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Human sacrifice is the act of killing a human being for the purposes of making an offering to a deity or other, normally supernatural, power. It was practiced in many ancient cultures. The practice has varied between different cultures, with some like the Aztecs being notorious for their ritual killings, while others have looked down on the practice as primitive. Victims were ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods or spirits. Victims ranged from prisoners to infants to Vestal Virgins, who suffered such fates as burning, beheading and being buried alive.

Because information on certain cultures' sacrificial tendencies often comes from outside sources (Greeks and Romans for Celts and medieval Christians for Norsemen, for example) who may have had ulterior propaganda motives, some contemporary historians consider certain allegations of human sacrifice suspect.^{[citation needed]}

Over time human sacrifice has become less common around the world, and sacrifices are now very rare. Most religions condemn the practice and present-day laws generally treat it as a criminal matter. Nonetheless it is still occasionally seen today, especially in the least developed areas of the world where traditional beliefs persist.

Magical thinking rationale for the sacrifices

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Ritual sacrifice may involve offering to deities as payment for favorable interventions in an event of special importance, to forestall unfavorable events, or to purchase disclosures about the physical world. Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. These include:

• Sacrifice by Indian adherents of Tantrism who believe that human sacrifices to the gods can change their fortune.
• Sacrifice to accompany the dedication of a new building like a temple or bridge. Chinese legends hold that thousands of people were entombed in the Great Wall of China, which may be a factual historical event, a metaphorical one, considering the labor and investment of the construction, or a misstated one, since deceased laborers could be buried pragmatically where they worked.
• In ancient Japan legends talk about Hitobashira ("human pillar"), in which maidens were buried alive at the base or near some constructions as a prayer to ensure the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks.^[1]
• Sacrifice in Aztec and Mayan cultures to diverse gods.
• Sacrifice of his daughter by a victorious Biblical general Jephthah, and Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son to prove his loyalty to God.
• Sacrifice upon the death of a king, high priest or great leader; the sacrifices were to serve or accompany the deceased leader in the next life. Mongols, Scythians, early Egyptians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines, with them to the next world. This is sometimes called a "retainer sacrifice," as the leader's retainers would be sacrificed along with their master.
• Sacrifice by ritual combat. Aztecs killed prisoners in ritual combats such as gladiatorial or bloody games.
• Martyrdom or sacrifice through war, a controversial argument that asserts military combat to be ritualistic and hence a kind of ritual human sacrifice.
• Sacrifice for divination; a priest would try to predict the future from the body parts of a slain prisoner or slave. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms.^[2]
• Sacrifice in times of natural happenings. Droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and comets were seen as a sign of anger or displeasure of gods and sacrifices were made to appease the divine ire. Ancient Minoans may have tried to avert destruction by earthquake by using a man as a sacrificial victim within the temple of Anemospilia.^[3]

Sacrifice in the Bible

All three Abrahamic religions hold that the Bible condemns human sacrifice. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and modern historians' views on this subject can be found in the article on the binding of Isaac.

References in the Bible point to an awareness of human sacrifice in the history of ancient near-eastern practice. During a battle with the Israelites the king of Moab gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole burnt offering (olah, as used of the Temple sacrifice).^[4] It is apparently effective, as the Israelites turn back (2 Kings 3.27). Also, in the time of the prophet Micah he is able to say, "Shall I give my firstborn for my sin?"(Micah 6.7). So it is possible that the offering of a firstborn son or other human victim developed into the whole burnt offering of the Temple service.

In Genesis 22 there is a story about the binding of Isaac. In this story, God tests Abraham by asking him to present his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. No reason is given within the text. Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. According to the text, God does not want Abraham to actually sacrifice his son; it states from the beginning that this is only a test of obedience. The story ends with an angel stopping Abraham at the last minute and making Isaac's sacrifice unnecessary by providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be sacrificed instead. Many Bible scholars have suggested this story's origin was a remembrance of an era when human sacrifice was abolished in favor of animal sacrifice.^[5][6]

In the Christian religion the belief developed that the story of Isaac's binding was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus, whom Christians believe was God's only son and simultaneously God Himself, and who gave up his life so that sins could be forgiven. There is a tradition that the site of the binding of Isaac, Moriah, was also the city of Jesus's future crucifixion, i.e. Jerusalem.^[7] However no archaeological or historical evidence supports this assertion.

