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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 1085718" data-attributes="member: 8447">Many cultures have engaged in ritual sacrifice at one point or another.  Certainly the Celts and Norse cultures did.  This is one of the major problems of history, anthropology, sociology, and even rpgs:  judging cultures.Let us consider the position of the Toltec, the Maya, the Aztec and the Spanish.  As far as we can tell the Toltec probably engaged in ritual sacrifice.  The Maya definitely did.  The Aztec fell quickly once the Spanish arrived, not due to the numbers of Spanish or disease (both of these would come later), but due to the hatred of the other nations around the Aztec regarding sacrifices -- it's not that the Toltec, Zapotec, etc., were against human sacrifices, but the Aztec had increased the number of sacrifices to such an extreme level that the other nations were feeling drained.  Human sacrifice was an integral part of their religion.Now many people in the modern world would look upon these sacrifices as evil; I don't think I would get much of a show of hands for the actual re-introduction of human sacrifice on this board.  But equally the Spanish get a black eye for destroying the Aztec and Incan cultures (more of a horrible reputation than any other European nation for doing pretty much the same thing).  Were the Spanish evil for destroying all those books, smashing the statues, and all the rest?  Again, this destruction of "pagan" artifacts was an integral part of their religion.We are trying to judge the actions of the Aztec, the Inca, the Spanish or even the leaders of WWI from a great remove.  We are judging them by the standards of 20th/21st century urban, educated North American/Western European (sorry if I left anyone out, but that's the majority of folks on this board) ideals and mores.  Trying to understand a culture in terms of itself, rather than in terms imposed by a different time, is a difficult task.  Yes, that would probably be labelled as "cultural relativism", but how will we measure up to the standards of a culture 300 years in our future?  Maybe something we are doing right now on a day to day basis, something we consider normal, ordinary, acceptable and even important, will be judged then as something evil, vile and/or superstitious.Can we be expected to conform to those future generations' notion of right and wrong?</blockquote>

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