Animal sacrifice

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Sacrifice of a young boar in ancient Greece (tondo from an Attic red-figure cup, 510–500 BC, by the Epidromos Painter, collections of the Louvre)

Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature. Animal sacrifice has turned up in almost all cultures, from the Hebrews to the Greeks and Romans, Israelites, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and from the Aztecs.

Remnants of ancient rituals of animal sacrifice are apparent in many cultures, for example the Spanish bullfights, or kapparos in Judaism, or ritual slaughter procedures like shechita or ḏabīḥah in Judaism and Islam, respectively.

Ancient world

Animal sacrifices were common throughout the Ancient Near East, and throughout Classical Antiquity.

The Minoan culture of Phaistos on Crete reveals basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BC.^[1]

1652 illustration of the Ashvamedha of Kaushalya in the Ramayana epic

Indo-European cultures

• Historical Vedic religion: Ashvamedha
• Ancient Roman religion: October Horse, Tauromachy, Taurobolium
• Ancient Greek religion: Holocaust (sacrifice), Hecatomb
• Celtic paganism
• Germanic paganism: Blót

Abrahamic traditions

Judaism

See main article: Korban

Many Jewish sources discuss the deeper meaning behind korbanot. For example, Sefer Hachinuch explains that an individual bringing an animal sacrifice for a sin understands that he personally should have been sacrificed as punishment for the rebellion against God inherent his the sin, but God mercifully accepts the sacrifice in his or her place. Furthermore, it is considered fitting that an animal is used as a sacrifice because at the moment of sin, the individual in question disregarded his elevated human soul, effectively acting as an animal.

The Samaritans, a group historically related to the Jews, practice animal sacrifice in accordance with the Law of Moses.

Christianity

Matagh of a rooster at the entrance of a monastery church (Alaverdi, Armenia, 2009), with cropped detail of bloody steps.

References to animal sacrifice appear in the New Testament, such as the parents of Jesus sacrificing two doves (Luke 2:24) and the Apostle Paul performing a Nazirite vow even after the death of Christ (Acts 21:23-26).

Christ is referred to by his apostles as "the Lamb of God", the one to whom all sacrifices pointed (Hebrews 10). Christ's crucifixion is comparable to animal sacrifice on a large scale as His death serves as atonement for all of man's sins.

Some villages in Greece also sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbània. Sacrifice of a lamb, or less commonly a rooster, is a common practice in Armenian Church. This tradition, called matagh, is believed to stem from pre-Christian pagan rituals.

Islam

It is considered to be incumbent upon sufficiently wealthy Muslims to sacrifice a large mammal during Eid ul-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice), which falls during the period of Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Typically, a sheep or goat is sacrificed, although some sacrifice cattle or a camel instead. The meat is usually given as charity to the poor, in commemoration of the Sacrifice of Ismail, in which God tested the faith of Abraham (Ibrahim) by ordering him to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Ismail). Over 100 million animals are slaughtered annually during Eid ul-Adha across the Islamic world within a 48 hour period.

Hinduism

Animal sacrifice was common in Vedic religion, the highest or "royal" such sacrifice being the Ashvamedha. The last known performance of the Ashvamedha was that by Jai Singh II of Amber in 1716. The practice of animal sacrifice is rare and distasteful to the vast majority of modern Hindus, however.

Classical (Puranic, Vedantic) Hinduism as it emerged in the medieval period de-emphasizes animal sacrifice, and indeed any meat processing, based on the doctrine of ahimsa. Such practices as are still current are mostly associated with either Shaktism or with local tribal traditions.

A goat about to be sacrificed by a priest in the Durga Puja festival.

There are Hindu temples in Assam, India as well as Nepal where goats and chickens as well as buffaloes are sacrificed. These sacrifices are mainly done at mandirs following the Shakti school of Hinduism where the female nature of Brahman is worshipped in the form of Kali and Durga. There are many village temples in Tamil Nadu where this kind of sacrifice takes place.^[2]

In many Shakti shrines of Orissa animals like goat and chicken are sacrificed on Durga Puja in the month of Aswina (September–October) every year. In Sambalpur, this ritual sacrifice is performed in the Samaleswari temple (Pasayat, 2003:67-84).

The three methods used by Hindus to kill an animal are: Jhatka (decapitation with a single blow); piercing the heart with a spike; and asphyxiation.

Animal Sacrifice en masse occurs during the 3 day long Gadhimai festival in Nepal. In 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed^[3] while 5 million devotees attended the festival.^[4]

In India ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities. For instance, Kandhen Budhi is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. She is the presiding deity of Kandha people of this area. She is represented in the natural form of stone under a tree on the bank of the river Tel. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual Yatra/Jatra (festival) held in the month of Aswina (September–October). The main attraction of Kandhen Budhi Yatra is Ghusuri Puja. Ghusuri means pig, which is sacrificed once in every three years. Kandhen Budhi is also worshipped at Lather village under Mohangiri GP in Kalahandi district of Orissa, India(Pasayat, 2009:20-24).