Another instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Bible is the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter in Judges chapter 11. Jephthah vows to sacrifice to God whatsoever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home if he is victorious. The vow is stated in Judges 11:31 as "Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him. That he actually does sacrifice her is shown in verse 11:39, "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed". This example seems to be the exception rather than the rule, however, as the verse continues "And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite." The lamentations that were offered annually in remembrance of this act frame it as the atrocity it was, and accentuate the grievousness of such a rash action. According to commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition this was a gross violation of God's law, and this part of the Bible illustrates the terrible tragedy of human sacrifice. However most scholars believe the passage suggests the sacrifice was accepted by God.^[8] Others point out the complete lack of censure by God of Jephthah and the sacrifice of his daughter in the biblical account.^[9] The majority of the early Christian Church Fathers saw the sacrifice of Jepthah's virgin daughter as foreshadowing, like Isaac, the death of Jesus Christ not least because Jepthah's vow in the biblical account was made whilst under the influence of the Holy Spirit (Judges 11:29).

The beliefs of most denominations of Christianity hinge upon a single, specific human sacrifice: that of the Christ. Most Christians believe, at least nominally, that in order to gain access to paradise in the afterlife each individual person must somehow become a partaker in that all-important human sacrifice for the atonement of their personal sins. Some Christians, including Orthodox and Roman Catholics, believe they participate in the sacrifice of Calvary through the Eucharist which they believe is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ.^[10][11] Most non Catholics, however, reject this, and rather believe that the bread and wine of communion are merely symbolic, trusting that it is their faith in Christ's finished work on the cross that atones for their sins.

Ancient Egypt

There may be evidence of retainer sacrifice in the early dynastic period at Abydos, when on the death of a King he would be accompanied with servants, and possibly high officials, who would continue to serve him in eternal life. The skeletons found show no obvious signs of trauma, leading to speculation that the giving up of life to serve the King may have been a voluntary act, possibly carried out in a drug induced state. At about 2800BC any possible evidence of such practices disappears, though echoes are perhaps to be seen in the burial of statues of servants in Old Kingdom tombs.^[12][13]

Phoenicia and Carthage

According to Roman sources, Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. The bones of numerous infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times but the subject of child sacrifice is controversial.^[14]

Plutarch (ca. 46–120 AD) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. Livy and Polybius do not. The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Tophet ("roasting place") by the Caananites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites. Some of these sources suggest that babies were roasted to death on a heated bronze statue. According to Diodorus Siculus:

“

There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.

”

The accuracy of such stories is disputed by some modern historians and archaeologists.^[15] Nevertheless, several apparent "Tophets" have been identified, including a large one in Carthage.

Sacrifice in the classical world

Other than three possible sites in Crete, and allusions to the practice in classical mythology, archaeologists have been unable to find any evidence that Ancient Greeks practiced human sacrifice. 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 favor of animal sacrifice. Many scholars have suggested a possible analogy with the story of Isaac's attempted sacrifice by his father Abraham in the Bible, which was also stopped at the last minute (though it had first been encouraged) by divine intervention.

Early Romans practiced various forms of human sacrifice in their first centuries; from Etruscans (or, according to other sources, Sabellians), they adopted the original form of gladiatorial combat where the victim was slain in a ritual battle. During the early republic, criminals who had broken their oaths or defrauded others were sometimes "given to the gods" (that is, executed as a human sacrifice). The Rex Nemorensis was an escaped slave who became priest of the goddess Diana at Nemi by killing his predecessor. Prisoners of war and Vestal virgins were buried alive as offerings to Manes and Di Inferi (gods of the underworld).^{[citation needed]} Archaeologists have found sacrificial victims buried in building foundations. Ordinarily, deceased Romans were cremated rather than buried. Captured enemy leaders, after the victorious general's triumph, would be ritually strangled in front of a statue of Mars, the war god.

Religious practices changed over the centuries. According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice was abolished by a senatorial decree in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was wholly symbolic. Most of the rituals turned to animal sacrifice like taurobolium or became merely symbolic. A Roman general might bury a statue of his likeness to thank the gods for victory. Dionysius of Halicarnassus^[16]refers to a sacrifice of Argei in the Vestal ritual that might have originally included sacrifice of old men. When the Roman Empire expanded, Romans stopped human sacrifices as barbaric. However, other activities with a ritual origin kept being practiced for many years, and even get more massive, like the gladiatorial games and some kinds of executions.

