Dying to Rule: Sex and Power in Moche Society – 2007
Mutilated individuals engaging in anal copulation
The removal of the ears, eyelids, nose and lips gave the faces of some prisoners and captives a skeletal appearance, transforming them into living-deads. As the Ruler journeyed to the World of the Dead, these mutilated individuals engaged in anal copulation with women and then were likely sacrificed. The close relation of women with these specially marked beings would seem to reinforce the association of the female gender with death, sacrifice and funerary rituals in Moche society.