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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1977)
-i^ztec-cannibal theory disclaimed — 0 to( tve tli e —hour THE BATTALION TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1977 Page 7 Texas A&M University an- ropologists are casting some skep- pontit) cal eyes toward a New York col- TheiJi ague’s claim that the Aztecs of —tamoj Mexico ate the flesh of sacrificial iti rei ictims in order to get “needed pro- :in.” SWenee ‘ He would be very hard pressed prove this archaeologically archaeologist Dr. Harry bafer said of the claim made by Dr. —uss at®, lichael Hamer, chairman of an- —iferm®, =d. itacbel ■^rojectoi iropology at the new School for ocial Research. Other A&M colleagues said lamer might have a “plausible” preseit leory, but that he would have to •mbined rom ijii; ome up with new evidence. In a copyrighted. New York imes News Service story, Harner er’sptdj i quoted as saying the Aztecs were he most cannibalistic culture nown and that sacrificial victims lecame regular food items, His - owledji = techiip - em is fc in tfi ^lley road nil enhances h designs i3es, Ed» -^■e, suppii in wbicl ■ pants op - “Thetei treated a yred toil, idem dri>f ». ve so fai cmthsA if accide citatioi amoi andwtei heories will be published in the nvironnj ournal of the American An- d drivers! bropological Association. A&M researchers countered that —ro andjlio existing evidence supports their du larner’s theory. They also say that "ds is thd ood levels were adequate enough esn’tyiel bat Aztecs were not forced into annibalism and that humans serve —s got toi s a relatively inefficient source of ercepfe irotein anyway. Dr. Vaughn Bryant, leading au- abilityod hority on prehistoric diets, explains hat'if the Aztecs ate only beans and orn they would obtain all the pro- ein they needed. “Aztecs sacrificed many, many humans. But I think what we are seeing is a misinterpretation of ritualistic cannibalism in which a person eats a token piece of van quished enemy as an insult or to gain that enemy’s strength,” Bryant declared. Cultural anthropologist Dr. Norman Thomas, who has done long-term studies of the direct de scendants of the Aztecs, says Harner’s idea is a “perfectly legiti mate one within the framework of modern anthropology.” However, Thomas believes Harner should restudy the existing resources of protein around the Az tecs before making such a risky statement. Thomas says the ancient civiliza tion ate fish, aquatic insect eggs and snails, all high sources of protein, in addition to vegetables and some locally produced meat. Shafer said the Aztecs had access to some meat through small, domes tic animals, through marketplace exchanges and through hunting. Thomas notes that ritualistic can nibalism was highly developed in North, Central and South American societies, and underlying all that is the question of whether there might have been biological needs. He says Harner may have something if he’s able to document it. Physical anthropologist Dr. Or- dean Oyen said Harner gives little credit to the Aztecs for efficiency. Oyen believes the human would be an extremely inefficient source of protein, particularly if captives to be sacrificed were sustained on food that could have been eaten by Az tecs, as Harner suggests. “If he reaches this conclusion from the evidence, what will future anthropologists think of a 20th Cen tury Nazi concentration camp?” asks Oyen. “They’ll think all Germans were cannibals.” Shafer questions Harner’s citation of contemporary accounts written by conquering Spaniards. “First written accounts of new peoples always reveal them as grotesque. You can’t take them lit erally . As for the account written by Bernal Diaz (with Cortez), he was defending the Spanish conquest,” Shafer said. Dr. Glendon Weir, who just completed an intensive study of prehistoric food resources in Peru, explains that food levels in the Val ley of Mexico appeared to be adequate to support the Aztecs without their turning to can nibalism. Weir calls Harner’s theory “plaus ible,” but asserts that no existing evidence supports the idea. “Why would they go to can nibalism for food when cannibalism already had strong religious mean ing? It might have even been taboo except for rituals,” he argues. Harner’s claim, Weir recalls, is based on population estimates that are unsupported by known evi dence. “If one of the population fig ures prove inaccurate, his whole theory could fall apart.” A&M laboratories have dietary evidence from North and Central Mexico, some of it 10,000 years old, and none of it suggests that meat or human flesh was necessary to sus tain life, said Bryant. HE TOUNG VEST Jin Earle James Butler Hickok BETTER KNOWN AS WILD BILL MAY NOT HAVE KILLED 100 MEN AS HE CLAIMED, BUT HE DID KILL TWO MEN IN ONE DAY WHEN HE WAS MARSHAL OF ABILENE, KANSAS, ON THE NIGHT OF OCTOBER 5, 1871. A BUNCH OF DROVERS FROM TEXAS, LEAD BY PHIL COE, WERE SHOOTING UP THE TOWN WHEN THEY CAME FACE-TO-FACE WITH BILL. COE FI RED HIS GUN IN BILL'S DIRECTION AND WAS GUNNED DOWN BY THE MARSHAL, WHO THEN HEARD FOOTSTEPS RUNNING TOWARD HIM. WHIRLING AND FIRING BOTH PISTOLS, HE KILLED HI S SECOND MAN OF THE NIGHT: MILE WILLIAMS, H I S DEPUTY. (g) peg T7 1 CLASSES ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 7:30 p.m. Wednesday EPISCOPAL STUDENT CENTER 902 Jersey — (southside of campus) 846-1726 Everyone Welcome Fr. James Moore, Chaplain TOWS In. “GROOVY” by BORT CARLETON (Shalas Shoes 707 TEXAS 846-1148 sard Custom Portraits AT NEW LOW PRICES SHOP AND COMPARE OUR: ^ Quality EbS Delivery Time [H] Prices iograpfiy 405 UNIVERSITY 846-2828 J Awards for Texas A&M Univer sity’s third annual student poetry and fiction contest will be an nounced at 8 p.m. Thursday in Rud der Theatre. Special guest for the ceremony is poet Peter Cooley of Tulane Uni versity, whose first book of poems, “Company of Strangers,” has been published by the University of Mis souri Press. Dr. Paul Parrish said the selec tion of the top six entries in each category will be made from works submitted by more than 100 stu dents at A&M . Each student was el igible to submit several works. The top three in each category also receive a cash award, Parrish added. Earlier Thursday, Cooley will be guest speaker at a 12:30 p.m. crea tive writing class in Harrington Education Center. This is the second year for com bined poetry-fiction competition. It was expanded last year from a poetry-only contest. The Memorial Student Center Arts Committee sponsors the awards selection. CURTIN MATHESON SCIENTIFIC, INC. A COULTER SUBSIDIARY COMPANY To keep pace with the fast growing sci entific apparatus market, we’re expand ing our sales force in 1977. If you’re a graduating senior majoring in the physi cal sciences, consider starting your career with an agressive company, offering an excellent guaranteed base while in training, lucrative commissions, and total benefit package. 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