Chinese sacrifice

The ancient Chinese are known to have made sacrifices of young men and women to river deities, and to have buried slaves alive with their owners upon death as part of a funeral service. This was especially prevalent during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the Warring States period, Ximen Bao of Wei demonstrated to the villagers that sacrifice to river deities was actually a ploy by crooked priests to pocket money.^[17] In Chinese lore, Ximen Bao is regarded as a folk hero who pointed out the absurdity of human sacrifice.

The sacrifice of a high-ranking male's slaves, concubines or servants upon his death (called Xun Zang 殉葬 or more specifically Sheng Xun 生殉) was a more common form. The stated purpose is to provide companion for the dead in afterlife. In earlier times the victims were either killed or buried alive, while later they were usually forced to commit suicide.

Funeral human sacrifice was abolished by the Qin Dynasty in 384 BC. Afterwards it became relatively rare throughout the central parts of China.. However, the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty revived it in 1395 when his second son died and two of the prince's concubines were sacrificed. In 1464, the Zhengtong Emperor in his will forbade the practice for Ming emperors and princes.

Human sacrifice was also practiced by the Manchus. Following Emperor Nurhaci's death, Lady Abahai and his two lesser consorts committed suicide. During the Qing Dynasty, sacrifice of slaves was banned by Emperor Kangxi in 1673.

Celtic sacrifice

Main article: Celts and human sacrifice

As written in Roman sources, Celtic Druids engaged extensively in human sacrifice.^[18] According to Julius Caesar, the slaves and dependants of Gauls of rank would be burnt along with the body of their master as part of his funerary rites.^[19] He also describes how they built wicker figures that were filled with living humans and then burned.^[20] It is known that druids at least supervised sacrifices of some kind. According to Cassius Dio, Boudica's forces impaled Roman captives during her rebellion against the Roman occupation, to the accompaniment of revellery and sacrifices in the sacred groves of Andate.^[21] Some modern-day scholars question the accuracy of these accounts, as they invariably come from hostile (Roman or Greek) sources.^[22] Different gods reportedly required different kind of sacrifices. Victims meant for Esus were hanged, those meant for Taranis immolated and those for Teutates drowned. Some, like the Lindow Man, may have gone to their deaths willingly.

Archaeological evidence from the British Isles seems to indicate that human sacrifice may have been practiced, over times long pre-dating any contact with Rome. Human remains have been found at the foundations of structures from the Neolithic time to the Roman era, with injuries and in positions that argue for their being foundation sacrifices. Similarly, additional human remains in the tombs of aged men show signs of having been killed to be buried in the grave.

Viking Age sacrifice

According to Norse mythology, Odin hanged himself from the world-tree Yggdrasil for nine nights to attain divine wisdom. Medieval Christian sources refer to Norsemen sacrificing prisoners by hanging them from trees, but the true extent of this behavior is unclear.

Norse warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women with the belief that these women would become their wives in Valhalla. A detailed eyewitness account of such a burial was given by Ahmad ibn Fadlan as part of his account of an embassy to the Volga Bulgars in 921. In his description of the funeral of a Scandinavian chieftain, a slave volunteers to die with a Norseman. After ten days of festivities, she is stabbed to death by an old woman, a sort of priestess who is referred to as Völva or "Angel of Death", and burnt together with the deceased in his boat.

Adam von Bremen recorded human sacrifices to Odin in 11th century Sweden, at the Temple at Uppsala, a tradition which is confirmed by Gesta Danorum and the Norse sagas. According to the Ynglinga saga, king Domalde was sacrificed there in the hope to bring greater future harvests and the total domination of all future wars. The same saga also relates that Domalde's descendant king Aun sacrificed nine of his own sons to Odin in exchange for longer life, until the Swedes stopped him from sacrificing his last son, Egil.

Heidrek in the Hervarar saga agrees to the sacrifice of his son in exchange for the command over a fourth of the men of Reidgotaland. With these, he seizes the entire kingdom and prevents the sacrifice of his son, dedicating those fallen in his rebellion to Odin instead.

Pre-Columbian sacrifice

Some of the most famous forms of ancient human sacrifice were performed by various Pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas.

Mixtec

The Mixtec players of the Ulama game were sacrificed when the game was used to resolve a dispute between cities. The rulers would play a game instead of going to battle. The losing ruler would be sacrificed. The ruler "Eight Deer" was considered a great ball player and won several cities this way, until he lost a ball game and was sacrificed.

