I've recently sank my teeth into the rich, red, tender meat that is Mesoamerican history, and I find it delectable; like Ancient Greece but with bigger cities and much more blood. I also have a strange fascination with having your friends for dinner, so when I learned of a potential crossover between the two my appetite was piqued. I was hoping someone with a more experienced palate for Mesoamerican history than myself could satiate my hunger. I've had my fill of these food metaphors and they're starting to go a little stale, so i'll stop. Now, onto the main course of my question;
In accounts written by men in the entourage of conquistadors, there are several mentions of cannibalism being practiced by the savage pagan Indians (mostly Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures), no doubt to give just cause to their 'pacification' of them. Some people (such as Marvin Harris) suggest that, due to a protein deficiency in the diet, cannibalism actually made up a significant (and particularly grim) portion of the Mesoamerican diet.
What are the veracity of these claims? To what degree were reports of cannibalism exaggerated by the Spanish conquerors? And, most importantly, what role did cannibalism play in Mesoamerican culture, particularly in their unique and fascinating pantheon?
Don't get too hungry. Cannibalism is one of those tropes that the Spanish loved to bring out everytime they wanted to enslave someone. Along with sodomy, larceny, and rebellion, cannibalism is a fairly common accusation, mainly because it meant that conquistadors could legally enslave the population, and therefore profit. One of the nastiest and most harmful tales comes from Diego Duran's 'History of the Indies of New Spain,' where he claims that the Mexica official Tlacaelel orchestrates the Flower Wars against Tlaxcala so he could satisfy his taste for human flesh. This portrayal of the Flower Wars has been challenged by several historians such as David Hicks, Ross Hassig, and Barry Issac, and so the story is almost certainly an invention.
The real situation was much more complex. In the Mesoamerican case there is a little truth to the accusation. Mesoamerican people did occasionally eat small amounts of human flesh taken from sacrificial victims during rituals as communion. However, this bore little resemblance to a cannibalistic feast. Conceptually, the victims had been transformed into divinities, and so were no longer human. Eating human flesh was only permissible within this ritual context. Outside of this situation, it was considered abhorrent.
Regardless of this, Spanish accounts of Indigenous cannibalism have obscured the realities of life in Mesoamerica, and the work of Marvin Harris and Michael Harner well demonstrate this point. Both Harner and Harris sought to explain Mexica cannibalism through materialism, arguing that it was a response to protein deficiency. However, a number of scholars such as Bernard Montellano and Barbara J. Price have aptly demonstrated the flaws in their arguments. First, they point out that the Aztecs actually had ample sources of protein, through vegetables (bean varieties), aquatic algae, insects, and fish. Second, they noted that the Mesoamerican sacrificial complex was hugely inefficient as a source of protein. It took a lot of energy to take captives, most of the flesh was wasted anyway, and the meat went only to a few elite warriors. Useless from a social perspective. Lastly, the Aztecs (the Mexica in particular) responded to agricultural pressures the same way everyone else did, by intensifying farming and expanding the amount of land under cultivation. The Mexica did this through the chinampas. Both Harris and Harner made the mistake of assuming that meat was food and all else was supplement.
So, although the Aztecs and their neighbours occasionally ate human flesh, they were not especially cannibalistic, and certainly nowhere near what the Spanish claimed. They did this for religious reasons, as it brought them into contact with their gods, not for nutrition. And they only did this in certain ritual situations.
Sources:
Hassig, Ross: Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998)
Issac, Barry L.: 'The Aztec 'Flower Wars'': A Geopolitical Explanation', Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 39 No. 4 (1983)
Hicks, Frederick: “Flower Wars” in Aztec History', American Ethnologist Vol. 6 No. 1 (1979).
Price, Barbara J,: 'Demystification, Enriddlement, and Aztec Cannibalism: A Materialist Rejoinder to Harner’, American Ethnologist, 5/1, (1978)
Montellano, Bernard R. Ortiz de: 'Cannibalism: An Ecological Necessity?', Science New Series 200/4342 (1978) and Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition, (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1990)
Harris, Marvin: Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Culture, (London: Collins, 1978)
Harner, Michael: 'The Ecological Basis for Aztec Sacrifice', American Ethnologist 4/1 (1977)
There's always room for discussion, but perhaps the section Human Sacrifice and Blood Sacrifice from our FAQ will answer your inquiry.