What is Human Sacrifice?

 

 

Who ????

What ?????

When ??????

Where did this happen?????

So what’s all this talk about Human Sacrifice??

Well, Let me tell you about it!

What is Human Sacrifice?

Human Sacrifice is a ritualistic practice that often has religious connotations.  It is a custom that has traces throughout history and is not specific to only one area in the world. Instead, scholars find that the ritual of human sacrifice has been present in many different cultures, though the ceremony and beliefs following the practice are different.

Human Sacrificing is a topic that most individuals who are not exposed to, do not know much about. The very thought of killing another human being can quickly come off as exceedingly distant as well as evil. However, we must not be quick to judge the topic at hand. Instead we must look into this societal tradition with open eyes and find out information about how, when, or why human sacrifice is practiced. Figuring out this information is vital as human sacrifice is indeed a practice that has roots in several parts of the world. Since it is not autonomous to one particular environment, it provides a platform through which many different cultures around the world can be compared and through which such an interesting phenomenon can be analyzed.  Through this, many different cultures around the world are bound together. It is here that we can see the different religions and beliefs that cultures have on human sacrificing, for religion plays a large role in these ceremonies.

Religious Aspect

Though the world of the sacred is big in any type of ceremony that most societies perform, sacrifice is especially important in that it is done specifically with religious undertones in place. According to religious beliefs, sacrifice is similar to praying because it is a method of communication. The word sacrifice means, “to make holy”. Therefore those who are performing the sacrifice are doing so in the name of their religion. Those who sacrifice goods, tools or animals are doing so to please some form of higher society, most often different religious deities. These sacrifices or offerings are preformed to gain the favor of the gods. This is because rituals are often seen as a platform of communication between the mortal and immortal world and therefore regarded as an important way in which a society can function. Individuals who engaged in these sacrifices were considered bold for daring to approach the gods who created, sustained, and destroyed life.

“According to ancient rites of sacrifice, the sacrificial animal or human should be of high value.”

By sacrificing an individual with high value it showed how vested the individual was to the god.  If an offering was of low value it would have been deemed as disrespectful. A low offering would be considered an ill or substandard being. Within Old Testament tradition, Abel obeyed the ancient tradition when he sacrificed the firstborn of his herds to God. Over 5,000 years ago, Bulls were sacred to Egyptians, being associated with Taurus, a god with both animal and human features. For Egyptians, the sacrifice of a bull was the gift of a demigod to the gods. In the years immediately preceding the emergence of Christianity some mystery cults switched from bull to human sacrifices, using the same ceremonies where the victim was first honored as a god, then put to bloody death. Osiris, the legendary Egyptian ruler who, murdered, became the god of fertility, cast a long shadow over these proceedings.

Sacrificing yourself put you in a higher category within society because you were chosen and therefore distinguished from the rest. The purpose of sacrificial offerings is to show your appreciation and respect for the society as well as the deities you worship.