> Moctezuma sent some emissaries to greet him. They brought two others with them, who were sacrificed in front of the Spaniards.
The Aztecs were not the only people living in the 1500s Mesoamerica. I don't know much, but Wikipedia mentions peoples like Purepechas, Talaxcaltecs, Matlazincas, Tecos, Mazahuas, Otomies and Chontales. And not even all Nahuas were Aztecs.
Was ritualistic human sacrifice a common practice among all these peoples, or was it something that mostly only Aztecs did?
Sacrifice, up to and including human sacrifice, is a common practice of most world traditional religions. Mesoamericans had a large dose of various forms of self-sacrifice and ritualized human sacrifice. That said, the Aztecs did ramp it up to 11 as a form of political propaganda ("look at how powerful we are, by how many people who captured"). This makes it difficult to estimate how much sacrifice they actually did, since most of the accounts are probably exaggerated to an unknown degree.
Ritual human sacrifice, across history, is universal. However, in the Old World it became less common (and animal sacrifice more common — a possible explanation for animal domestication). Watson and others argue that Shamanism was different in the New World, as it relied on naturally occurring high powered hallucinogens (most of which are endemic to the new world) which produced horrifying visions, thereby affecting the broader culture. I find this a compelling thesis.
The Aztecs were not the only people living in the 1500s Mesoamerica. I don't know much, but Wikipedia mentions peoples like Purepechas, Talaxcaltecs, Matlazincas, Tecos, Mazahuas, Otomies and Chontales. And not even all Nahuas were Aztecs.
Was ritualistic human sacrifice a common practice among all these peoples, or was it something that mostly only Aztecs did?