Human sacrifice
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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, 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. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Human sacrifice is also known as ritual murder.
Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the Iron Age Template:Nobr 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. In the 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.
Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices as murder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Most major religions in the modern day condemn the practice. For example in Hinduism, the Shrimad Bhagavatam condemns human sacrifice and cannibalism, warning of severe punishment in the afterlife for those who commit such acts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:TOC limit
Evolution and contextEdit
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Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationalisations behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. 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. Fertility was another common theme in ancient religious sacrifices, such as sacrifices to the Aztec god of agriculture Xipe Totec.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and almost identical accounts appear in the Balkans (The Building of Skadar and Bridge of Arta).Template:Cn
For 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. According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Human sacrifice can also have the intention of winning the gods' favor in warfare. 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.Template:Cn
In some notions of an afterlife, the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. 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, so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife.Template:Cn
Another purpose is divination from the body parts of the victim. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Npsn
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.Template:Cn
Human sacrifice may be a ritual practiced in a stable society, and may even be conducive to enhancing societal unity (see: Sociology of religion), both by creating a bond unifying the sacrificing community, and by combining human sacrifice and capital punishment, by removing individuals that have an adverse effect on societal stability (criminals, religious heretics, foreign slaves or prisoners of war). However, outside of civil religion, human sacrifice may also result in outbursts of blood frenzy and mass killings that destabilize society.Template:Cn
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 Abraham and Isaac (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 effigies, such as the Argei in ancient Rome.Template:Cn
History by regionEdit
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Ancient Near EastEdit
Successful agricultural cities had already emerged in the Near East by the Neolithic, some protected behind stone walls. Jericho is the best known of these cities but other similar settlements existed along the coast of the Levant extending north into Asia Minor and west to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Most of the land was arid and the religious culture of the entire region centered on fertility and rain. Many of the religious rituals, including human sacrifice, had an agricultural focus. Blood was mixed with soil to improve its fertility.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Ancient EgyptEdit
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 by servants, and possibly high officials, who would continue to serve him in eternal life. The skeletons that were found had 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 2800 BCE, any possible evidence of such practices disappeared, though echoes are perhaps to be seen in the burial of statues of servants in Old Kingdom tombs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Servants of both royalty and high court officials were slain to accompany their masters into the next world.<ref>Spencer, A.J. Death In Ancient Egypt. 1st. Great Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1982. 68:139. Print.</ref> The number of retainers buried surrounding the king's tomb was much greater than those of high court officials, however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh.<ref>Trigger, B.G., B.J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A.B. Lloyd. Ancient Egypt: A Social History. 1st. Great Britain: University Press, Cambridge, 1983. 52–56. Print.</ref> For example, King Djer had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb.<ref>Morris, Ellen F. "Sacrifice for the State: First Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites at Macramallah's Rectangle." 15–37. Print.</ref>
Biblical accountsEdit
References in the Bible point to an awareness of and disdain 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) (2 Kings 3:27).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Bible then recounts that, following the King's sacrifice, "There was great indignation [or wrath] against Israel" and that the Israelites had to raise their siege of the Moabite capital and go away. This verse had perplexed many later Jewish and Christian commentators, who tried to explain what the impact of the Moabite King's sacrifice was, to make those under siege emboldened while disheartening the Israelites, make God angry at the Israelites or the Israelites fear his anger, make Chemosh (the Moabite god) angry, or otherwise.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Npsn Whatever the explanation, evidently at the time of writing, such an act of sacrificing the firstborn son and heir, while prohibited by Israelites (Deuteronomy 12:31; Deut. 18:9–12; Leviticus 18,22-23, about Moloch<ref name="Manzini">Vincenzo Manzini (1 January 1988), Sacrifici umani e omicidi rituali nell'antichità, Fratelli Melita Editori, pp. 64-65. Template:ISBN (reprinted by Gherardo Casini editore, Series "Esoterismo e magia", 2022, Template:ISBN).</ref>), was considered as an emergency measure in the Ancient Near East, to be performed in exceptional cases where divine favor was desperately needed.Template:Npsn
Template:Bibleref2 prohibits redeeming those destined for sacrifice (Non redimatur, sed morte moriatur). This concerned offenders condemned to death by penal Herem, an anathema pronounced solemnly by God or authority, akin to the Roman sacratio.[17] Canaanites and Amorites were punished by God without possibility of redemption (Exodus 22; Deuteronomy 13; Judges 21).<ref name ="Manzini" />
The binding of Isaac appears in the Book of Genesis (22), where God tests Abraham by asking him to present his son as a sacrifice on Moriah. Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. The story ends with an angel stopping Abraham at the last minute and 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 favour of animal sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Another probable instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Bible is Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter in Judges 11. Jephthah vows to sacrifice to God whatever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home if he is victorious in his war against the Ammonites. The vow is stated in the Book of Judges 11:31: "Then whoever comes of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord's, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering (NRSV)." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him, and Jephthah laments to her that he cannot take back his vow. She begs for, and is granted, "two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I", after which "[Jephthah] did with her according to the vow he had made."<ref>(excerpted from Judges 11:34–39, NRSV)</ref> Jewish rabbis, Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine of Hippo state that the daughter of Jephthah was sacrificed, but not according to the will of the Judeo-Christian God, but in a cruel and arbitrary manner.<ref name ="Manzini" />
Two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Manassah, sacrificed their sons. Ahaz, in 2 Kings 16:3, sacrificed his son. "... He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel (NRSV)." King Manasseh sacrificed his sons in 2 Chronicles 33:6. "He made his son pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom ... He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger (NRSV)." The valley symbolized hell in later religions, such as Christianity, as a result.Template:Npsn
Template:Bibleref2 affirms that Gentiles do sacrifices to demons and not to God.
