Element contents
Sacrifice
Themes, Theories, and Controversies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2022
Summary
After over a century of grand theorizing about the universal dimensions to the practice of ritual sacrifice, scholars now question the analytical utility of the notion writ large. The word 'sacrifice' (Latin sacrificium) itself frequently is broken down into its Latin roots, sacer, sacred, and facere, to do or to make – to do or to make sacred – which is a huge category and also vague. Presuming it is people and places that are made sacred, we must question the dynamics. Does sacrifice 'make sacred' by summoning the presence of gods or ancestors? By offering gifts to them? By dining with them? By restoring or establishing cosmic order? By atoning for personal or collective sins? By rectifying social disequilibrium through scapegoating? By inducing an existential epiphany about life and death? While this short Element cannot cover all complexities and practices, it does treat critically some prominent themes, theories, and controversies concerning sacrifice, from ancient to present times.
Keywords
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781108997041Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 28 July 2022
References
Aijmer, Göran. 2000. “Introduction: The Idiom of Violence in Imagery and Discourse.” In Meanings of Violence: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Edited by Jon Abbink and Göran Aijmer. Berg. 1–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alcorta, Candace, and Sosis, Richard. 2005. “Ritual, Emotion, and Sacred Symbols.” Human Nature 16(4):323–359.Google Scholar
Arnold, Bill, and Beyer, Bryan. 2002. Readings from the Ancient Near East. Baker Academic.Google Scholar
Autenrieth, George. 1958. A Homeric Dictionary. Translated by Robert P. Keep. Revised by Isaac Flagg. University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Bakker, Egbert, and Fabbricotti, Florence. 1991. “Peripheral and Nuclear Semantics in Homeric Diction.” Mnemosyne 44:63–84.Google Scholar
Barton, Carlin A. 1994. “Savage Miracles: The Redemption of Lost Honor in Roman Society and the Sacrament of the Gladiator and the Martyr.” Representations 45:41–71.Google Scholar
Barton, Carlin A. 2002. “Honor and Sacredness in the Roman and Christian Worlds.” In Sacrificing the Self: Perspectives on Martyrdom and Religion. Edited by Cormack, Margaret. Oxford University Press. 23–38.Google Scholar
Beidelman, Thomas O. 1997. The Cool Knife: Imagery of Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Education in Kaguru Initiation Ritual. Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Bellah, Robert N. 2005. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 134(4):40–55. www.jstor.org/stable/20028013Google Scholar
Benn, James A. 2007. Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Bickerman, Daniel R. 1976. “Couper une alliance.” Studies in Jewish and Christian History, Vol. 1. Brill. 1–32.Google Scholar
Bloch, Maurice. 1989. Ritual, History and Power: Selected Papers in Anthropology. Berg.Google Scholar
Bonnechere, Pierre. 2013. Le sacrifice humain dans la pensée grecque. Presses universitaires de Liége. Kernos suppléments. https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1041Google Scholar
Bremmer, Jan N. 1983. “Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87:299–320.Google Scholar
Bremmer, Jan N. 2007. “Myth and Ritual in Greek Human Sacrifice: Lykaon, Polyxena, and the Case of the Rhodian Criminal.” In The Strange World of Human Sacrifice. Edited by Bremmer, . Peeters. 55–77.Google Scholar
Burkert, Walter. 1987. “The Problem of Ritual Killing.” In Violent Origins: Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Edited by Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G.. Stanford University Press. 149–190.Google Scholar
Burkert, Walter. 1996. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Burkert, Walter. 2013. “Sacrificial Violence: A Problem in Ancient Religions.” In Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. Edited by Juergensmeyer, Mark, Kitts, Margo, and Jerryson, Michael. Oxford University Press. 437–453.Google Scholar
Cairns, Douglas L. 2001. “Introduction.” In Oxford Readings in Homer’s Iliad. Edited by Cairns., Douglas L. Oxford University Press. 1–56.Google Scholar
Cairns, Douglas L. 2003. “Ethics, Ethology, Terminology: Iliadic Anger and the Cross-Cultural Study of Emotion.” In Ancient Anger, Perspectives from Homer to Galen. Edited by Braund, Susanna and Most, Glenn W.. Cambridge University Press. 11–50.Google Scholar
Carrasco, David. 2013. “Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions.” In Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. Edited by Juergensmeyer, Mark, Kitts, Margo, and Jerryson, Michael. Oxford University Press. 208–225.Google Scholar
Cobb, L. Stephanie. 2008. Dying to Be Men: Gender and Language in Early Christian Martyr Texts. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cobb, L. Stephanie. 2017. Divine Deliverance: Pain and Painlessness in Early Christian Martyr Texts. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520293359.001.0001Google Scholar
Collins, Adela Yarbro. 1994. “From Noble Death to Crucified Messiah.” New Testament Studies 40:491–503.Google Scholar
