Aztec whistle with a terrible scream also frightens modern people
Published: Tuesday, Nov 19th 2024, 12:10
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The Aztecs used a skull pipe for ritual sacrificial ceremonies. The shrill sound of the pipe from the pre-Columbian period in Central America also has a frightening effect on modern people, as researchers at the University of Zurich have discovered.
Aztec communities may have used the terrifying cry of the death pipe to influence the audience in ritual processes, the University of Zurich (UZH) announced on Tuesday. The Aztec death whistle with its skull-shaped body appears to represent the Aztec ruler of the underworld. Its scream-like sound could have prepared the human sacrifices for their descent into the underworld of Mictlan.
In order to understand the physical mechanisms behind the shrill, screeching whistling sound, the team of researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH), led by Sascha Frühholz, Professor of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, created digital 3D reconstructions of original Aztec death whistles from the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.
These models feature a unique internal construction with two opposing sound chambers that generate air turbulence and thus the shrill sound. "We know of no comparable musical instrument from pre-Columbian cultures or from other historical and contemporary contexts," Frühholz is quoted as saying in the press release. The pipes symbolized visual and sonic elements of mythological creatures from the Aztec underworld.
Like a human cry
Sound recordings of original and replica death whistles have been perceived by listeners as extremely frightening and chilling - like a human scream. The Aztec death whistle seems to imitate frightening noises both acoustically and affectively. "This is in line with the tradition of many ancient cultures of capturing natural sounds in musical instruments. The death pipes were used in rituals to imitate mythological creatures," explains Frühholz.
In addition to reactions in regions of the affective nervous system, the research team also observed activity in regions of the brain that associate sounds with symbolic meaning. This indicates that the sounds of the death whistle trigger both a psychoaffective reaction and a mental processing of the sound symbolism in the listeners.
Acoustic samples: https://caneuro.github.io/blog/2024/study-skullwhistle/
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