PhoeniciaEdit
According to Roman and Greek 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 their cause of death remain controversial.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a single child cemetery called the "Tophet" by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000 urns were deposited.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Plutarch (Template:Circa) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Diodorus Siculus and Philo. Livy and Polybius do not. The Bible asserts that children were sacrificed at a place called the tophet ("roasting place") to the god Moloch. According to Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica, "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."<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua>Template:Cite book</ref>
Plutarch, however, claims that the children were already dead at the time, having been killed by their parents, whose consent – as well as that of the children – was required. Tertullian explains the acquiescence of the children as a product of their youthful trustfulness.<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua/>
The accuracy of such stories is disputed by some modern historians and archaeologists.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
MesopotamiaEdit
Retainer sacrifice was practised within the royal tombs of ancient Mesopotamia. Courtiers, guards, musicians, handmaidens, and grooms were presumed to have committed ritual suicide by taking poison.<ref> Template:Cite news </ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A 2009 examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq in the 1920s by a team led by C. Leonard Woolley, appears to support a more grisly interpretation of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia than had previously been recognized. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet death serenely. Instead, they were put to death by having a sharp instrument, such as a pike, driven into their heads.<ref> Template:Cite news </ref><ref> Template:Cite magazine </ref>
EuropeEdit
Neolithic EuropeEdit
Template:Further There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in Neolithic to Eneolithic Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Greco-Roman antiquityEdit
The ancient ritual of expelling certain slaves, cripples, or criminals from a community to ward off disaster (known as pharmakos), would at times involve publicly executing the chosen prisoner by throwing them off of a cliff.Template:Cn
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.Template:Citation needed
In ancient Rome, human sacrifice was infrequent but documented. Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice, as human sacrifice was often looked down upon. These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010">Template:Cite journal</ref> It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings. Dionysius of Halicarnassus<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> says that the ritual of the Argei, in which straw figures were tossed into the Tiber river, may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men. Cicero claimed that puppets thrown from the Pons Sublicius by the Vestal Virgins in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After the Roman defeat at Cannae, two Gauls and two Greeks in male-female couples were buried under the Forum Boarium, in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before.<ref name="z445">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Pn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Livy's description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Cite book Template:Cite book Template:Cite book</ref> They buried the two Greeks and the two Gauls alive as a plea to the gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of Hannibal.Template:Cn
According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice was banned by law during the consulship of Publius Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Sulla's Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice.<ref>Paulus, Sententiae, 5.23.14–9</ref> The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste Vestal Virgins alive and drowning visibly intersex children. These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition. Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and a special chamber was built to bury them alive. This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010"/>Template:Efn Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome. However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace. Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment, the state of their bodies was preserved in order to maintain the peace.<ref> Template:Cite AV media </ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Captured enemy leaders were only occasionally executed at the conclusion of a Roman triumph, and the Romans themselves did not consider these deaths a sacrificial offering.Template:Citation needed Gladiator combat was thought by the Romans to have originated as fights to the death among war captives at the funerals of Roman generals, and Christian polemicists, such as Tertullian, considered deaths in the arena to be little more than human sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Cite book Template:Cite book</ref> Over time, participants became criminals and slaves, and their death was considered a sacrifice to the Manes on behalf of the dead.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite journal</ref> Template:See also
CarthageEdit
There is literary evidence for infant sacrifice being practiced in Carthage, however, current anthropological analyses have not found physical evidence to back up these claims. There is a Tophet, where infant remains have been found, but after current analytical techniques, it has been concluded this area is more representative of the naturally high infant mortality rate.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Celtic peoplesEdit
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Template:Further There is some evidence that ancient Celtic peoples practiced human sacrifice.<ref name="koch687-690">Template:Cite book</ref> Accounts of Celtic human sacrifice come from Roman and Greek sources. Julius Caesar<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Strabo wrote that the Gauls burnt animal and human sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a wicker man, and said the human victims were usually criminals; while Posidonius wrote that druids who oversaw human sacrifices foretold the future by watching the death throes of the victims.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Caesar also wrote that slaves of Gaulish chiefs would be burnt along with the body of their master as part of his funeral rites.<ref name=caesar>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 1st century AD, Roman writer Lucan mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods Esus, Teutatis and Taranis. In a 9th-century commentary on Lucan, an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Esus were hanged from a tree, those to Teutates were drowned, and those to Taranis were burned.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to the 2nd-century Roman writer Cassius Dio, Boudica's forces impaled Roman captives during her rebellion against the Roman occupation, to the accompaniment of revelry and sacrifices in the sacred groves of Andate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is important to note, however, that the Romans benefited from making the Celts sound barbaric, and scholars are more skeptical about these accounts now than in the past.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although it is rare.<ref name="koch687-690"/> Ritual beheading and headhunting was a major religious and cultural practice that has found copious support in the archaeological record, including the numerous skulls found in Londinium's River Walbrook and the twelve headless corpses at the Gaulish sanctuary of Gournay-sur-Aronde.Template:Efn
