Download or read book The Strange World of Human Sacrifice written by Jan N. Bremmer and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Strange World of Human Sacrifice is the first modern collection of studies on one of the most gruesome and intriguing aspects of religion. The volume starts with a brief introduction, which is followed by studies of Aztec human sacrifice and the literary motif of human sacrifice in medieval Irish literature. Turning to ancient Greece, three cases of human sacrifice are analysed: a ritual example, a mythical case, and one in which myth and ritual are interrelated. The early Christians were the victims of accusations of human sacrifice, but in turn imputed the crime to heterodox Christians, just as the Jews imputed the crime to their neighbours. The ancient Egyptians rarely seem to have practised human sacrifice, but buried the pharaoh's servants with him in order to serve him in the afterlife, albeit only for a brief period at the very beginning of pharaonic civilization. In ancient India we can follow the traditions of human sacrifice from the earliest texts up to modern times, where especially in eastern India goddesses, such as Kali, were long worshipped with human victims. In Japanese tales human sacrifice often takes the form of self-sacrifice, and there may well be a line from these early sacrifices to modern kamikaze. The last study throws a surprising light on human sacrifice in China. The volume is concluded with a detailed index

Download or read book Human Sacrifice written by Laerke Recht and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacrifice is not simply an expression of religious beliefs. Its highly symbolic nature lends itself to various kinds of manipulation by those carrying it out, who may use the ritual in maintaining and negotiating power and identity in carefully staged 'performances'. This Element will examine some of the many different types of sacrifice and ritual killing of human beings through history, from Bronze Age China and the Near East to Mesoamerica to Northern Europe. The focus is on the archaeology of human sacrifice, but where available, textual and iconographic sources provide valuable complements to the interpretation of the material.

Download or read book Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece written by Dennis D. Hughes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called pharmakoi are expelled yearly from Greek cities, and according to some authors they are killed; Locrin girls are hunted down and slain by the Trojans; on Mt Lykaion children are sacrificed and consumed by the worshippers; and many other texts report human sacrifices performed regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war and plague. Archaeologists have frequently proposed human sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries: from Minoan Crete children's bones with knife-cut marks, the skeleton of a youth lying on a platform with a bronze blade resting on his chest, skeletons, sometimes bound, in the dromoi of Mycenaean and Cypriot chamber tombs; and dual man-woman burials, where it is suggested that the woman was slain or took her own life at the man's funeral. If the archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of the religious life of the ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well into historical times. But the author expresses caution. In many cases alternative, if less sensational, explanations of the archaeological are possible; and it can often be shown that human sacrifices in the literary texts are mythical or that late authors confused mythical details with actual practices.Whether the evidence is accepted or not, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into the religious thought of the ancient Greeks and into changing modern conceptions of their religious behaviour.

Download or read book Blood Sacrifices written by Robert J. Bunker and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2016-05-21 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blood Sacrifices contributors: Dawn Perlmutter, Ph.D. Robert J. Bunker, Ph.D. Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D. Paul Rexton Kan, Ph.D. Lt.Col. Lisa J. Campbell, B.A., SME Beheadings Tony M. Kail, B.A., SME Esoteric Religions Pamela Ligouri Bunker, M.Litt., M.A. Charles Cameron, B.A., SME Religious Violence SA Andrew Bringuel, II, M.A., SME Criminal Extremism Jose de Arimateia da Cruz, Ph.D. Mark Safranski, M.A., M.Ed. Alma Keshavarz, M.P.P., Ph.D. Student Pauletta Otis, Ph.D. The acknowledgment that blood sacrifice, particularly human sacrifice, actively occurs in the 21st century is a pivotal triumph in scholarly research. Twenty years ago, this book could not have been published. In most universities, think tanks, and government research facilities, characterizing any type of murder as sacrificial was viewed at best as a secondary motive and at worst as junk science. - Dr. Dawn Perlmutter

Download or read book Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice written by Garry Hogg and published by Nonsuch Publishing, Limited. This book was released on 2007 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a record of the barbaric and grisly phenomenon of cannibalism, the practice of which has been recorded throughout history in almost every part of the world. This book provides an account of the primitive customs reported by travellers and anthropologists amongst the peoples of the Pacific Islands, South America, Africa, and other places.