Connelly, Joan Benton. 2007. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Considine, Patrick. 1969. “The Theme of Divine Wrath in Ancient East Mediterranean Literature.” Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 8:85–159.Google Scholar
Daly, Robert J. 2003(1990). “The Power of Sacrifice in Ancient Judaism and Christianity.” In Understanding Religious Sacrifice: A Reader. Edited by Carter, Jeffrey. Bloomsbury. 342–356.Google Scholar
Daly, Robert J. 2009. Sacrifice Unveiled: The True Meaning of Christian Sacrifice. Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Detienne, Marcel, and Vernant, Jean-Pierre. 1978. Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society. Translated by Lloyd, Janet. Harvester Press Limited.Google Scholar
Detienne, Marcel, and Vernant, Jean-Pierre. 1989. The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dolce, Rita. 2017. Losing One’s Head in the Ancient Near East: Interpretation and Meaning of Decapitation. Routledge.Google Scholar
Droge, Arthur J., and Tabor, James D.. 1992. A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity. Harper San Francisco.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 2001. Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by Carol Cosman. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eberhart, Christian. 2011. Ritual and Metaphor: Sacrifice in the Bible. Society of Biblical Literature. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.31351Google Scholar
Faraone, Christopher. 2019. “Animal-Effigies in Ancient Curses: The Role of Gender, Age and Natural Behavior in Their Selection.” Mediterraneo Antico 22(1–2): 307–334.Google Scholar
Fenech, Louis E. 2018. “The Tropics of Heroic Death: Martyrdom and the Sikh Tradition.” In Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide. Edited by Kitts, Margo. Oxford University Press. 205–225.Google Scholar
Ferguson, R. Brian. 2006. “Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, and the Origins and Intensifications of War.” In Archaeology of Warfare: Prehistories of Raiding and Conquest. Edited by Arkush, Elizabeth N. and Allen, Mark W.. University of Florida Press. 469–523.Google Scholar
Fernandez, James W. 1977. “The Performance of Ritual Metaphors.” In Social Use of Metaphor. Edited by Sapir, J. David and Crocker, J. Christopher. University of Pennsylvania Press. 100–131.Google Scholar
Frazer, James George. 1951. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Vol. 1, abridged. MacMillan.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1946(1918). Totem and Taboo. Translated by A. A. Brills. Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1961(1927). Future of an Illusion. Translated by Strachey. W. W. Norton and Company. https://archive.org/stream/sigmund-freud-the-future-of-an-illusion/sigmund-freud-the-future-of-an-illusion_djvu.txtGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 2000(1983). Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gilders, William K. n.d. “Sacrifice in Ancient Israel.” www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/sacrifice-in-ancient-israelGoogle Scholar
Girard, René. 1977. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Girard, René. 1987. Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World. Translated by Bann, Stephen and Metteer, Michael. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Girard, René. 2011. Breakthroughs in Mimetic Theory: Sacrifice. Translated by Matthew Pattillo and David Dawson. Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Girard, René. 2014a. Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture: One by Whom Scandal Comes. Translated by M. B. DeBevoise. Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Girard, René. 2014b. Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture: When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer. Translated by Trevor Cribben Merrill. Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Gorski, Philip. 2017. American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Graziano, Frank. 2006(1999). The Millennial New World. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195124324.001.0001Google Scholar
Griffiths, Alan H. 2016. “Tantalus.” Oxford Classical Dictionary Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6218Google Scholar
Grig, Lucy. 2002. “Torture and Truth in Late Antique Martyrology.” Early Medieval Europe 2(4): 321–336.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, Cristiano. 1988. “Uccidere, donare, mangiare.” In Sacrificio e societá nel mondo antico. Edited by Grottanelli, Cristiano and Parese, Nicola F.. Laterza. 3–53.Google Scholar
Haider, Najam. 2018. “The Death of Mūsā al-Kāzim (d.183/799): Knowledge and Suicide in Early Twelver Shī‘ism.” In Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide. Edited by Kitts, Margo. Oxford University Press. 106–125.Google Scholar
Hamerton-Kelly, Robertson G., editor. 1987. Violent Origins. Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hengel, Martin. 1977. Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross. Translated by John Bowden. Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Hengel, Martin. 1981. Atonement: The Origins of the Doctrine in the New Testament. Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Henrichs, Albert. 2000. “Drama and Dromena: Bloodshed, Violence, and Sacrificial Metaphor in Euripides.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100:173–188.Google Scholar
Heesterman, Johannes C. 1984. “Non-violence and Sacrifice.” Indologica Taurinensia 12:119–127.Google Scholar
