Archaeologists in Mexico recently discovered that the Xiximes tribe practiced ritualistic cannibalism.
Scientists tested dozens of bones dating back to the year 1425 and concluded that 80 percent of them showed signs of being boiled and cut with stone blades.
Jesuit missionaries’ historical records told of how the Xiximes tribe believed that ingesting the bodies and souls of their enemies and using the cleaned bones in rituals would guarantee the fertility of the grain harvest.
In an interview with National Geographic News, archaeologist Jose Luis Punzo said, the bones prove that cannibalism “was a crucial aspect of their worldview, their identity.”
The results of the archaeological investigation were presented by the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia or National Institute of Anthropology and History) at the Archaeology Conference of the North Frontier earlier this year in Paquimé, Mexico.
According to the INAH research, the Xiximes cannibalistic ways and bone carving were intertwined with their planting and sowing habits.
