
As the Gods Kill
Morality and Social Violence Among the Precolonial Maya
Andrew K. Scherer(Author)
University of Texas Press
Published on 9. December 2025
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-1-4773-3194-1 (ISBN)
Description
An exploration of war, violence, and sacrifice in precolonial Maya culture and its importance in religious practices.
As the Gods Kill delivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Scherer also suggests that Maya practices have something to tell us about human propensities toward violence more broadly.
Focusing on moral frameworks surrounding deliberate injury and killing, Scherer examines Maya justifications of violence-in particular the obligations to one another, to ancestors, and to the gods that made violence not only permissible but necessary. The analysis isolates key themes underpinning the morality of violence-including justice, vengeance, payment, and costumbre (ritual)-and explores the ethics of violent agents, including warriors, ritual specialists, and the gods. Finally, Scherer addresses motivations for warfare, including the acquisition of spoils, tribute, captives, and slaves. An interdisciplinary case study of morality in an ancient society, As the Gods Kill synthesizes scholarship on an important dimension of precolonial American culture while taking stock of its implications for the social sciences at large.
As the Gods Kill delivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Scherer also suggests that Maya practices have something to tell us about human propensities toward violence more broadly.
Focusing on moral frameworks surrounding deliberate injury and killing, Scherer examines Maya justifications of violence-in particular the obligations to one another, to ancestors, and to the gods that made violence not only permissible but necessary. The analysis isolates key themes underpinning the morality of violence-including justice, vengeance, payment, and costumbre (ritual)-and explores the ethics of violent agents, including warriors, ritual specialists, and the gods. Finally, Scherer addresses motivations for warfare, including the acquisition of spoils, tribute, captives, and slaves. An interdisciplinary case study of morality in an ancient society, As the Gods Kill synthesizes scholarship on an important dimension of precolonial American culture while taking stock of its implications for the social sciences at large.
Reviews / Votes
"In this tour de force, Andrew Scherer breaks new ground in the study of war, violence, and sacrifice in precolonial Maya society. Drawing on diverse lines of evidence-from bioarchaeology and archaeology to epigraphy, iconography, and ethnohistory-he offers fresh insights into how the Maya understood and experienced violence. Informed by sensitivity to, and respect for, Maya senses of morality and ontologies, this work challenges us to reflect on our own notions of violence. The book will be of interest to scholars of Maya culture and those more broadly concerned with the intersections of violence and society." - Takeshi Inomata, University of Arizona, coeditor of Mesoamerican Plazas: Arenas of Community and PowerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
96 color and 9 b&w photos, 16 color and 73 b&w illustrations, 2 color maps
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 287 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
1418 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-3194-1 (9781477331941)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Andrew K. Scherer is a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Brown University. He is the author of Mortuary Landscapes of the Ancient Maya and coeditor of Substance of the Ancient Maya and Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice.
Content
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1. How the Maya Killed
Chapter 2. Morality
Chapter 3. Sociality of Killing
Chapter 4. Ontology of Killers
Chapter 5. By Tooth and Hand
Chapter 6. Justice, Punishment, and Vengeance
Departing Thoughts
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
Introduction
Chapter 1. How the Maya Killed
Chapter 2. Morality
Chapter 3. Sociality of Killing
Chapter 4. Ontology of Killers
Chapter 5. By Tooth and Hand
Chapter 6. Justice, Punishment, and Vengeance
Departing Thoughts
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index