​Not to discourage further discussion - I hope others can add to this - but u/400-Rabbits wrote a fantastic post ​some time ago on the Aztecs and on What would happen if human sacrifice did not appease the Gods and relieve the drought?

As very brief summary: The post deals with a severe drought that hit the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica in 1454 CE (or Ce Totchli), which led to increasing sacrifices but also to "a rational response by society to the long drought, followed by steps to prevent it in the future. Those steps included things such as intensifying agriculture in the Valley of Mexico itself, through terracing, irrigation, and dam building ... as well as targeting the rich, wet lands of the coast for future conquests." (quote from that post) So instead of a criticism of sacrifice - which was crucial to the Nahua's whole cosmic order being upheld! - we get here an example of a very rational approach to a disaster, that went beyond sacrifice.

/u/drylaw mentions a /u/400-rabbits post, but this focuses mainly on internal Aztec thought.

When /u/400-rabbits was the podcast host, he interviewed snickeringshadow (gone but not forgotten) about another Mesoamerican Empire: the Tarascans. Here's part one of that interview, here's part 2. I can't remember if it is in Part 1 or Part 2, but Snickeringshadow discusses how the Tarascans' critique of the Aztec human sacrifice because, obviously, as every good Tarascan knows, the gods don't want human sacrifice, they want constantly burning bonfires because, as /u/Ucumu discusses here, "gods ate smoke like humans eat food". That is, it wasn't an internal critique but an external one.

I remember snickeringshadow discussing this, but I obviously don't remember where in that long interview he discusses it. I also don't remember if this was an explicit critique that we have from written indigenous or Spanish documents, or if it was an implicit one. I think SnickeringShadow, mentions it as explicit (was there a document that recorded a Tarascan to Aztec claim along the lines of "Hey, give us more wood so we can make bigger fires" or am I misremembering?), but, unfortunately, snickeringshadow is no longer around to ping. Does this ring a bell /u/400-rabbits or /u/ucumu or anyone else who knows something about the Tarascans?

Im mexican and since i was a child i had a lot of interest in prehispanic cultures. Ive read many chronicles and regarding what a lot of anthropologists say, personally i think there are too many assumptions. I also worked with tseltal communities and academic papers were making big assumptions too.

So, i believe much about these cultures have been lost and its not coming back, nevertheless i wonder if human sacrifices had a convenient effect on populations size, avoiding overpopulation? Also, isnt searching scientific notions in their thought a bit too eurocentric?