Human sacrifice: Difference between revisions

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{{Homicide}}

 

Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the [[Iron Age]] {{nobr|(1st millennium BCE),}} with the associated developments in religion (the [[Axial Age]]), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout [[Africa]], [[Europe]], and [[Asia]], and came to be looked down upon as [[barbarian|barbaric]] during [[classical antiquity]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} In the [[New World|Americas]], however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the [[European colonization of the Americas]]. Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare.

 

 

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[[Headhunting]] is the practice of taking the head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige. It was found in many pre-modern [[tribal societies]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

 

 

Many cultures show traces of prehistoric human sacrifice in their mythologies and religious texts, but ceased the practice before the onset of historical records. Some see the story of [[Binding of Isaac|Abraham and Isaac]] ([[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 22) as an example of an [[etiological]] myth, explaining the abolition of human sacrifice. The Vedic ''[[Purushamedha]]'' (literally "human sacrifice") is already a purely symbolic act in its earliest attestation. According to [[Pliny the Elder]], human sacrifice in [[ancient Rome]] was abolished by a senatorial decree in 97 BCE, although by this time the practice had already become so rare that the decree was mostly a symbolic act. Human sacrifice once abolished is typically replaced by either animal sacrifice, or by the mock-sacrifice of [[effigy|effigies]], such as the [[Argei]] in ancient Rome.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

====Greco-Roman antiquity====

{{Further|Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Roman religion}}

 

References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology. The human sacrifice in mythology, the ''[[deus ex machina]]'' salvation in some versions of [[Iphigeneia]] (who was about to be sacrificed by her father [[Agamemnon]]) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess [[Artemis]], may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reid|first=J. S.|date=1912|title=Human Sacrifices at Rome and other notes on Roman Religion|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/human-sacrifices-at-rome-and-other-notes-on-roman-religion/CF02226957B67367A969D1D3BFA7D6E7|journal=The Journal of Roman Studies|language=en|volume=2|page=40|doi=10.2307/295940|jstor=295940|hdl=2027/mdp.39015017655666|s2cid=162464054 |issn=1753-528X|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

 

 

Political rumors sometimes centered around sacrifice and in doing so, aimed to liken individuals to barbarians and show that the individual had become uncivilized. Human sacrifice also became a marker and defining characteristic of magic and bad religion.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rives |first=J. |year=1995 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice among pagans and christians |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=85 |pages=65–85|doi=10.1017/S0075435800074761 }}</ref>

Human [[Blót|sacrifice]] was not particularly common among the [[Germanic peoples]], being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from environmental crises (crop failure, drought, famine) or social crises (war), often thought to derive at least in part from the failure of the king to establish or maintain prosperity and peace ({{lang|non|árs ok friðar}}) in the lands entrusted to him.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Peter Buchholz |last=Buchholz |first=Peter |year=1993 |section=Pagan Scandinavian religion |editor-last=Pulsiano |editor-first=P. |title=Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia |place=New York, NY |publisher=Routledge |pages=521–525}}</ref> In later Scandinavian practice, human sacrifice appears to have become more institutionalised and was repeated periodically as part of a larger sacrifice (according to [[Adam of Bremen]], every nine years).<ref name = "Simek">{{cite book |last=Simek |first=Rudolf |year=2003 |title=Religion und Mythologie der Germanen |publisher=Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellschaft |place=Darmstadt, DE |pages=58–64 |isbn=3-8062-1821-8}}</ref>

 

 

By the 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the [[Norsemen|Norse people]]. One account by [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] in 922 claims [[Varangian]] warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women, in the belief they would become their wives in [[Valhalla]]. He describes [[Norse funeral|the funeral]] of a Varangian chieftain, in which a slave girl volunteered to be buried with him. After ten days of festivities, she was given an intoxicating drink, repeatedly raped by other chiefs, stabbed to death by a priestess, and burnt together with the dead chieftain in his boat (see [[ship burial]]). This practice is evidenced archaeologically, with many male warrior burials (such as the ship burial at [[Balladoole]] on the Isle of Man, or that at [[Oseberg]] in Norway<ref>{{cite magazine |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |magazine=British Archaeology magazine |volume=59 |date=June 2001 |publisher=Britarch.ac.uk |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml |access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-date=13 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213170444/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml }}</ref>) also containing female remains with signs of trauma.