Several ancient Irish bog bodies have been interpreted as kings who were ritually killed, presumably after serious crop failures or other disasters. Some were deposited in bogs on territorial boundaries (which were seen as liminal places) or near royal inauguration sites, and some were found to have eaten a ceremonial last meal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Some academics suggest there are allusions to kings being sacrificed in Irish mythology, particularly in tales of threefold deaths.<ref name="koch687-690"/>
The medieval Dindsenchas (Lore of Places) says that, in pagan Ireland, first-born children were sacrificed at an idol called Crom Cruach, whose worship was ended by Saint Patrick. However, this account was written by Christian scribes centuries after the supposed events and may be based on biblical traditions about the god Moloch.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Britain, the medieval legends of Dinas Emrys and of Saint Oran of Iona mention foundation sacrifices, whereby people were ritually killed and buried under foundations to ensure the building's safety.<ref name="koch687-690"/> The Waldensians sect was later accused of child sacrifice by the Church.<ref name="Tice Wickliffe 2003 p. 19">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Holmes 2015 p. 105">Template:Cite book</ref>
Baltic peoplesEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} According to written sources from the 13th–14th centuries, the Lithuanians and Prussians made sacrifices to their pagan gods at their sacred places, alka hills, battlefields and near natural objects (sea, rivers, lakes, etc.).<ref name="Balsys">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1389 following the military victories in the land of Medininkai the Samogitians cast lots which indicated Marquard von Raschau, the commander of Klaipėda (Memel), as a suitable victim for gods and burnt him on horseback in full armour.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania">Template:Cite book</ref> It possibly was the last human sacrifice in medieval Europe.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania"/>
Finnic peoplesEdit
Template:Further Pope Gregory IX described in a papal letter how the Tavastians in Finland sacrificed Christians to their pagan gods: "The little children, to whom the light of Christ was revealed in baptism, they violently tore from this light and killed, and adult men, after pulling out their entrails, they sacrifice them to evil spirits and force others to run around trees until death, and some of the priests they blind, from others they brutally sever their hands and other limbs and wrap what is left behind in straws and burn them alive."<ref>toim. Martti Linna: Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä, s. 64. Historian aitta, 1989. Template:ISBN.</ref>
There have been found bog graves in Estonia that have been interpreted to have been part of human sacrifice.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Aliis Moora, mostly enemy prisoners of war were sacrificed, the main reason indicated in the Livonian Chronicle as alleviating crop failure. Sacrifices were also performed as a show of gratitude after a victorious battle. Ritual cannibalism also took place, in order to gain the power of the enemy.<ref name=Jonuks>Inimohver eesti eelkristlikus usundis. Human Sacrifice in Estonian Pre-Christian Religion; Author(s): Tõnno Jonuks . Publisher: Estonian Literary Museum of Scholarly Press. Publication Date: 2001</ref> The Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum by Adam of Bremen written at the end of the 11th century claims that behind the island of Kuramaa there is an island called Aestland (Estonia), whose inhabitants do not believe in the Christian God. Instead, they worship dragons and birds (dracones adorant cum volucribus) to whom people bought from slavers are sacrificed.<ref name=Jonuks/> According to the Livonian Chronicle, describing the events after the Battle of Ümera, "Estonians had seized some Germans, Livs, and Latvians, and some of them they simply killed, others they burned alive and tore the shirts off some of them, carved crosses on their backs with a sword and then beheaded". The Chronicle explicitly states they were sacrificed "to their gods" (diis suis).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Germanic peoplesEdit
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Template:Further Human 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 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) in the lands entrusted to him.<ref>Template:Cite book</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">Template:Cite book</ref>
Evidence of human sacrifice by Germanic pagans before the Viking Age depend on archaeology and on a few accounts in Greco-Roman ethnography. Roman writer Tacitus reported the Suebians making human sacrifices to gods he interpreted as Mercury and Isis. He also claimed that Germans sacrificed Roman commanders and officers as a thanksgiving for victory in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Tacitus, Annals, I.61</ref> Jordanes reported the Goths sacrificing prisoners of war to Mars, suspending the victims' severed arms from tree branches.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tacitus further refers to those who have transgressed certain societal rules being drowned and placed in wetlands. This potentially explains finds of bog bodies dating to the Roman Iron Age although none show signs of having died by drowning.<ref name="Simek"/>
By the 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the 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 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>Template:Cite magazine</ref>) also containing female remains with signs of trauma.
According to Adémar de Chabannes, just before his death in 932 or 933, Rollo (founder and first ruler of the Viking Duchy of Normandy) performed human sacrifices to appease the pagan gods while at the same time giving gifts to the churches in Normandy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the Temple at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in a sacred grove.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Historia Norwegiæ and Ynglinga saga refer to the willing sacrifice of King Dómaldi after bad harvests.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The same saga also relates that Dómaldi'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.Template:Cn
In the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, Heidrek agrees to the sacrifice of his son in exchange for command over half the army of Reidgotaland. With this, he seizes the whole kingdom and prevents the sacrifice of his son, dedicating those fallen in his rebellion to Odin instead.Template:Citation needed
Slavic peoplesEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In the 10th century, Persian explorer Ahmad ibn Rustah described funerary rites for the Rus' (Scandinavian Norsemen traders in northeastern Europe) including the sacrifice of a young female slave.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120">Template:Cite book</ref> Leo the Deacon describes prisoner sacrifice by the Rus' led by Sviatoslav during the Russo-Byzantine War "in accordance with their ancestral custom."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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 Rus' by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great in the 980s.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
In 1066, the Bishop of Mecklenburg John Scotus was sacrificed to Radegast in Rethra by the Slavic Lutici.
