THE CONCEPT OF DELINQUENCY IN MESOAMERICA: FOCUS ON THE AZTECS AND THE MAYA

Abstract

This paper focuses on the concept of delinquency in addition to prevention and suppression methods and the idea of guilt in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, while treating its inhabitants as highly-developed indigenous peoples. The first section of the study examines the ideas of law and justice in terms of the particular policies that shape people’s way of life in every society. The premise for addressing law in this manner is that one can only comprehend it via ongoing experience. The main focus of this paper is placed on the earlier timeline, when two crucial civilisations existed in Mesoamerica. Both the Maya and the Aztecs built vast, densely inhabited, and extremely efficient empires. However, even a large human society cannot function without order and there is no order without law. Committing a crime or a tort is incompatible with the desirable values and norms that govern the society and causes harm and hazard. Taking into consideration also the detrimental consequences of a forbidden act, the psychological determination of the delinquent and his or her personal attitude towards the act, the concepts of guilt and shame cultures should be brought to attention. From a historical point of view, a delinquent’s feeling of guilt was given consideration during criminal trials in Europe as early as in the Middle Ages, while in Mesoamerica this concept had already existed. Furthermore, some of pre-Columbian Mesoamericans distinguished between intentional and accidental acts, which had an impact of final judgments.