Maya

The Maya held the belief that cenotes or limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and sacrificed human beings to please the water god Chaac. The most notable example of this is the "Sacred Cenote" at Chichen Itza where extensive excavations have recovered the remains of 42 individuals, half of them under twenty years old.

In the Post-Classic period, the victims and the altar are represented as daubed in a hue now known as Maya Blue, obtained from the añil plant and the clay mineral palygorskite.^[23]

Aztec

Main article: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture

The Aztecs 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 many prisoners were sacrificed.

Tlaloc

Main article: Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures

Tlaloc would require weeping boys in the first months of the Aztec calendar to be ritually murdered.

Xipe Totec

Sacrifices to Xipe Totec were bound to a post and shot full of arrows. The dead victim would be skinned and a priest would use the skin. Earth mother Teteoinnan required flayed female victims.

Inca empire

A number of mummies of sacrificed children have been recovered in the Inca regions of South America, an ancient practice known as capacocha.^[24]

West African Human Sacrifice

Human sacrifice was common in west African states up to and during the nineteenth century. The Annual customs of Dahomey was the most notorious example, but sacrifices were carried out all along the west African coast and further inland. Sacrfices were particularly common after the death of a King or Queen, and there are many recorded cases of hundreds or even thousands of slaves being sacrificed at such events. Sacrifices were particularly common in Dahomey, in the Benin Empire, in what is now Ghana, and in the small independent states in what is now southern Nigeria.

In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare early as Islam became more established in these areas such as the Hausa States. Human sacrifice was officially banned in the remainder of West African states only by coercion, or in some cases annexation, by either the British or French. An important step was the British co-ercing the powerful Egbo secret society to oppose human sacrifice in 1850. This society was powerful in a large number of states in what is now south-eastern Nigeria. Nonetheless, human sacrifice continued, normally in secret, until west Africa came under firm colonial control.

The last major center of human sacrifice was the Benin Empire in modern Nigeria. The Benin Empire agreed with the British to prohibit human sacrifice in the 1890s. However, for five years the rulers continued human sacrifice on a large scale. After an incident in which British observers were killed in order to prevent them witnessing human sacrifice, the British authorities assembled forces to conquer the Benin Empire. This caused an escalation of human sacrifice as Benin's rulers sought to protect themselves from Britain by appeasing the Gods with sacrifice. After a brief campaign the Benin Empire was conquered and human sacrifice suppressed.

Contemporary human sacrifice

India

Some people in India are adherents of a set of theistic philosophies called Tantrism (not to be confused with Tantric Buddhism). Most either use animal sacrifice or symbolic effigies, but a small percent of them engage in human sacrifice:

“

After a rash of similar killings in the area — according to an unofficial tally in the English language-language Hindustan Times, there have been 25 human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh in the last six months alone — police have cracked down against tantriks, jailing four and forcing scores of others to close their businesses and pull their ads from newspapers and television stations. The killings and the stern official response have focused renewed attention on tantrism, an amalgam of mysticism practices that grew out of Hinduism.[25]

”

A 2006 newspaper report states:

“

Police in Khurja say dozens of sacrifices have been made over the past six months. Last month, in a village near Barha, a woman hacked her neighbour's three-year-old to death after a tantrik promised unlimited riches. In another case, a couple desperate for a son had a six-year-old kidnapped and then, as the tantrik chanted mantras [were uttered], mutilated the child. The woman completed the ritual by washing in the child's blood. "It's because of blind superstitions and rampant illiteracy that this woman sacrificed this boy," said Khurja police officer Ak Singh. "It's happened before and will happen again but there is little we can do to stop it. In most situations it's an open and shut case. It isn't difficult to elicit confessions — normally the villagers or the families of the victims do that for us" […]. According to an unofficial tally by the local newspaper, there have been 28 human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh in the last four months. Four tantrik priests have been jailed and scores of others forced to flee.[26]

”

In Africa

Human sacrifice, in the context of religious ritual, still occurs in other traditional religions, for example in muti killings in eastern Africa. Human sacrifice is no longer officially condoned in any country, and such cases are regarded as murder.

In the West

So-called Satanic ritual abuse is largely unsubstantiated, but the allegations are not always unbased.

