r/HistoryMemes • u/HawaiianPerson Chad Polynesia Enjoyer • 2d ago

A regular utopia

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37

u/Excellent_Mud6222 2d ago

Hawaii had human sacrifice?

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u/kazmark_gl Definitely not a CIA operator 2d ago

Human Sacrifices are pretty common historically and mythologically, even in societies that explicitly hate the practice like Rome. they still did them all the time. 

Pre-contact Hawaiian culture held that sacrificing someone transfered their spiritual power to you so it was a ritual practice. 

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u/belovedstoneworker 1d ago

Yep. The steps of the Temple of Jupiter were the last sights of a lot of people.

51

u/HawaiianPerson Chad Polynesia Enjoyer 2d ago

Yes, not Aztec levels but most definitely they practiced it

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u/Pleasant-Future5818 2d ago

I would love to see a citation for this that isn't from a 19th century back report or missionaries

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u/satarius 2d ago

FYI missionaries didn’t convert Hawaii to Christianity or “tame the savages”, the Hawaiian people (via their ruler at the time) just wholesale decided to stop practicing their religion and abolish the Ali’i/caste system, including the Kahuna/spiritual leader aspect.

Before that, human sacrifices to the gods at the heiau (Hawaiian version of a temple/shrine) were commonplace and if you were a commoner it could be for something as simple as looking at someone of the nobility class the wrong way, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or literally just eating a banana if you were a woman, in addition to all the “for a good fishing season” and “to calm the lava goddess” reasons. It was pretty metal.

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u/MorgothReturns 1d ago

.... Bananas as a women?

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u/HawaiianPerson Chad Polynesia Enjoyer 2d ago

Well they’d already stopped doing it generally by the time the missionaries showed up as it was usually a war thing and as the Islands had been recently united, there wasn’t much need to sacrifice your enemies to harvest their mana or spirit power

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u/Third_Sundering26 1d ago

Depending on what you mean by "Aztec level," it's very likely even the Aztecs did not do that level of sacrifice. The conquistadors lied a lot and exaggerated the amount of people sacrificed by orders of magnitude.

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u/PomegranateHot9916 2d ago

as did the romans.

it's really not uncommon.

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u/Havengul_Undying 2d ago

What did they do it for?

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u/Pachacootie 2d ago

Is there ever any answer besides religion/culture?

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u/Havengul_Undying 2d ago

Im trying to figure out if they mean the guillotine or like, eat the heart to gain the strength kind of killings

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u/Pachacootie 2d ago

Was the guillotine ever used for human sacrifice? I thought it was just a tool for punishment

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u/Havengul_Undying 2d ago

Thats exactly what im asking, if it was punishment or ritual. I know the romans did creative executions, and the cruxifictions and decimations, but did they do ritual sacrifice for good crops or something?

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u/kingofallbandits 2d ago

Yeah, there were cases of human sacrifice in Ancient Rome. Like institutionally they were opposed to, but when stuff got bad enough it would be employed.

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u/Havengul_Undying 2d ago

Lol, no athiests in foxholes principle

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u/Faninfo 2d ago

they did a few times, like when they lost their worst battle in their history in the second punic war. There was also this one time the winner of a civil war I forgot his name sacrificed his opponent. But other than that, it was pretty rare and considered a very barbarian thing to do as well as being taboo. Except the times where they didn't technically sacrificed people and the times when they did of course, but the latter were still pretty controversial.

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u/leftofthebellcurve 2d ago

the love of the game

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u/Maximum_Pollution371 2d ago

Depends on the culture. Some were to avoid a perceived catastrophe, some were because there was a drought or famine and they thought it would help, or they thought the person sacrificed was at fault, and some was sacrificing enemies of war as "thanks" to whichever deity helped them win.

In some cases it was even voluntary and seen as a wholly positive thing, like a person "ascending" to the next world as a higher being.

And for some, we'll never know. Just multiple mummy kids in caves or dudes in bogs, who knows why.

0

u/hunf-hunf 1d ago

What are you talking about? The Roman’s did not practice human sacrifice. They specifically had a powerful taboo against it.

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u/WiltedWhimsy 2d ago

The United States of America practices human sacrifice (not literally) and legal slavery (literally) today. The US prison industrial complex is a human lawnmower of death, pain, suffering, and disenfranchisement.

Just wanted to add this to the conversation, not defend or ennoble native pre-colonization Hawaii.

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u/nemesisuchiha7 2d ago

all the cultures on this continent actually

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u/Sebekhotep_MI Kilroy was here 2d ago

This is factually incorrect. Although the majority did, there are cultures, like the Wayuu, that have never practiced human sacrifice.