Cultural anthropologists have long recognized that human beings around the world have certain basic living patterns and complexes of thoughts, beliefs, and actions in common because of the physical limitations of the human body, its needs, and its functions. The concept that the head, the heart, and other body parts contain physical and psychic powers of the owner that can be transmitted to another person when those parts are consumed or preserved is a very widespread cultural phenomenon. To judge from what was recorded of Pre-Columbian Mexican beliefs, victims imparted their own personal vitality, as well as that of the god they often represented, prior to their sacrifice. One who consumed the victim’s flesh or preserved his head or skull, therefore, endowed himself with special human abilities as well as certain qualities of the deity. While much attention has been paid to Mesoamerican concepts surrounding heart and arrow sacrifice and the use of flayed human skins in the Xipe rites, only limited attention has been paid to the full scope and importance of decapitation, head shrinking, and trophy heads in ancient Mesoamerica. Decapitation seems to have been an integral part of indigenous ceremonial life, warfare, and personal achievement from a considerably early era and throughout most of Mexico and Central America.