One fairly recent case occurred in Greece in the early 1990s. Between 1990 and 1993 a small "band" of - self-styled - Satan worshipers, some of them teenagers, some adults, were involved in demon worship and satanic rituals including at least two ritual human sacrifices. The cult's first victim was Dora Syropoulou, 15. She was killed at her initiation ceremony in August 1992. She was led to an abandoned winery to participate in the ritual, but there she was stripped, handcuffed, raped and strangled. Seven months after Syropoulou's murder, they kidnapped a 30-year-old hotel maid, Garyfalia Yiourga, raping and torturing her in their car before crushing her skull. Another body was found in the same area as the other two victims, that of 35-year-old Sultana Kriskian. Eight members of this "band" were arrested in December 1993 and brought to trial in 1995. Asimakis Katsoulas, 24, and Manos Dimitrokalis, 23, also known by their cult names "Amon" and "Enigma", were found guilty and given life sentences on two counts of rape and murder and one count of kidnapping. Katsoulas's former girlfriend and "high priestess" Dimitra Marieti, 22, was sentenced to 18 years and four months in prison after being found guilty as an accessory to murder. All defendants denied involvement in the killing of a "third" victim. Three other members of the "band", Varvara Angelopoulou and Maria and Katerina Rigaki, charged with withholding evidence and harbouring a criminal, were given sentences of 17, seven and 16 months respectively. The court acquitted the two others, Haralambos Zavras, charged with being an accessory after the fact, and Angeliki Anagnostou, charged with attempted blackmail, of all charges. There were other people involved with the "band" too, but they were not arrested as they could not be linked to the murders, or any other illegal activity. The convicted, before and during their trial spoke of widespread satanic rituals among teenagers and young adults in Greece, and about "master-minds" in "high places", people above suspicion behind it all. However they failed to substantiate those claims, or even to produce names.[21][22]

Another such ritual murder occurred in 1999 in Hyvinkää, Finland, as a young man was slowly tortured to death and his body parts eaten in a sacrificial rite. The three cultists were sentenced to prison. Modern occultists consider such sacrifices unnecessary, or use them only in the symbolic form where the volunteer "sacrifice" is not actually killed.

In 2005 the BBC reported that children are being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifices. This claim was based on a confidential report prepared by the Metropolitan Police.^[27]

Ending of human sacrifice

The ending of human sacrifice has usually occurred as a result of the questioning of traditional systems of belief which arises through culture contact, or rapid social change.

• In the ancient Near East, human sacrifice was suppressed throughout the Persian Empire, partly as a consequence of the spread of Zoroastrianism which taught that human sacrifice was a sign of Ahriman, not of the Wise Lord Ahura Mazda.
• Carthaginian human sacrifice came to an end with the Punic Wars with Rome, whilst Roman Gladatorial Games came to an end in the Roman Empire in the year 404, after a long campaign by Christian authorities to outlaw the practice, and following the death of a monk who had tried to break up a gladitorial bout.
• Human sacrifice amongst the Aztecs and other American peoples came to an end with the invasion of the Spanish Conquistadors and the imposition of Christianity.

References

Articles

• “Indian cult kills children for goddess: Holy men blamed for inciting dozens of deaths”, The Observer (United Kingdom newspaper) Dan McDougall in Khurja, India, Sunday March 5, 2006
• Heinsohn, Gunnar: “The Rise of Blood Sacrifice and Priest Kingship in Mesopotamia: A Cosmic Decree?”^[28] (also published in Religion, Vol. 22, 1992)

Books

• Dying for the Gods, Miranda Aldhouse Green; Trafalgar Square; 2001, ISBN 0-7524-1940-4

• Cenote of Sacrifices, Clemency Coggins and Orrin C. Shane III ; 1984 The university of Texas Press; ISBN 0-292-71097-6

• Violence and the Sacred, Rene Girard, translated by P. Gregory; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, ISBN-10: 0826477186

• I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, René Girard, Translated by James G. Williams; Orbis Books; 2001, ISBN 1-57075-319-9

• The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy Ronald Hutton, 1991, ISBN 0-631-18946-7

• Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece Dennis D. Hughes 1991 Routledge ISBN 0-415-03483-3

• City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization, David Carrasco, Moughton Mifflin, 2000, ISBN 0-807-04643-4

Notes and References

See also

• Cannibalism
• Luhansk sacrificial site
• The Lottery (short story)
• The Wicker Man
• Eye of the Devil

External links

• TIME Asia Magazine: Killing for “Mother” Kali
• Indian temple revives “human sacrifice”
• Witch Burning and Human Sacrifice in India, PDF
• “Priest makes human sacrifice”
• Human sacrifice of children

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