====Slavic peoples====

{{Main|Slavic paganism}}

 

According to the 12th-century [[Primary Chronicle]], prisoners of war were sacrificed to the supreme Slavic deity [[Perun]]. Sacrifices to pagan gods, along with paganism itself, were banned after the [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Christianization of Rus']] by Grand Prince [[Vladimir the Great]] in the 980s.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=''Lavrentevskaia Letopis'', also called the ''Povest Vremennykh Let'' |encyclopedia=Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei (PSRL) |volume=1 |at=col. 102}}</ref>

[[File:Codex Magliabechiano (141 cropped).jpg|thumb|Aztec heart sacrifices, [[Codex Mendoza]]]]

The [[Aztec]]s were particularly noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale; an offering to [[Huitzilopochtli]] would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. In the 1487 re-consecration of the [[Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan]] some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed<ref>{{cite web |title=The enigma of Aztec sacrifice |publisher=Latinamerican Studies |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/sacrifice.htm |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |title=Science and Anthropology |publisher=Cdis.missouri.edu |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219073727/http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |archive-date=19 December 2010 }}</ref> though numbers are difficult to quantify, as all obtainable Aztec texts were destroyed by Christian missionaries during the period 1528–1548.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx>{{cite book |first=George |last=Holtker |series=Studies in Comparative Religion |title=The Religions of Mexico and Peru |volume=1 |publisher=CTS}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2021|reason=pub. date, publisher full name & place, ISBN / OCLC / or sim.}}</ref> The Aztec, also known as Mexica, periodically sacrificed children as it was believed that the rain god, [[Tlāloc]], required the tears of children.<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13>{{cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Thomas |year=2009 |title=The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400–1900 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=13}}</ref>

According to [[Ross Hassig]], author of ''Aztec Warfare'', "between 10,000 and 80,400&nbsp;people" were sacrificed in the ceremony. The old reports of numbers sacrificed for special feasts have been described as "unbelievably high" by some authors<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> and that on cautious reckoning, based on reliable evidence, the numbers could not have exceeded at most several hundred per year in Tenochtitlan.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> The real number of sacrificed victims during the 1487 consecration is unknown.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

 

 

====Christianity====

 

Although early Christians in the Roman Empire were accused of being cannibals, ''theophages'' (Greek for "god eaters")<ref>{{cite book |last=Benko |first=Stephen |title=Pagan Rome and the Early Christians |page=70 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-253-20385-6}}</ref> practices such as human sacrifice were abhorrent to them.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Britons |first=Christopher Allen |last=Snyder |page=52 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=0-631-22260-X}}</ref> [[Eastern Orthodox Christian|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Roman Catholic]] Christians believe that this "pure sacrifice" as Christ's self-giving in love is made present in the [[sacrament]] of the [[Eucharist]]. In this tradition, bread and wine becomes the "[[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|real presence]]" (the literal [[Logos-Sarx-Christology|carnal Body]] and Blood of the Risen Christ). Receiving the Eucharist is a central part of the religious life of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.<ref>{{cathEncy |wstitle=Sacrifice of the Mass}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=202&SID=3 |title=Sacrifice of the Mass |publisher=Orthodox Church of America |website=Oca.org |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> Most [[Protestant]] traditions do not share the belief in the real presence but otherwise are varied, for example, they may believe that in the bread and wine, Christ is present only spiritually, not in the sense of a change in substance ([[Methodism]])<ref name="wesley">{{cite wikisource |title=Articles of Religion |wslink=Articles of Religion (Methodist) |at=Article&nbsp;XVIII – Of the Lord's Supper |first=John |last=Wesley |author-link=John Wesley}}</ref> or that the bread and wine of communion are a merely symbolic reminder ([[Baptist]]).<ref name="baptist supper">{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Russell D. |chapter=Baptist view: Christ's presence as memorial |editor1-first=Paul E. (series ed.) |editor1-last=Engle |editor2-first=John H. (gen. ed.) |editor2-last=Armstrong |year=2009 |title=Understanding Four Views on the Lord's Supper |series=Counterpoints: Church Life |publisher=[[Zondervan]] |isbn=978-0-310-54275-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6LkmS_ntYwC&q=Understanding+Four+Views+on+the+Lord%27s+Supper+%28Counterpoints%3A+Church+Life%29&pg=PT27}}</ref>

===Indian religions===

{{Main|Ahimsa}}

====Buddhism====

In the case of Buddhism, both ''bhikkhus'' (monks) and ''bhikkhunis'' (nuns) were forbidden to take life in any form as part of the [[Vinaya|monastic code]], while non-violence was promoted among laity through encouragement of the [[Five Precepts]]. Across the Buddhist world both meat and alcohol are strongly discouraged as offerings to a Buddhist altar, with the former being synonymous with sacrifice, and the latter a violation of the Five Precepts.{{cn|date=July 2024}}