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.
