Mexican Human Sacrifice This late-sixteenth-century painting depicts human sacrifice, a common Mexican ritual, at the temple of Tenochtitlán before Spanish conquest. Mexicans believed that cutting the heart from a sacrifice victim fed the sun with human blood and assured that the sun would continue to warm and nourish the world. Spaniards considered these rituals barbaric and banned them.

DEA/G. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images.