for the Above

[2] Susan Toby Evans, Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 84, discusses El Riego Cave which was occupied during the Archaic period (8000-2000 B.C.): “But what was even more interesting was the strong indication that another Middle American practice had begun: human sacrifice. One of the El Riego phase burial groups held the remains of two children; one had been cremated. The head of the other child had been severed and roasted, the brains had been removed, and the head had been placed in a basket on the child’s chest.”

[3] Ibid., 322.

[4] Michael E. Smith, The Aztecs (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 225: “Many sacrifices were followed by a ceremonial meal at which the family of the captor or sponsor ate a portion of the victim’s body. This was a highly religious occasion designed to honor the victim’s memory. The victim was viewed as a symbolic kin relation to his captor, and this act of cannibalism was a sacred part of the whole ritual of sacrifice.