Filled with Divine Fire: Mesoamerican Human Sacrifice and Costumed Rituals as Acts of Deicide

Across the Mesoamerican landscape, human actors regularly donned elaborate costumes during ritual activities that they believed enabled them to merge with—even embody—specific supernatural beings. Among the Aztecs, impersonation rituals were often incorporated into rituals of human sacrifice, where both victim and executioner were dressed in the guise of particular deities when the sacrifice was performed (Bassett 2014; Carrasco 1999; López Austin 1988, 1993). Classic Maya impersonation rituals, in contrast, are typically associated with less lethal rites, such as dance events, conjuring rituals, period-ending celebrations, or the dedication of monuments (Nehammer Knub et al. 2009; Houston and Stuart 1996). However, Classic period iconography clearly indicates that they also used deity costuming in their rituals of human sacrifice. This paper explores concepts of deity embodiment and the functions of costumed rituals of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica at the regional and subregional levels, with a particular focus on the Postclassic Aztec and Classic Maya civilizations. I rely on epigraphic, iconographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological data to argue that costumed rituals of human sacrifice among the Classic Maya are conceptually similar to those of the Postclassic Aztec and are best understood as deity impersonation rituals, even when not identified as such in the epigraphic record. Cosmologically, this amplifies rituals of human sacrifice into acts of deicide, and as such, they carry significantly more cosmological weight.