This also brings to mind Korben’s thread about the country the Spaniards supposedly discovered called Yucatán. It described what appeared to be a kind of great Venice, populated by people wearing European-style clothing, with remarkable architecture, witches or oracles consulted during times of war, and even accounts of child sacrifice. All of this seems to fit surprisingly well with certain traditions documented in that region.
These rituals are generally attributed to the Olmecs, Maya, or Aztecs. However, I had understood that many of the sacrifices described in historical sources were more commonly associated with adults, prisoners, or captives taken in war. I am not sure to what extent children were specifically designated for this type of sacrifice.
It is also worth adding the references to circumcision that some authors claimed to have observed in regions of Yucatán and Oaxaca, introducing yet another intriguing element into the discussion.
They relate several notable customs of this province, namely that the people of the country commonly practiced, long before the arrival of the Spaniards, a certain religious ceremony not unlike our own baptism, which they called by a name in their language meaning
“Regeneration” or
“Rebirth.”
They observed it so diligently that few, if any, failed to undergo it, believing that through it the seeds and foundations of all virtue were planted within them, and that by means of it they were strengthened against the assaults and temptations of evil spirits.
From the age of three or four until the age of twelve, children were commonly washed and baptized in this manner. No one was permitted to marry without first having been initiated through this ceremony.
They also selected a solemn day on which to perform it, and the friends and relatives of those to be initiated—especially their father and mother—as well as the initiates themselves, always fasted for three days before the ceremony took place.
Los pueblos que habitan
Guaxacualco, Yluta y Cueztxatla practican la circuncisión según una antigua costumbre. Por ello, algunos han intentado —sin éxito— encontrar pruebas de que estos americanos descienden originalmente de las tribus dispersas de
Israel . Otros, en cambio, sostienen que descienden más directamente de los
tártaros , quienes, tras cruzar el
estrecho de Anián , poblaron las vastas y desoladas regiones de América.
Yet this opinion lacks a solid foundation, for the mere fact that they practiced circumcision does not imply that the Tartars—the most numerous people on Earth—owed their origin to a small group of captive Israelites. Indeed, there is no evidence that the Tartars adopted this practice until they embraced the
Mohammedan (Islamic) religion. And even if they had practiced circumcision before the time of
Muhammad, this would not prove descent from the Israelites, for how many peoples have practiced circumcision without being descendants of
Abraham?
Diodorus Siculus states that the
Colchians practiced circumcision;
Philo of Judea says the same of the
Egyptians;
Herodotus mentions it among the
Moors;
Strabo among the
Troglodytes; and
Cyprian among the
Phoenicians and
Arabs, many of whom continued to observe the custom. The prophet
Jeremiah also makes it clear that the
Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Ishmaelites had practiced the same custom since ancient times.
One of the most striking aspects is that several sixteenth-century Spanish chroniclers claimed to have encountered rituals in Mesoamerica that reminded them of Christian baptism.
Diego de Landa wrote that among the Maya of Yucatán there existed an initiation ceremony called
caputzihil, a term he interpreted as
“to be born again.” According to his account, this rite had been practiced since ancient times, long before the arrival of Europeans, and was associated with protection against evil spirits, purification, and the moral preparation of children for adulthood. The resemblance to core concepts of Christian baptism greatly surprised the missionaries.
Another intriguing point is that various Mesoamerican peoples performed naming, purification, and childhood initiation ceremonies that involved water, blessings, predictions concerning a child’s future, and the assignment of social roles.
Sahagún describes how, among the Mexica, newborns underwent a kind of baptism in which they were given a name and subjected to rituals connected with their destiny. In the case of boys, the umbilical cord might be buried in places associated with warfare; in the case of girls, it was buried near the home, symbolizing the role they were expected to fulfill within society.
Equally noteworthy is the persistence of practices related to circumcision and the belief that a newborn’s soul is not yet fully united with the body. Some colonial authors claimed to have found references to circumcision in certain Maya regions of Guatemala, while numerous Indigenous traditions held that baptism—or equivalent rituals—served to protect a child’s soul from evil spirits. Among several contemporary Maya groups, there remains a belief that an unbaptized infant is especially vulnerable to supernatural entities, a concept that echoes the ancient
apotropaic function of baptism—its role as protection against evil—which was also present in early Christianity.
Perhaps most fascinating is the way the Maya fused Indigenous and Christian elements into a symbolic system of their own. Ceremonies such as the Yucatec
hetz-mek, in which a child is given tools or objects symbolizing their future social role, continue to function as genuine rites of initiation. At the same time, Christian baptism acquired very specific local meanings: it is believed to confer a name, a spiritual identity, and access to the afterlife. In some communities, it is even considered essential to baptize stillborn children so that they may be recognized in the other world—a belief that illustrates the extent to which ancient Indigenous traditions and Christianity became intertwined within a shared vision of the universe.
El autor es
Bernard Picart .
The engraving known as
“A Mexican Wedding” (1715) is generally attributed to
Bernard Picart (1673–1733), a French engraver and illustrator best known for his monumental work
Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (
Ceremonies and Religious Customs of All the Peoples of the World), published between 1723 and 1743.
Picart never traveled to Mexico. Many of his illustrations were based on accounts from travelers, missionaries, chroniclers, and other secondary sources. For that reason, his engravings are valuable as evidence of how eighteenth-century Europeans imagined or represented the customs of other peoples, but they should not necessarily be regarded as exact depictions of historical reality or as visual records comparable to photographs.
His work is particularly noteworthy because he often juxtaposed Indigenous American ceremonies with Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and other religious traditions, reflecting an effort to compare rituals and beliefs from different parts of the world. This comparative approach became one of the defining features of Picart’s work.
