Letters from readers III: Holocaust

The reader Arturo Garvich in his letter “Holocaust” (03/17), in one of his paragraphs argues “that the Incas, unlike the Aztecs, did not practice human sacrifices -as the reader claims-“. I will only refer to this point in particular, since in no part of my letter (“Holocaust”, 03/03), do I intend, reproduce or reveal it. The Museum of High Mountain Archeology, in Salta, protects the children of Llullaillaco, the most important contemporary archaeological discovery, since it dates back more than 500 years, in the full splendor of the Inca state, and before the Spanish arrived at the Americas. According to historians and researchers, the Inca practiced the “capacocha”, for which they sacrificed girls and boys on the highest peaks of their Empire, and in this way, without any reasonable, credible and less scientific basis, avoid natural catastrophes and achieve better crops, as well as to honor the death of an Inca ruler. Of these sacrifices, in which they “prepared” the children they chose by supplying them with coca leaves and alcohol, it is believed that with chicha for months, and they left them, knowing the inevitable outcome and after long and exhausting walks, in the top of a mountain or a high-altitude volcano, which is why there are currently dozens of mummified humans as evidence or vestiges of these practices. These reprehensible rituals, which were not very frequent in that culture, were part of a need for unification, and the priests in charge of this purpose required and obtained “offerings” from the entire Empire in question, and rewarded their families with functions or goods. significant materials. For the above, and independently highlighting the wisdom and advancement of the Inca population, it is highlighted and deduced that not only the Aztecs had these atrocious modalities, although they were more ferocious in them. With what has been said, and sending my greetings to the learned reader Garvich, I end this epistolary exchange, with the conviction that it is good to disagree or disagree in an affable way, and that we learn a little more from everything and everyone.