Archeological findings indicate that the practice may have been widespread, at least among slaves, judging from mass graves containing the cremated fragments of a number of different people.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120" />
East AsiaEdit
ChinaEdit
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The history of human sacrifice in China may extend as early as 2300 BCE.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Excavations of the ancient fortress city of Shimao in the northern part of modern Shaanxi province revealed 80 skulls ritually buried underneath the city's eastern wall.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Forensic analysis indicates the victims were all teenage girls.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Human sacrifices were also documented in the Qijia culture.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The ancient Chinese are known to have made drowned sacrifices of men and women to the river god Hebo.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They also 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 outlawed human sacrificial practices to the river god.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Chinese lore, Ximen Bao is regarded as a folk hero who pointed out the absurdity of human sacrifice.Template:Cn
The sacrifice of a high-ranking male's slaves, concubines, or servants upon his death (called Xun Zang 殉葬 or Sheng Xun 生殉) was a more common form. The stated purpose was to provide companionship for the dead in the afterlife. In earlier times, the victims were either killed or buried alive, while later they were usually forced to commit suicide.Template:Cn
Funeral human sacrifice was widely practiced in the ancient Chinese state of Qin. According to the Records of the Grand Historian by Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, the practice was started by Duke Wu, the tenth ruler of Qin, who had 66 people buried with him in 678 BCE. The 14th ruler Duke Mu had 177 people buried with him in 621 BCE, including three senior government officials.<ref name="shiji"> Template:Cite book </ref><ref name="han"> Template:Cite book </ref> Afterwards, the people of Qin wrote the famous poem Yellow Bird to condemn this barbaric practice, later compiled in the Confucian Classic of Poetry.<ref> Yellow Bird, Classic of Poetry (in Chinese) </ref> The tomb of the 18th ruler Duke Jing of Qin, who died in 537 BCE, has been excavated. More than 180 coffins containing the remains of 186 victims were found in the tomb.<ref> Template:Cite news </ref><ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref> The practice would continue until Duke Xian of Qin (424–362 BCE) abolished it in 384 BCE. Modern historian Ma Feibai considers the significance of Duke Xian's abolition of human sacrifice in Chinese history comparable to that of Abraham Lincoln's abolition of slavery in American history.<ref name="han"/><ref> Template:Cite journal </ref>
After the abolition by Duke Xian, funeral human sacrifice became relatively rare throughout the central parts of China. However, the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty revived it in 1395, following the Mongolian Yuan precedent, when his second son died and two of the prince's concubines were sacrificed. In 1464, the Tianshun Emperor, in his will, forbade the practice for Ming emperors and princes.Template:Cn
Human sacrifice was also practised by the Manchus. Following Nurhaci's death, his wife, Lady Abahai, and his two lesser consorts committed suicide. During the Qing dynasty, sacrifice of slaves was banned by the Kangxi Emperor in 1673.Template:Citation needed
JapanEdit
In the practice known as Hitobashira (人柱, "human pillar"), a person was buried alive at the base of large structures such as dams, castles, and bridges.Template:Cn
TibetEdit
Human sacrifice was practiced in Tibet prior to the arrival of Buddhism in the 7th century.Template:Efn Historical practices such as burying bodies under the cornerstones of houses may have been practiced during the medieval era, but few concrete instances have been recorded or verified.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29>Template:Cite book</ref>
The prevalence of human sacrifice in medieval Buddhist Tibet is less clear. The Lamas, as professing Buddhists, could not condone blood sacrifices, and they replaced the human victims with effigies made from dough which is still to this day dyed partially red to symbolize sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> This replacement of human victims with effigies is attributed to Padmasambhava, a Tibetan saint of the mid-8th century, in Tibetan tradition.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Nevertheless, there is some evidence that outside of orthodox Buddhism, there were practices of tantric human sacrifice which survived throughout the medieval period, and possibly into modern times.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> The 15th century Blue Annals reports that in the 13th century so-called "18 robber-monks" slaughtered men and women in their ceremonies.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Grunfeld (1996) concludes that it cannot be ruled out that isolated instances of human sacrifice did survive in remote areas of Tibet until the mid-20th century, but they must have been rare.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> Grunfeld also notes that Tibetan practices unrelated to human sacrifice, such as the use of human bone in ritual instruments, have been depicted without evidence as products of human sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/>
Indian subcontinentEdit
In India, human sacrifice is mainly known as Narabali. Here "nara" means human and "bali" means sacrifice. It takes place in some parts of India mostly to find lost treasure. In Maharashtra, the government made it illegal to practice with the Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act. Currently human sacrifice is very rare in modern India.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There have been at least three cases through 2003–2013 where men have been murdered allegedly in the name of human sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Thuggees, or thugs, were an organized gang of professional robbers and murderers who traveled in groups across the Indian subcontinent for several hundred years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> They were first mentioned in Ẓiyā'-ud-Dīn Baranī's Template:No wrap (Template:Langx) dated around 1356.<ref name="thuggee-britannica">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence. This would allow them to then surprise and strangle them by tossing a handkerchief or noose around their necks. They would then rob the bodies of valuables and bury them. This led them to also be called Phansigar (Template:Langx), a term more commonly used in southern India.<ref name="RussellLai1995">Template:Cite book</ref>
Regarding possible Vedic mention of human sacrifice, the prevailing 19th-century view, associated above all with Henry Colebrooke, was that human sacrifice did not actually take place. Those verses which referred to purushamedha were meant to be read symbolically,<ref name="VD">Template:Cite book</ref> or as a "priestly fantasy". However, Rajendralal Mitra published a defence of the thesis that human sacrifice, as had been practised in Bengal, was a continuation of traditions dating back to Vedic periods.<ref name="Bremmer">Template:Cite book</ref> Hermann Oldenberg held to Colebrooke's view; but Jan Gonda underlined its disputed status.Template:Cn
