<P> An excavation at El Perú - Waka' turned up the remains of an infant with, unusually, those of an adult male, in the presence of extensive evidence of feasting that had followed the expansion of a residence which had then been "ensouled" by the rituals and sacrifices . The analysis suggests that the "interments show that human sacrifice was not limited to the royal actors associated with the Classic Maya state, but could be practiced by lesser elites as part of their own private ceremonies" </P> <P> Both blood and human sacrifice were ubiquitous in all cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, but beyond some uncontroversial generalisations there is no scholarly consensus on the broader questions (and specific mysteries) this raises . Most scholars agree that both practices arose among the Olmecs at least 3,000 years ago, and have been transmitted to subsequent cultures, including the Maya . Why they arose among the Olmecs is unknown, and probably unknowable, given the paucity of data . </P> <P> Blood, and by extension the still - beating heart, is the central element in both the ethnography and iconography of sacrifice, and its use through ritual established or renewed for the Maya a connection with the sacred that was for them essential to the very existence of the natural order . Julian Lee's observation that the Maya "drew no sharp distinction between the animate and the inanimate" and the remarks by Pendergast and others that sacrifices "ensouled" buildings and idols indicates a social meaning, as Reilly suggests, most akin to transubstantiation--a literal rather than symbolic transformation on which the fate of the world and its inhabitants depended . </P> <P> As with all known theocratic societies, it is likely the Maya political and religious elites played mutually reinforcing roles in supporting the position of the other and ensuring the social stability essential for both, with sacrifice rituals functioning as the performative centrepiece of communal integration . But on likely divergences of interests between different social groups in regard to sacrifice rituals, including within these elites, the historical record has so far been silent . </P>

What kind of sacrifices were performed in mayan civilisation