Human Sacrifice In The Aztec Empire
5/11/20261 hr 8 min
When you think of the Aztec Empire, what do you picture? Human sacrifice?
In today's episode, Anthony is joined by Aztec expert Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock, to unpack why we fetishise the Aztecs in this way, why ritualised violence is certainly not limited to this civilisation in this time in history, and who it benefitted to think of them in this way.
Edited by Hannah Feodorov. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
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First 90 secondsAnthony Delaney· Host0:00
[drums beating] Drums thunder across the temple steps of Tenochtitlan. A crowd gathers below as priests lead a captive toward the summit. He is laid back on cold stone. Hands grip his limbs. A blade of obsidian flashes. In a single practiced motion, his chest is opened, and his beating heart extracted as offering to the gods. This is the image that has, for many, come to define the Aztecs. But how much of what we think we know is true? And how much was written by their conquerors? From the sacrificial temple of the Aztec Empire, this is After Dark. [Instrumental music] Hello, and welcome to After Dark. My name is Anthony, and I am, of course, and have been for the last few months at this point, minus Maddie, but she will be back in the near future. But for today's episode, we are joined by Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock, who is professor of international history at the University of Sheffield, and author of books including Bonds of Blood: Gender, Life Cycle, and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture, and more recently,