Human and animal sacrifice became less common during the post-Vedic period, as ahimsa (non-violence) became part of mainstream religious thought. The Chandogya Upanishad (3.17.4) includes ahimsa in its list of virtues.<ref name="VD"/> The impact of Sramanic religions such as Buddhism and Jainism also became known in the Indian subcontinent.Template:Cn
In the 7th century, Banabhatta, in a description of the dedication of a temple of Chandika, describes a series of human sacrifices; similarly, in the 9th century, Haribhadra describes the sacrifices to Chandika in Odisha.<ref name="NC">Template:Cite book</ref> The town of Kuknur in North Karnataka there exists an ancient Kali temple, built around the 8-9th century CE, which has a history of human sacrifices.<ref name="NC"/> Human sacrifice is reputed to have been performed on the altars of the Hatimura Temple, a Shakti (Great Goddess) temple located at Silghat, in the Nagaon district of Assam. It was built during the reign of king Pramatta Singha in 1667 Sakabda (1745–1746 CE). It used to be an important center of Shaktism in ancient Assam. Its presiding goddess is Durga in her aspect of Mahisamardini, slayer of the demon Mahisasura. It was also performed in the Tamresari Temple which was located in Sadiya under the Chutia kings.Template:Cn
Open human sacrifices were carried out in connection with the worship of Shakti until approximately the early modern period, and in Bengal perhaps as late as the early 19th century.<ref name="Lipner"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Although not accepted by larger section of Hindu cultureTemplate:Citation needed certain Tantric cults performed human sacrifice until around the same time, both actual and symbolic; it was a highly ritualised act, and on occasion took many months to complete.<ref name="Lipner">Template:Cite book</ref> An occasional ritual murder, to Kali, periodically appears in the contemporary press.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The free or forced burning of widows, in a Vedic practise known as Sati, was noted during Alexander's invasion, of 327 BCE. A practice that was codified during the Gupta empire, and later prohibited, in Bengal via Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829, later across India, the last explicit legislation, in India, being the Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
PacificEdit
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In Ancient Hawaii, a luakini temple, or luakini heiau, was a Native Hawaiian sacred place where human and animal blood sacrifices were offered. Kauwa, the outcast or slave class, were often used as human sacrifices at the luakini heiau. They are believed to have been war captives, or the descendants of war captives. They were not the only sacrifices; law-breakers of all castes or defeated political opponents were also acceptable as victims.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rituals for the Hawaiian god Kūkaʻilimoku included human sacrifice, which was not part of the worship of other gods.Template:Cn
According to an 1817 account, in Tonga, a child was strangled to assist the recovery of a sick relation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Pre-Columbian AmericasEdit
Some of the most famous forms of ancient human sacrifice were performed by various Pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> that included the sacrifice of prisoners as well as voluntary sacrifice. Friar Marcos de Niza (1539), writing of the Chichimecas, said that from time to time "they of this valley cast lots whose luck (honour) it shall be to be sacrificed, and they make him great cheer, on whom the lot falls, and with great joy they lund him with flowers upon a bed prepared in the said ditch all full of flowers and sweet herbs, on which they lay him along, and lay great store of dry wood on both sides of him, and set it on fire on either part, and so he dies" and "that the victim took great pleasure" in being sacrificed.<ref>Grace E. Murray, Ancient Rites and Ceremonies, p. 19, Template:ISBN</ref>
North AmericaEdit
The Mixtec players of the Mesoamerican ballgame 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", who was considered a great ball player and who won several cities this way, was eventually sacrificed, because he attempted to go beyond lineage-governing practices, and to create an empire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
MayaEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Maya held the belief that cenotes or limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and sacrificed human beings and tossed them down the cenote to please the water god Chaac. The most notable example of this is the "Sacred Cenote" at Chichén Itzá.<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13/> Extensive excavations have recovered the remains of 42 individuals, half of them under twenty years old.Template:Cn
Only in the Post-Classic era did this practice become as frequent as in central Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> 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.<ref name="Palygorskite">Template:Cite journal cited in Template:Cite journal</ref>
AztecsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
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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 some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Full citation needed</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>Template:Cite book</ref>
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According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, "between 10,000 and 80,400 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.Template:Cn
Michael Harner, in his 1997 article The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice, estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century as high as 250,000 per year. Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, a Mexica descendant and the author of Codex Ixtlilxochitl, claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. Victor Davis Hanson argues that an estimate by Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000 per annum is more plausible. Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs always tried to intimidate their enemies, it is far more likely that they inflated the official number as a propaganda tool.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Full citation needed "Duverger, (op. cit) 174–177"</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Mississippian CulturesEdit
The peoples of what is now the Southeastern United States known as the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) have been suggested to have practiced human sacrifice, because some artifacts have been interpreted as depicting such acts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mound 72 at Cahokia (the largest Mississippian site), located near modern St. Louis, Missouri, was found to have numerous pits filled with mass burials thought to have been retainer sacrifices. One of several similar pit burials had the remains of 53 young women who had been strangled and neatly arranged in two layers. Another pit held 39 men, women, and children who showed signs of dying a violent death before being unceremoniously dumped into the pit. Several bodies showed signs of not having been fully dead when buried and of having tried to claw their way to the surface. On top of these people another group had been neatly arranged on litters made of cedar poles and cane matting. Another group of four individuals found in the mound were interred on a low platform, with their arms interlocked. They had had their heads and hands removed. The most spectacular burial at the mound is the "Birdman burial". This was the burial of a tall man in his 40s, now thought to have been an important early Cahokian ruler. He was buried on an elevated platform covered by a bed of more than 20,000 marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with the bird's head appearing beneath and beside the man's head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. Below the birdman was another man, buried facing downward. Surrounding the birdman were several other retainers and groups of elaborate grave goods.