Download or read book Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice written by Jennifer Wright Knust and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation of the multiple meanings and functions of sacrifice in diverse religious texts and practices from the late Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods.

Download or read book Human Sacrifice and Value written by Sean O'Neill and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-26 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume was made possible by the Norwegian Research Council’s generous funding of the Human Sacrifice and Value project (FRIPROHUMSAM 275947). It explores concepts of human sacrifice. This volume explores concepts of human sacrifice, focusing on its value – or multiplicity of values – in relative cultural and temporal terms, whether sacrifice is expressed in actual killings, in ideas revolving around ritualized, sanctioned or sanctified violence or loss, or in transformed and (often sublimated) undertakings. Bridging a wide variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, it analyses a spectrum of sacrificial logics and actions, daring us to rethink the scholarship of sacrifice by considering the oft hidden, subliminal and even paradoxical values and motivations that underlie sacrificial acts. The chapters give needed attention to pivotal questions in studies of sacrifice and ritualized violence – such as how we might employ new approaches to the existing evidence or revise long-debated theories about what exactly ‘human sacrifice’ is or might be, or why human sacrifice seems to emerge so often and so easily in human social experience across time and in vastly different cultures and historical contexts. Thus, the volume will strike a chord with scholars of sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, religious studies, political science and economics –wherever interest is focused on critically rethinking questions of sacred and sanctified human violence, and the values that make it what it is.

Download or read book The Social World of Deuteronomy written by Don C Benjamin and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book of Deuteronomy is not an orphan. It belongs to a diverse family of legal traditions and cultures in the world of the Bible. The Social World of Deuteronomy: A New Feminist Commentary brings these traditions and cultures to life and uses them to enrich our understanding and appreciation of Deuteronomy today. Don C. Benjamin uses social-scientific criticism to reconstruct the social institutions where Deuteronomy developed, as well as those that appear in its traditions. He uses feministcriticism to better understand and appreciate how powerful elite males in Deuteronomy view not only the women, daughters, mothers, wives and widows in their households but also their powerless children, liminal people, slaves, prisoners, outsiders, livestock and nature. Through the lens of feminist theory, Benjamin explores important aspects of the daily lives of these often overlooked peoples in ancient Israel.

Download or read book Isaac Iphigeneia and Ignatius written by Monika Pesthy-Simon and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the meaning of the martyr’s sacrifice? Is it true that the martyr imitates Christ? After the “one and eternal” sacrifice of Jesus why are from time to time new (and often quite numerous) sacrifices necessary? What is the underlying concept concerning the divinity? How do these ideas survive in present times? These are the kind of questions behind the inquiries in this monograph. The author investigates martyrdom as a (voluntary) human sacrifice and wishes to demonstrate how human sacrifice has been turned into martyrdom. The two emblematic figures of this transformation are Iphigeneia and Isaac. Pesthy argues that all the peoples in the environment in which Christianity came into being are characterized by a very ambiguous and hypocritical attitude toward human sacrifice: while in theory they condemn it as barbarian and belonging to bygone times, in concrete cases they accept, admire and practice it. The same attitude survives in Christianity in which martyrs replace the human sacrifice of olden days: they are real sacrifices, not symbolical ones. Our feelings about martyrs can be very different: we may admire their unbending courage and heroism or be irritated by their stubbornness, or even feel disgusted at the fanaticism with which they strove for death. But whatever our feelings may be, we must admit that a very strong motivation is needed to accept voluntarily or even seek death (and, in the majority of cases, a very painful death at that).

