For the time being, I'm going to have to agree with the theory they were used to frighten evil spirits on the deceased's journey into the afterlife, going off the noise they make.
Contraptions to scare spirits with noise are not new, and if that is indeed the use of the whistles, then they are not unique in that respect.
When I was a kid, my Dear Old Dad taught me how to make a gadget called a "bull roar" - at least that's what he called it. Flat piece of wood tied to a long string, and carved aerodynamically such that when whirled around on the string it rotated on it's long axis and created an ungodly, unearthly roaring noise, which, due to the doppler effect of it's whirling arc, seemed to fade in and out and change pitch ever so slightly as it whirled around..
Since those days, I've found that Australian Aborigines use them to scare away evil spirits, and as it turns out they've been in use for thousands of years, even before the Aborigines... even before modern man. There is evidence that Neanderthals used them, too. Since the Aborigines use them to frighten away evil spirits, and their culture is very old and was isolated from the rest of humanity for roughly 60,000 years, I'm guessing that their use of them was the original use of them, passed down.
Now the noise made by those "death whistles", if the video is a good indication, is also pretty ungodly and unearthly. So I would guess that the use of them should have a similar purpose. And, going by the fact that two of them were found in the hands of a sacrificial victim, it would stand to reason that they were grave goods for use on the journey to the afterlife. What else are you going to meet in that journey that you might have to scare away other than evil spirits?
So, it just makes sense to me.
Note: the theory that they were used to scare enemies isn't holding water for me. If 100 Aztecs came running at me making that racket, I'd strive to do as many of their asses in as possible before they killed me... and kill me they would. They'd have no other choice, because I'd not stop killing them until they did, so no surrender possible. They'd not take me alive.
I don't think that's the kind of "frightened" that Aztecs hell bent on taking prisoners alive to be sacrificed later would look to instill.
.
Contraptions to scare spirits with noise are not new, and if that is indeed the use of the whistles, then they are not unique in that respect.
When I was a kid, my Dear Old Dad taught me how to make a gadget called a "bull roar" - at least that's what he called it. Flat piece of wood tied to a long string, and carved aerodynamically such that when whirled around on the string it rotated on it's long axis and created an ungodly, unearthly roaring noise, which, due to the doppler effect of it's whirling arc, seemed to fade in and out and change pitch ever so slightly as it whirled around..
Since those days, I've found that Australian Aborigines use them to scare away evil spirits, and as it turns out they've been in use for thousands of years, even before the Aborigines... even before modern man. There is evidence that Neanderthals used them, too. Since the Aborigines use them to frighten away evil spirits, and their culture is very old and was isolated from the rest of humanity for roughly 60,000 years, I'm guessing that their use of them was the original use of them, passed down.
Now the noise made by those "death whistles", if the video is a good indication, is also pretty ungodly and unearthly. So I would guess that the use of them should have a similar purpose. And, going by the fact that two of them were found in the hands of a sacrificial victim, it would stand to reason that they were grave goods for use on the journey to the afterlife. What else are you going to meet in that journey that you might have to scare away other than evil spirits?
So, it just makes sense to me.
Note: the theory that they were used to scare enemies isn't holding water for me. If 100 Aztecs came running at me making that racket, I'd strive to do as many of their asses in as possible before they killed me... and kill me they would. They'd have no other choice, because I'd not stop killing them until they did, so no surrender possible. They'd not take me alive.
I don't think that's the kind of "frightened" that Aztecs hell bent on taking prisoners alive to be sacrificed later would look to instill.
.