<ref name=PAUKETAT2004>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=CMSH72>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A ritual sacrifice of retainers and commoners upon the death of an elite personage is also attested in the historical record among the last remaining fully Mississippian culture, the Natchez. Upon the death of "Tattooed Serpent" in 1725, the war chief and younger brother of the "Great Sun" or Chief of the Natchez; two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed La Glorieuse by the French), his first warrior, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs all chose to die and be interred with him, as well as several old women and an infant who was strangled by his parents.<ref name=LAVERE>Template:Cite book</ref> Great honor was associated with such a sacrifice, and their kin were held in high esteem.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> After a funeral procession with the chief's body carried on a litter made of cane matting and cedar poles ended at the temple (which was located on top of a low platform mound), the retainers, with their faces painted red and drugged with large doses of nicotine, were ritually strangled. Tattooed Serpent was then buried in a trench inside the temple floor and the retainers were buried in other locations atop the mound surrounding the temple. After a few months' time the bodies were dis-interred and their defleshed bones were stored as bundle burials in the temple.<ref name=LAVERE/>
PawneeEdit
The Pawnee may have occasionally conducted the Morning Star Ceremony, which included the sacrifice of a young girl. Though the ritual continued, the sacrifice was discontinued in the 19th century.<ref>Pawnee ritualTemplate:Dead link</ref>
South AmericaEdit
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The Incas practiced human sacrifice, especially at great festivals or royal funerals where retainers died to accompany the dead into the next life.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Moche sacrificed teenagers en masse, as archaeologist Steve Bourget found when he uncovered the bones of 42 male adolescents in 1995.<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC>Template:Cite news</ref>
The study of the images seen in Moche art has enabled researchers to reconstruct the culture's most important ceremonial sequence, which began with ritual combat and culminated in the sacrifice of those defeated in battle. Dressed in fine clothes and adornments, armed warriors faced each other in ritual combat. In this hand-to-hand encounter the aim was to remove the opponent's headdress rather than kill him. The object of the combat was the provision of victims for sacrifice. The vanquished were stripped and bound, after which they were led in procession to the place of sacrifice. The captives are portrayed as strong and sexually potent. In the temple, the priests and priestesses would prepare the victims for sacrifice. The sacrificial methods employed varied, but at least one of the victims would be bled to death. His blood was offered to the principal deities in order to please and placate them.<ref name="Bourget">Template:Cite book</ref>
The Inca of Peru also made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000 servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527, for example.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A number of mummies of sacrificed children have been recovered in the Inca regions of South America, an ancient practice known as qhapaq hucha. The Incas performed child sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca (emperor) or during a famine.<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC/>
AfricaEdit
West AfricaEdit
JuJu Human sacrifice is still covertly practiced in some parts of West Africa, though it is illegal in all West African countries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Annual customs of Dahomey was the most notorious example, but sacrifices were carried out all along the West African coast and further inland. Sacrifices 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 what is now Benin, and in the small independent states in what is now southern Nigeria.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Rudolph Rummel, "Just consider the Grand Custom in Dahomey: When a ruler died, hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of prisoners would be slain. In one of these ceremonies in 1727, as many as 4,000 were reported killed. In addition, Dahomey had an Annual Custom during which 500 prisoners were sacrificed."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana, human sacrifice was often combined with capital punishment.<ref>Template:Cite journal – Asante is also called the Ashanti Empire.</ref>
The Leopard men were a West African secret society active into the mid-1900s that practised cannibalism. It was believed that the ritual cannibalism would strengthen both members of the society and their entire tribe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Tanganyika, the Lion men committed an estimated 200 murders in a single three-month period.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Canary IslandsEdit
It has been reported from Spanish chronicles that the Guanches (ancient inhabitants of these islands) performed both animal and human sacrifices.<ref name=Academia-6630296>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During the summer solstice in Tenerife children were sacrificed by being thrown from a cliff into the sea.<ref name=Academia-6630296/> These children were brought from various parts of the island for the purpose of sacrifice. Likewise, when an aboriginal king died his subjects should also assume the sea, along with the embalmers who embalmed the Guanche mummies.Template:Cn
In Gran Canaria, bones of children were found mixed with those of lambs and goat kids and on Tenerife, amphorae have been found with the remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide from those who were thrown off the cliffs.<ref name=Academia-6630296/>
Prohibition in major religionsEdit
Greek polytheismEdit
In Greek polytheism, Tantalus was said to have been condemned to Tartarus for eternity for the human sacrifice of his son Pelops.Template:Cn
Abrahamic religionsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Many traditions of Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam consider that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son to examine obedience of Abraham to His commands. To prove his obedience, Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. However, seeing Abraham's resolve, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead of his son.Template:Cn
JudaismEdit
Judaism explicitly forbids human sacrifice, regarding it as murder. Jews view the Akedah as central to the abolition of human sacrifice. Some Talmudic scholars assert that its replacement is the sacrificial offering of animals at the Temple – using Exodus 13:2–12ff; 22:28ff; 34:19ff; Numeri 3:1ff; 18:15; Deuteronomy 15:19 – others view that as being superseded by the symbolic pars-pro-toto sacrifice of the covenant of circumcision. Leviticus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 18:10 specifically outlaw the giving of children to Moloch, making it punishable by stoning; the Tanakh subsequently denounces human sacrifice as barbaric customs of Moloch worshippers (e.g. Psalms 106:37ff).Template:Cn
