![]() Many cultures show traces of prehistoric human sacrifice in their mythologies and religious texts, but ceased the practice before the onset of historical records. However, outside of civil religion, human sacrifice may also result in outbursts of blood frenzy and mass killings that destabilize society. Human sacrifice may be a ritual practiced in a stable society, and may even be conducive to enhance societal unity (see: Sociology of religion), both by creating a bond unifying the sacrificing community, and in combining human sacrifice and capital punishment, by removing individuals that have a negative effect on societal stability (criminals, religious heretics, foreign slaves or prisoners of war). It was found in many pre-modern tribal societies. Headhunting is the practice of taking the head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms. Hawaiian sacrifice, from Jacques Arago's account of Freycinet's travels around the world from 1817 to 1820Īnother purpose is divination from the body parts of the victim. This is sometimes called a "retainer sacrifice", as the leader's retainers would be sacrificed along with their master, so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife. ![]() Mongols, Scythians, early Egyptians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines, with them to the next world. In some notions of an afterlife, the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. In Homeric legend, Iphigeneia was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease Artemis so she would allow the Greeks to wage the Trojan War. Human sacrifice can also have the intention of winning the gods' favor in warfare. According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony. In ancient Japan, legends talk about hitobashira ("human pillar"), in which maidens were buried alive at the base of or near some constructions to protect the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks, and almost identical accounts appear in the Balkans ( The Building of Skadar and Bridge of Arta).įor the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they killed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. Fertility was another common theme in ancient religious sacrifices, such as sacrifices to the Aztec god of agriculture Xipe Totec. ![]() Human sacrifice is typically intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice (sometimes called ritual murder), has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. Human sacrifice in the kingdom of Dahomey ( January 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. For example, the Hebrew Bible prohibits murder and human sacrifice to Moloch. Most major religions in the modern day condemn the practice. Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices as tantamount to murder. ![]() Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare. In the Americas, however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas. By the Iron Age (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 barbaric during classical antiquity. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. An excavated tzompantli from the Templo Mayor in modern-day Mexico City Part of a series on For the Vengeance Rising album, see Human Sacrifice (album). ![]()
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