「The Lottery」 by Shirley Jackson describes a village where an annual
ritual is held to select one villager to be stoned to death in exchange
for a good harvest. All the villagers take part in the rite of stoning,
and the selected one』s family members and acquaintances are without
exception. Many people may find it hard to accept the cruelty of the
villagers and the indifference with which they treated the death of
human beings, especially their beloved family and friends. However, if
we trace back to the history and civilization in ancient times, we』ll
find that such case is neither rare nor strange at all.
Taking Central America for
example, the best mystery in Central America lies in the absolute
tolerance for cruelties. As a matter of fact, cruelties were the
essence of many ancient religions. In the Aztec culture, slaves and
captives and babies were selected to be offered to the god as
sacrifices. As Bernadino de Sahagun（1499~1590）,
one of the witnesses to such services in Aztec, recalled the situation：「
They dragged the captive』s hair up towards the stage and put him on the
stone. After doing some rites, they took out his beating heart with
blood still dripping, and then threw the body down the stairs for others
to take off his skin. 「 At other times, they even took out many
children』s hearts to celebrate other gods. In the Aztec culture as a
whole, removing a person』s skin, cutting his heart away, and burning
human bodies are regarded as sacred ceremonies celebrating the spirit of
the gods.
Another example in Central America is the Maya culture. Maya, as we
know, developed a magnificent civilization around A.D. 250. According
to their tradition, the Maya people had festivals and services on
certain days of the year for praying or for giving appreciation to the
gods. One activity was especially shocking but also interesting. The
people would hold soccer games and one of the two teams would be offered
to the gods as sacrifices. But the expert today still can』t tell which
team, the winner or the loser, would be the sacrifice. In addition,
Maya had various other ways to express their worship of the gods, such
as bleeding, cutting off limbs, and so on. Since they worship the gods,
they take human』s flesh and blood as the utmost treasure that the gods
had granted them. Thus, they took it for granted to offer their own
lives to service the gods. After all, Death is not only the best way to
show respect, but also the utmost way in their culture. It might be
cruel, but it also shows their primitive reverence towards the gods of
nature.
If we are accustomed to looking at things from one angle or to measure
them according to one standard, our own, we can』t really understand what
the whole story is. We need to do more research in order to understand
various cultures and various customs.