Heesterman, Johannes C. 1993. The Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay in Ancient Indian Ritual. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Howes, David. 2011. “Sensation.” Material Religion 7(1):92–98. https://doi.org/10.2752/175183411X12968355482178Google Scholar
Hubert, Henri, and Mauss, Marcel. 1968. Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huffman, Carl. 2015. “Pythagoras.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition). Edited by Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/pythagorasGoogle Scholar
Insoll, Timothy. 2012. “Sacrifice.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion. Edited by Timothy Insoll. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232444.013.0063Google Scholar
Janko, Richard. 1992. The Iliad: A Commentary. Vol. IV: Books 13–16. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Janzen, David. 2020. “Sin and Expiation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Balentine, Samuel E.. Oxford University Press. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.013.17Google Scholar
Jay, Nancy. 1992. Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice, Religion, and Paternity. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, Adolf E. 1963(1951). Myth and Cult among Primitive Peoples. Translated by Marianna Tax Choldin and Wolfgang Weissleder. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark, and Kitts, Margo, editors. 2011. Princeton Readings in Religion and Violence. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Katz, Marilyn A. 1992. “Ox-Slaughter and Goring Oxen: Homicide, Animal Sacrifice, and Judicial Process.” Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 4 (2)(3). 249–278http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol4/iss2/3Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2002. “Sacrificial Violence in the Iliad.” Journal of Ritual Studies 16:19–39.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2005. Sanctified Violence in Homeric Society. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2008. “Funeral Sacrifices and Ritual Leitmotifs in Iliad 23.” In Transformations in Sacrificial Practices, Performanzen Band 15. Edited by Stavrianopoulou, E. et al. LIT-Verlag. 217–240.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2010. “Poinē As a Ritual Leitmotif in the Iliad.” State, Power and Violence. Vol. 3 of Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Edited by Kitts, Margo, et al. General editor Axel Michaels. Harrassowitz. 7–31.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2015. “Anthropology and the Iliad.” In Ashgate Research Companion to Anthropology. Edited by Stewart, Pamela and Strathern, Andrew. Ashgate Press. 389–410.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2016. “Mimetic Theory, Sacrifice, and the Iliad?” Bulletin of Religious Studies 45(3).Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2017. “Discursive, Iconic and Somatic Perspectives on Ritual.” Journal of Ritual Studies 31(1):11–26.Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2018a. Elements of Ritual and Violence. Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/core/elements/elements-of-ritual-and%20violence/E4D15686F2A18B38E141EA16C9336BB5Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2018b. “The Martys and Spectacular Death: From Homer to the Roman Arena.” Journal of Religion and Violence 6(2):267–294. www.pdcnet.org/jrv/onlinefirstGoogle Scholar
Kitts, Margo. 2022. “Contemporary Perspectives on Religion and Violence.” In Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Vol. 4. Edited by Kurtz, L. R.. Elsevier Academic Press. 276–286. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820195-4.00236-3.ISBN:9780128201954Google Scholar
Kitts, Margo, editor. 2018c. Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/martyrdom-self-sacrifice-and-self-immolation-9780190656485?cc=us&lang=en&Google Scholar
Klawans, Jonathan. 2001. “Pure Violence: Sacrifice and Defilement in Ancient Israel.” Harvard Theological Review 94(2):133–155.Google Scholar
Kramer, Ross, editor. 2004. Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levenson, Jon D. 1993. The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Luckenbill, Daniel David. 1968(1926). Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mack, Burton. 1987. “Introduction: Religion and Ritual.” In Violent Origins: Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Edited by Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G.. Stanford University Press. 1–70.Google Scholar
March, Jenny. 2015. “Atreus.” Oxford Classical Dictionary Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.941Google Scholar
Marvin, Carolyn, and Ingle, David W.. 1996. “Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64(4):767–780.Google Scholar
Mauss, Marcel. 1973(1935). “Techniques of the Body.” Economy and Society 2(1):70–87. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085147300000003Google Scholar
Mayor, Adrienne. 2015. “Warrior Women: The Myth and Reality of the Amazons.” Council on Foreign Relations. May 6. www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-06-05/adrienne-mayor-amazonsGoogle Scholar
McCarty, Matthew M. 2019. “The Tophet and Infant Sacrifice.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Edited by Carolina López-Ruiz and Brian Doak. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190499341.013.21Google Scholar