Judges chapter 11 features a Judge named Jephthah vowing that "whatsoever cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet me shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt-offering" in gratitude for God's help with a military battle against the Ammonites.<ref name="Brenner-56">Template:Cite book</ref> Much to Jephthah's dismay, his only daughter greeted him upon his triumphant return. Judges 11:39 states that Jephthah did as he had vowed, but "shies away from explicitly depicting her sacrifice, which leads some ancient and modern interpreters (e.g., Radak) to suggest that she was not actually killed."<ref name="TJSB-524">Template:Cite book</ref>
According to the Mishnah he was under no obligation to keep the ill-phrased, illegal vow. According to Rabbi Jochanan, in his commentary on the Mishnah, it was Jephthah's obligation to pay the vow in money.<ref name="Brenner-56"/> According to some commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition during the Middle Ages, Jepthah's daughter was not sacrificed, but was forbidden to marry and remained a spinster her entire life.<ref name="Radak-MD">Radak, Book of Judges 11:39; Metzudas Dovid ibid</ref>
The 1st-century CE Jewish-Hellenistic historian Flavius Josephus, however, stated that Jephthah "sacrificed his child as a burnt-offering – a sacrifice neither sanctioned by the law nor well-pleasing to God; for he had not by reflection probed what might befall or in what aspect the deed would appear to them that heard of it".<ref name="Brenner-73">Template:Cite book</ref> Latin philosopher pseudo-Philo, late Template:Nobr wrote that Jephthah burnt his daughter because he could find no sage in Israel who would cancel his vow. In other words, in the opinion of the Latin philosopher, this story of an ill-phrased vow consolidates that human sacrifice is not an order or requirement by God, but the punishment for those who illegally vowed to sacrifice humans.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Allegations accusing Jews of committing ritual murder – called the "blood libel" – were widespread during the Middle Ages, often leading to the slaughter of entire Jewish communities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Victor>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 20th century, similar accusations of ritual child killing by non-Christians were made as part of the satanic ritual abuse moral panic.<ref name="Victor"/>
ChristianityEdit
Christianity developed the belief that the story of Isaac's binding was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ, whose death and resurrection are believed to have enabled the salvation and atonement for man from its sins, including original sin. There is a tradition that the site of Isaac's binding, Moriah, later became Jerusalem, the city of Jesus's future crucifixion.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The beliefs of many Christian denominations hinge upon the substitutionary atonement of the sacrifice of God the Son, which was necessary for salvation in the afterlife. According to Christian teaching, each individual person on earth must participate in, and / or receive the benefits of, this divine human sacrifice for the atonement of their sins. Early Christian sources explicitly described this event as a sacrificial offering, with Christ in the role of both priest and human sacrifice, although starting with the Enlightenment, some writers, such as John Locke, have disputed the model of Jesus' death as a propitiatory sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite book According to Alister McGrath, early sources describing a human sacrifice include the New Testament's Epistle to the Hebrews and writings by Augustine of Hippo and Athanasius of Alexandria. Later sources, besides Locke, include Thomas Chubb and Horace Bushnell.</ref>
Although early Christians in the Roman Empire were accused of being cannibals, theophages (Greek for "god eaters")<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> practices such as human sacrifice were abhorrent to them.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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" (the literal 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>Template:CathEncy</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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">Template:Cite wikisource</ref> or that the bread and wine of communion are a merely symbolic reminder (Baptist).<ref name="baptist supper">Template:Cite book</ref>
In medieval Irish Catholic texts, there is mention of the early church in Ireland supposedly containing the practice of burying sacrificial victims underneath churches in order to consecrate them. This may have a relation to pagan Celtic practices of foundation sacrifice. The most notable example of this is the case of Odran of Iona a companion of St Columba who (according to legend) volunteered to die and be buried under the church of the monastery of Iona. However, there is no evidence that such things ever happened in reality and contemporary records closer to the time period have no mention of a practice like this.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
IslamEdit
Islam considers human sacrifice to be repugnant to the faith. It is also described as a common practice in pre-Islamic civilization, from Greece to ArabiaTemplate:Qref.Template:Npsn The binding of Prophet Ismaeel story is interpreted as Allah showing the superiority of animal sacrifices over human sacrifices.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Npsn
Indian religionsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Many Indian religions, including Buddhism, Jainism and some sectsTemplate:Which of Hinduism, embrace the teaching of ahimsa (non-violence) which imposes vegetarianism and outlaws animal as well as human sacrifice.Template:Citation needed
BuddhismEdit
In the case of Buddhism, both bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns) were forbidden to take life in any form as part of the 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.Template:Cn
In their effort to discredit Tibetan Buddhism, the People's Republic of China as well as Chinese nationalists in the Republic of China make frequent and emphatic references to the historical practice of human sacrifice in Tibet, portraying the 1950 People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet as an act of humanitarian intervention. According to Chinese sources, in the year 1948, 21 individuals were murdered by state sacrificial priests from Lhasa as part of a ritual of enemy destruction, because their organs were required as magical ingredients.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Tibetan Revolutions Museum established by the Chinese in Lhasa has numerous morbid ritual objects on display to illustrate these claims.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
HinduismEdit
In many sects of Hinduism, based on the principle of ahimsa, any human or animal sacrifice is forbidden.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 19th and 20th centuries, prominent figures of Indian spirituality such as Swami Vivekananda,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Npsn Ramana Maharshi,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Npsn Swami Sivananda,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Npsn and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Npsn have emphasized the importance of ahimsa.
