Bloodletting in Mesoamerica

Bloodletting was the ritualized self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within ancient Mesoamerican societies, in particular the Maya. When performed by ruling elites, the act of bloodletting was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. Bound within the Mesoamerican belief systems, bloodletting was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling lineage's socio-political position and, when enacted, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement.

Bloodletting was performed by piercing a soft body part, generally the tongue or penis, and scattering the blood or collecting it on paper, which was subsequently burned. The act of burning the sacrificed blood symbolized the transferral of the offering to the gods via its transformation into the rising smoke.

Piercing was accomplished using obsidian prismatic blades, stingray spines, or shark's teeth. Under some circumstances, a rope with attached thorns or obsidian flakes would be pulled through the tongue or earlobes.

Jade or stone spines and teeth have been found in the archaeological record. Some of these jade artefacts have rather dull points but might have been used once the initial cut was made, or might be purely ritual objects not used in actual bloodletting.

The location of the bloodletting on the body often correlated with an intended result or a corresponding symbolic representation. For example, drawing blood from the genitals, especially the male sex organs, would be done with the intent of increasing or representing human fertility.

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