Aztec Warriors/Western Soldiers:
The Body Politic Feeds Upon Human Bodies

Here is the second in a series of papers/booklets written by Koenigsberg during the period 1990-2000, in which he lays the foundation for his theory of warfare as sacrifice. There is a link directly below the document. We hope you will click the link and study this classic paper.

Best regards, Mei Ha Chan, Executive Director 
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  • Aztec Warriors/Western Soldiers: The Body Politic Feeds Upon Human Bodies (Paper)--click the preceding link to read

    Feeding the sun god: In our conventional thinking, warfare occurs when one group of people attacks another group of people. We imagine this attack is occasioned by the perception of a threat to one’s own group, by a desire to conquer or plunder the other group, to obtain revenge for past injustices. People believe that warfare occurs when human beings performing acts of “aggression.”

    I reconceptualize the nature and meaning of warfare. Aztec warfare provides a case study. Aztec warfare did revolve around conquest and plunder, but more fundamentally its purpose was to capture warriors from the opposing city-state—in order to sacrifice them.

    When the Aztecs waged war, they did not try to kill their adversaries. Rather, they captured soldiers and brought them back home to the sacrificial block at the top of a pyramid—where priests cut open their chests, extracted their hearts, and offered the warrior’s heart to the sun god.