Human Stories: Sacrifice Decoded

Challenging a colonial narrative with bio-geochemical evidence

Human Stories: Sacrifice Decoded is an interdisciplinary, SSHRC-funded international research initiative led by co-PIs Dr. Diana Moreiras Reynaga and Dr. Chritz at UBC, in collaboration with researchers from INAH, UNAM, the University of Oregon, and the Universidad de Burgos. The project examines the life histories of individuals sacrificed in Mexica and Tarascan societies during the Postclassic period (ca. 1300-1521 CE), drawing on excavations at the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan and isotope analysis carried out at UNAM's Stable Isotopes Laboratory.

For centuries, Spanish colonial chronicles shaped the dominant understanding of sacrifice: predominantly adult male warriors, captured in battle. Bio-geochemical and molecular analysis of skeletal remains is now overturning that picture - revealing victims who were women, children, and individuals of varied geographic and dietary backgrounds. The team needed a platform that could communicate this evidence and its implications to audiences far beyond the academic journal.

Presenting sensitive findings with rigour and care

The subject matter demanded careful handling. The research challenges deeply embedded colonial narratives while centring Indigenous voices and decolonial perspectives - a position that needed to be legible to a general audience without being flattened into a simple corrective story.

The platform also had to hold two things at once: the scientific weight of biogeochemical methodology, and the human dimension of individual lives reconstructed from remains. Neither could be subordinated to the other.

Practically, the site needed to serve as a current research presence and a foundation for a forthcoming virtual exhibit - with architecture that could support substantial expansion without a rebuild, and a CMS the research team could operate independently across five contributing institutions.

A research platform and foundation for a virtual exhibit

We designed and built the public-facing web platform: surfacing the research initiative, its methodology, team, collaborators, and outreach materials in a structure accessible to journalists, educators, students, and a general audience.

The site is built to grow. A virtual exhibit is in active development and will live within the same platform - the architecture was designed from the start to accommodate it, with a CMS-driven content layer the research team can populate and extend without developer involvement as the exhibit takes shape.

Particular care went into the visual and editorial identity. The deliberate choice to represent a Mesoamerican woman in the project's branding - grounded in the evidence that victims were not the warriors of colonial tradition - needed to carry consistently across every surface of the platform.

A public home for research that challenges the colonial record

The site is live and serves as the public face of the initiative - communicating findings, methodology, and the project's decolonial framework to audiences that academic publication alone would not reach. The platform supports a geographically distributed team across Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Spain.

The virtual exhibit is in active development, and the platform is built to absorb it without structural change when it launches.