Modern casesEdit
The AmericasEdit
BrazilEdit
In the city of Altamira, State of Pará, several children were raped, with their genitalia mutilated for what appear to be ritual purposes, and then stabbed to death, between 1989 and 1993.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is believed that the boys' sexual organs were used in rites of black magic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ChileEdit
In the coastal village Collileufu, native Lafkenches carried out a ritual human sacrifice in the days following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake. Collileufu, located in the Budi Lake area, south of Puerto Saavedra, was highly isolated in 1960. The Mapuche spoke primarily Mapudungun. The community had gathered in Cerro La Mesa, while the lowlands were struck by successive tsunamis. Juana Namuncura Añen,<ref name=mapuinfo/><ref name=australrios/> a local machi, demanded the sacrifice of the grandson of Juan Painecur, a neighbor, in order to calm the earth and the ocean.<ref name=austral>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The victim was 5 year-old José Luis Painecur, called an "orphan" (huacho) because his mother had gone to Santiago, for employment as a domestic worker, and left her son under the care of her father.<ref name=austral/>
José Luis Painecur had his arms and legs removed by Juan PañánTemplate:Who and Juan José Painecur (the victim's grandfather), and was stuck into the sand of the beach like a stake. The waters of the Pacific Ocean then carried the body out to sea. The authorities only learned about the sacrifice after a boy in the commune of Nueva Imperial denounced to local leaders the theft of two horses; these were allegedly eaten during the sacrifice ritual.<ref name=austral/> The two men were charged with the crime and confessed, but later recanted. They were released after two years. A judge ruled that those involved in these events had "acted without free will, driven by an irresistible natural force of ancestral tradition."<ref name=mapuinfo>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=australrios>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The story was mentioned in a Time magazine article, although with meagre detail.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
MexicoEdit
During the 1980s, a case of serial murders that involved human sacrifices rituals occurred in Tamaulipas, Mexico. The drug dealer and cult leader Adolfo Constanzo orchestrated several executions during rituals that included the victims' dismemberment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Between 2009 and 2010, in Sonora, Mexico, a serial killer named Silvia Meraz committed three murders in sacrifice rituals. With the help of her family, she beheaded two boys (both relatives) and one woman in front of an altar dedicated to Santa Muerte.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
PanamaEdit
The "New Light Of God" sect in the town of El Terrón, Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, Panama, believed they had a mandate from God to sacrifice members of their community who failed to repent to their satisfaction. In 2020, 5 children, their pregnant mother, and a neighbor were killed and decapitated at the sect's church building, with 14 other wounded victims being rescued. Victims were hacked with machetes, beaten with Bibles and cudgels, and burned with embers. A goat was ritually sacrificed at the scene as well. The cult's beliefs were a syncretic blend of Pentecostalism with indigenous beliefs and some New Age ideas including emphasis on the third eye. A leader of the Ngäbe-Buglé region labeled the sect "satanic" and demanded its eradication.<ref name="Panama">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
AsiaEdit
IndiaEdit
Several incidents of human sacrifice have been reported in India since independence. In 1996, a nine-year-old boy was sacrificed by Jharkhand-native Sushil Murmu as an offering to goddess Kali. Murmu was sentenced to death by the court but later got commuted to life imprisonment by the president of India.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the Hindustan Times, there was an incident of human sacrifice in western Uttar Pradesh in 2003.Template:Efn Police in Khurja reported "dozens of sacrifices" in the period of half a year in 2006, by followers of Kali, the goddess of death and time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2010, a two-year-old boy was murdered in Chhattisgarh in a Tantric human sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 100 cases of human sacrifices have been reported in India between 2014 and 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2015, during the Granite scam investigations of Tamil Nadu, there were reports of possible human sacrifices in the Madurai area to pacify goddess Shakthi for getting power to develop the illegal granite business. Bones and skulls were retrieved from the alleged sites in presence of the special judicial officer appointed by the high court of Madras.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Between June and October 2022, two women were killed and reportedly cannibalised as part of a human sacrifice in Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2022, a six-year-old boy was killed in Delhi by two men to please a deity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2023, five men were arrested for the killing and decapitation of a woman with a machete in 2019, as part of a religious rite to mark the anniversary of the ringleader's brother's death, after visiting a Hindu temple in Guwahati.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
AfricaEdit
Human sacrifice is no longer legal in any country, and such cases are prosecuted. As of 2020 however, there is still black market demand for child abduction in countries such as Kenya for purposes which include human sacrifice.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In January 2008, Milton Blahyi of Liberia confessed to being part of human sacrifices which "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat." He fought against Charles Taylor's militia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2019, an Anti-balaka leader in Satema in Central African Republic killed a 14-year-old girl in ritualistic way to increase profit from mines.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 22 March 2014, a group of motorcycle taxi drivers discovered the Ibadan forest of horror, a dilapidated building believed to have been used for human trafficking and ritual sacrifice located in Soka forest in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Ritual murderEdit
Template:See also Ritual killings perpetrated by individuals or small groups within a society that denounces them as simple murder are difficult to classify as either "human sacrifice" or mere pathological homicide because they lack the societal integration of sacrifice proper.Template:Citation needed
The Satanic groups Order of Nine Angles<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Temple of the Black Light promote human sacrifice. During the Satanic Panic some conspiracy theorists falsely claimed there were more than a million human sacrifices in the United States.<ref name="Medway 2001 p. 323">Template:Cite book</ref>
Non-lethal "sacrifice"Edit
In India there is a festival (Seega Maramma) where a person is chosen as a "sacrifice", and is believed by participants to die during the ritual, although they actually remain alive and are "raised" from the dead at the end after a period of lying still. Thus, this does not have the same legal implications as a true human sacrifice although participants consider it to be one.<ref name="livingsacrifice">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Acéphale
- Animal sacrifice
- Blood atonement
- Capital punishment
- Child sacrifice
- Curse of Tippecanoe
- Gehenna
- Homo Necans
- Honor killing
- Honor suicide
- Immurement
- Junshi
- Margaret Murray – The Divine King in England
- Order of Nine Angles
- Pharmakos
- The Golden Bough
- Purushamedha
FootnotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
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