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>>Pre-Hispanic cultures believed the world would end if the sacrifices were not performed. Sacrificial victims, meanwhile, were often treated as gods themselves before being killed. <<

It's worse than that. Mexico was founded by the Toltecs. The Aztecs conquered them and destroyed their civilization, bu they always believed that they had only so long before the end of their civilization... In fact, they had a calendar which counted down to their destruction. They believed that the Toltec civilization was founded by Quetzlcoatl, who, although pictured as a serpent, was a man with red hair (or blond? I think it was red) and facial hair, two features unknown to them, and a shiny skin which coated his real skin. When red-headed, bearded, and armor-wearing Cortez showed up, just befor ethe expiration of their calendar, he ignited a surge in desperate human sacrifices.

Cortez' army always insisted they carried out no slaughter, that the Aztecs destroyed themselves by human sacrifice. The British authors of our history books, enemies of the Spaniards, chose instead to presume that the Aztecs were wiped out by a genocidal campaign. Far from the religion of sociologists, the Aztec culture was destroyed by its own religion.

It has been suggested that Quetlcoatl may have been a Palestinian, given the finding of some questionnably authentic artifacts, such as coinage. If so, it may be that the Palestinians who founded Mexico were traders who had themselves been involved in the construction of pyramids in Egypt. If only we knew of a Palestinian king whose people had been pyramid-builders in Egypt, were famous for wealth, and built a mighty navy, perhaps with wood from the forests of Lebanon or something like that. *cough*Solomon*cough*.