Director Mel Gibson appeared to reference this in a discussion with Joe Rogan on the sacrificial practices of the Mesoamericans featured in his film Apocalypto. He cited human sacrifice as an indicator of impending civilizational collapse and stated: “We do that. We do.” Gibson is right, but I would make one proviso. We are far worse.

In the Larco Museum in Lima, Peru, showcases exhibit grim artifacts of human sacrifice. There are “sacrificial cups,” used by the pre-Inca Moche civilization to collect the blood of warriors after their throats were cut to offer to the priests. The representatives of the thirsty deities and the oval-shaped knives are displayed next to them. According to the description next to the display, the Moche “considered human sacrifice as necessary for the maintenance of order in the world” to placate the gods.

I recently toured ancient sites in Peru, and the reality of human sacrifice—and child sacrifice—came up often. Incan architecture is breathtaking, from the massive compound of Sacsayhuaman, the temple at Pisac, to the magnificent lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, nestled in the cloud-shrouded Andean peaks. In Cusco, the imperial city of the Incas, the ritual of “capacocha” was performed to appease the gods or to mark important occasions, with children selected for purity, dressed in fine clothing, and then strangled, struck, or drugged.

Amidst the sophistication of the Inca civilization, the reality of human sacrifice is stark. The Spanish conquerors, who frequently rivalled their victims in brutality, were happy to use these practices as justification for their own barbarism, and chroniclers like Pedro Cieza de León, Juan de Betanzos, and Bernabé Cobo described child sacrifices in lurid but accurate terms. 

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