Re: Anthropophagy
A madman (myers@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu)
29 Dec 1994 23:46:52 -0500
froggy@new-orleans.NeoSoft.com (Carlos May) writes:
>Kevyn Loren Winkless (umwinkl0@cc.umanitoba.ca) wrote:
>[snip]
>: As for hunted meat sources in Mesoamerica, the fact is that it would have
>: worked for a while for the Aztecs to hunt for their meat (in fact this is
>: probably what occured in any outlying villages) but the population
>: density was such around the cities that the population of game animals
>: would quickly be depleted. No domestic animals, no game animals - where
>: does one get unsynthesizeable amino acids? OK, plants are a source, but
>: not all of them. It would not be suprising to discover that one of the
>: reasons for Aztec sacrifice was for "anthropophagy"
>In the cities such as Tenochtitlan where such common Mesoamerican game
>animals as deer might be imported luxury, there was still meat. Turkeys
>and edible dogs were rasied by households, and fish were harvested from
>the lake. While most Aztecs probably didn't have large chunks of meat
>with every meal, they certainly got enough meat suplimenting their mainly
>grain and vegestable diet to prevent nutritional problems.
I know that in South America, Guinea Pigs are commonly eaten, and are
let to run around the kitchens eating scraps until they're fat enough
for dinner. Any chance they were eaten by the Aztecs? (I have no idea,
knowing nothing about the history of the guinea pig).
- DM
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