Download or read book The World of Greek Religion and Mythology written by Jan N. Bremmer and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging work on Greek religion and mythology, Jan N. Bremmer brings together his stimulating and innovative articles, which have all been updated and revised where necessary. In three thematic sections, he analyses central aspects of Greek religion, beginning with the gods and heroes and paying special attention to the unity of the divine nature and the emergence of the category 'hero'. The second section begins with a discussion of the nature of polis religion, continues with various facets, such as seers, secrecy and the soul, and concludes with the influence of the Ancient Near East. The third section studies human sacrifice and offers the most recent analysis of the ideal animal sacrifice, combining literature, epigraphy, iconography, and zooarchaeology. Regarding human sacrifice, it concentrates on the famous cases of Iphigeneia and the werewolves of Mount Lykaion. The fourth and final section investigates key elements of Greek mythology, such as the definition of myth and its relationship to ritual, and ends with a brief history of the study of Greek mythology. The multi-disciplinary approach and rich footnotes make this work a must for anybody interested in Greek religion and mythology.

Download or read book Intolerance Polemics and Debate in Antiquity written by George H. van Kooten and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation in the ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and early-Islamic world are discussed. The contributions enquire into the boundaries between debate, polemics, and intolerance, and address their manifestations in both philosophy and religion.

Download or read book Sacrifice and Gender in Biblical Law written by Nicole J. Ruane and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the Hebrew Bible's numerous laws about sacrificial procedure to understand the significance of gender in sacrificial rituals and the reasons that gender distinctions are so vital in these acts. Gender selection of both victims and participants is an intrinsic aspect of the nature and purpose of each rite, affecting its form and function, as well as its legitimacy. Sacrifice and Gender in Biblical Law considers the laws of the firstborn, the rite of the red cow, laws of slaughter, rituals of purification, and other offerings. It shows that these laws regulate material wealth and contribute to the construction of social roles.

Download or read book The Parthenon Enigma written by Joan Breton Connelly and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book and one of The Daily Beast's Best Books of the Year Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Since the Enlightenment, the Parthenon—the greatest example of Athenian architecture—has been venerated as the definitive symbol of Western democratic values. Here, Joan Breton Connelly challenges this conventional wisdom, drawing on previously undiscovered sources to present a revolutionary new view of this peerless building. Reaching back across time to trace the Parthenon’s story from the laying of its foundation, Connelly finds its true meaning not in the rationalist ideals we typically associate with Athens but in a vast web of ceaseless cultic observances and a unique mythic identity, in which democracy in our sense of the word would have been inconceivable. Marshalling a breathtaking range of textual and visual evidence, and full of fresh insights woven into a thrilling narrative that brings the distant past to life, The Parthenon Enigma sheds a stunning new light on the ancient Athenians from whom we claim cultural descent—and on Western civilization itself.

Download or read book Greek and Roman Animal Sacrifice written by Christopher A. Faraone and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first general critique of the interpretations of animal sacrifice established by Walter Burkert, the late J.-P. Vernant, and Marcel Detienne.

Download or read book Head and Heart written by Mary Storm and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-12 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extensive study of self-sacrificial images in Indian art, this book examines concepts such as head-offering, human sacrifice, blood, suicide, valour, self-immolation, and self-giving in the context of religion and politics to explore why these images were produced and how they became paradigms of heroism.

Download or read book Greek Religion and Culture the Bible and the Ancient Near East written by Jan N. Bremmer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book greatly enhances our knowledge of the interrelationship of Greek religion & culture and the Ancient Near East by offering important analyses of Greek myths, divinities and terms like a ~magica (TM) and 'paradise', but also of the Greek contribution to the Christian notion of atonement.

Download or read book Diversity of Sacrifice written by Carrie Ann Murray and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-05-09 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "sacrifice" belies what is a complex and varied transhistorical and transcultural phenomenon. Bringing together scholars from such diverse fields as anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy, literature, and theology, Diversity of Sacrifice explores sacrificial practices across a range of contexts from prehistory to the present. Incorporating theory, material culture, and textual evidence, the volume seeks to consider new and divergent data related to contexts of sacrifice that can help broaden our field of vision while raising new questions. The essays contributed here move beyond reductive and simple explanations to explore complex areas of social interaction. Sacrifice plays a key role in the overlapping sacred and secular spheres for a number of societies in the past and present. How religious beliefs and practices can be integral parts of life on individual and community levels is of fundamental importance to understanding the past and present. In addition to aiding scholarly research, Diversity of Sacrifice enables students to explore this rich theme across Europe and the Mediterranean with clear discussions of theory and data.