Bali Jatra of Sonepur in Orissa, India is also an annual festival celebrated in the month of Aswina (September–October) when animal sacrifice is an integral part of the ritual worship of deities namely Samaleswari, Sureswari and Khambeswari. Bali refers to animal sacrifice and hence this annual festival is called Bali Jatra (Barik, 2009:160-162).

The religious belief of Tabuh Rah, a form of animal sacrifice of Balinese Hinduism includes a religious cockfight where a rooster is used in religious custom by allowing him to fight against another rooster in a religious and spiritual cockfight, a spiritual appeasement exercise of Tabuh Rah.^[5] The spilling of blood is necessary as purification to appease the evil spirits and ritual fights follow an ancient and complex ritual as set out in the sacred lontar manuscripts.^[6]

Buddhism

The Buddha condemned ritual animal sacrifice.^[7] The First Precept of Buddhism prohibits any type of killing.

Far East

Many people, especially the emperor Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty, offered animal products in ancestor worship.

Buddhism and Taoism generally prohibit killing of animals; ^[8][9][10] some animal offerings, such as fowl, pigs, goats, fish, or other livestock, are accepted in some Taoism sects and beliefs in Chinese folk religion.^[11][12][13]

In Kaohsiung, animal sacrifices are banned in Taoist temples.^[14].

African Traditional Religions

In African Traditional Religions (ATRs), animal sacrifice is regularly practiced. In New World versions of these religions, such as or Lucmi, such animal offerings constitute a portion of what are termed "ebos" – ritual activities that include offerings, prayer and deeds. The blood of the animals is thought to hold "aché", or life force.

Animal sacrifice is also found in the Cuban religion called Palo, which derives from African religion of the Congo, and in Haitian Vodou, a religion that derives from the Vodou religion of Dahomey.

The landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah in 1993 upheld the right of Santeria adherents to practice ritual animal sacrifice in the United States of America. Likewise in Texas in 2009, legal and religious issues that related to animal sacrifice, animal rights and freedom of religion were taken to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Jose Merced, President Templo Yoruba Omo Orisha Texas, Inc., v. City of Euless. The court ruling that the Merced case of the freedom of exercise of religion was meritorious and prevailing and that Merced was entitled under the Texas Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (TRFRA) to an injunction preventing the city of Euless, Texas from enforcing its ordinances that burdened his religious practices relating to the use of animals^[15], (see Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 110.005(a)(2)).

New religious movements

Strangite Latter Day Saints

Animal sacrifice was instituted in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), a minor Latter Day Saint faction founded by James J. Strang in 1844. Strang's Book of the Law of the Lord (1851) deals with the topic of animal sacrifice in chapters 7 and 40.

Given the prohibition on sacrifices for sin contained in III Nephi 9:19-20 (Book of Mormon), Strang did not require sin offerings. Rather, he focused on sacrifice as an element of religious celebrations,^[16] especially the commemoration of his own coronation as king over his church, which occurred on July 8, 1850.^[17] The head of every house, from the king to his lowest subject, was to offer "a heifer, or a lamb, or a dove. Every man a clean beast, or a clean fowl, according to his household."^[18]

While the killing of sacrifices was a prerogative of Strangite priests,^[19] female priests were specifically barred from participating in this aspect of the priestly office.^[20] "Firstfruits" offerings were also demanded of all Strangite agricultural harvests.^[21] Animal sacrifices are no longer practiced by the diminunitive Strangite organization, though belief in their correctness is still required.

Neither The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nor the Community of Christ, the two largest Latter Day Saint factions, ever accepted Strang's teachings on this (or any other) subject.

References

Sources

• Barik, Sarmistha (2009), "Bali Yatra of Sonepur" in Orissa Review, Vol.LXVI, No.2, September, pp. 160–162.
• Burkert, Walter (1972), Homo Necans pp. 6–22
• Gihus, Ingvild Saelid. Animals, Gods, and Humans: Changing Ideas to Animals in Greek, Roman, and early Christian Ideas. London; New York: Routeledge, 2006.*Pasayat, C. (2003), Glimpses of Tribal an Folkculture, New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., pp. 67–84.
• Garnsey, Peter. Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Pasayat, C. (2009), "Kandhen Budhi" in Orissa Review, Vol.LXVI, No.2, September, pp. 20–24.
• Petropoulou, M.-Z. (2008), Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200, Oxford classical monographs, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-921854-7.
• Rosivach, Vincent J. The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1994.

See also

• Animals in Buddhism
• Animal rights
• Animal welfare
• Animal worship
• Bans on ritual slaughter
• Folk religion
• Human Sacrifice
• Islam and animals
• Paganism
• Ritual of oak and mistletoe
• Scapegoat
• Slaughter offerings
• Totemism
• Tzav