This book is not going to be popular in Mexico. Padden unflinchingly documents the excesses of the Aztec State with regards to human sacrifice and cannibalism. He makes the case that the Aztec Pipiltin (the ruling elite) used human sacrifice to intimidate not only enemy nations but their own proletarian class called the Macehualtin. His estimate of 20,000 children sacrificed every year to the rain god Tlaloc makes the practice even more revolting. Padden further contents that the exceesive number of human sacrifices was a deliberate policy initiated by the Aztec King Itzcoal and his prime minister, Tlacaellel, who hoped to terrify their neighbors and control their own lower classes. Padden's assertions, if true, certainly clarifies why the Aztec neighbors flocked to fight on the Spanish side against these brutal masters.

Padden's stand is bitterly resented by the archaeological community of Mexico and Mexicans in general who claim that human sacrifice was not extensive and was motivated by deep seated religious conviction. The same groups either completely deny the existence of the cannibalistic element in Aztec society or else claim it was rarely resorted to. As recently as April 23rd, 2008 a PBS Special had Mexican archaeologists claiming that cannibalism was restricted to captured Spaniards.

The Mexican reaction is mirrored in other ethnic groups that react critically to accusations of human sacrifice and cannibalism in their own pasts. For instance, Danes question archaeological evidence in their prehistory of human sacrifice, and modern Pueblo Indians are equally fierce in their denunciation of cannibalism among their ancestors, the Anasazi. Even some Roman historians are uncomfortable with accusations of human sacrifice among the earliest inhabitants of Rome.

It is hard for this reader to believe that modern Mexicans and other ethnic or national groups feel that evidence of ancestral practices of cannibalism and human sacrifice somehow reflect on their modern selves?

With this thread running through the book it is a wonderful read, detailed enough for the expert and entertaining enough for the lay person.