McClymond, Kathryn. 2002. “Death Be Not Proud: Reevaluating the Role of Killing in Sacrifice.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 6(2):221–242.Google Scholar
McClymond, Kathryn. 2008. Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice. John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Morinis, Alan. 1985. “The Ritual Experience: Pain and the Transformation of Consciousness in Ordeals of Initiation.” Ethos 13(2):150–174.Google Scholar
Moss, Candida R. 2010. The Other Christs: Imitating Jesus in Ancient Christian Ideologies of Martyrdom. Oxford Scholarship Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.001.0001Google Scholar
Naiden, F. S. 2020. “Violent Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds.” In Cambridge World History of Violence: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Edited by Fagan, Garret G., Fibiger, Linda, Hudson, Mark, and Trundle, Matthew. Cambridge University Press. 475–492. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316341247Google Scholar
Nasrallah, Laura. 2012. “The Embarrassment of Blood.” In Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice. Edited by Knust, Jennifer Wright and Varhelyi, Zsuzsanna. Oxford University Press. 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738960.003.0007Google Scholar
Otto, Rudolf. 1958(1923). The Idea of the Holy. Translated by John W. Harvey. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Page, T. E., and Rouse, W. H. D., editors. 1961. The Odes of Pindar, Including the Principal Fragments. Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar
Palaver, Wolfgang. 2021. Transforming the Sacred into Saintliness. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parpola, Asko. 2007. “Human Sacrifice in India in Vedic Times and Before.” In The Strange World of Human Sacrifice. Edited by Bremmer. Peeters. 157–177.Google Scholar
Parpola, Simo, and Watanabe, Kazuko, editors. 1988. State Archives of Assyria, Vol II: Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project and the Helsinki Press.Google Scholar
Pirenne-Delforge, Vinciane. 2007. “‘Something to do with Aphrodite’: Ta Aphrodisia and the Sacred.” In A Companion to Greek Religion. Edited by Ogden, Daniel. Wiley. 311–322.Google Scholar
Pollock, Susan. 2007. “Death of a Household.” In Performing Death. Edited by Laneri, Nicola. University of Chicago. 209–222.Google Scholar
Pongratz-Leisten, Beate. 2007. “Ritual Killing and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East.” In Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition. Edited by Finsterbusch, Karin, Lange, Armin, and Römheld, Diethard. Brill. 3–33.Google Scholar
Pongratz-Leisten, Beate. 2012. “Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East: Offering and Ritual Killing.” In Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Porter, Anne and Schwartz, Glenn M.. Eisenbrauns. 291–304.Google Scholar
Rappaport, Roy A. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. 1973. “The Model of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered As a Text.” New Literary History 5(1):91–117.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. 1981. “The Metaphorical Process As Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling.” Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor. Edited by Johnson, Mark. University of Minnesota Press. 228–247. Reprinted from Critical Inquiry 5(1) (1978):143–159.Google Scholar
Salimbetti, Andrea. 2021. “The Greek Age of Bronze: Body Shields.” www.salimbeti.com/micenei/shields1.htmGoogle Scholar
Scheid, John. 2015. “Sacrifice, Roman.” Oxford Classical Dictionary. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5657Google Scholar
Schonthal, Benjamin. 2018. “The Meanings of Sacrifice: The LTTE, Suicide, and the Limits of the Religion Question.” In Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide. Edited by Kitts, Margo. Oxford University Press. 226–240.Google Scholar
Schultz, Celia E. 2010. “The Romans and Ritual Murder.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78(2):516–541. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfq002Google Scholar
Schwartz, Glen M. 2012. “Archaeology and Sacrifice.” In Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Anne Porter and Glenn M. Schwartz. Eisenbrauns. 1–32.Google Scholar
Shaw, Brent D. 1996. “Body/Power/Identity: Passions of the Martyrs.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 4(3):269–312. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.1996.0037Google Scholar
Shelach, Gideon. 1996. “The Qiang and the Question of Human Sacrifice in the Late Shang Period.” Asian Perspectives 35(1):1–26.Google Scholar
Shepkaru, Shmuel. 2002. “To Die for God: Martyrs’ Heaven in Hebrew and Latin Crusade Narratives.” Speculum 77(2):311–341.Google Scholar
Siebers, Tobin. 2003. “The Return to Ritual: Violence and Art in the Media Age.” Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory 5(1):9–33.Google Scholar
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. “Bare Facts of Ritual.” In Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. University of Chicago Press. 53–65.Google Scholar
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1987. “The Domestication of Sacrifice.” In Violent Origins: Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Edited by Hamerton-Kelly, Robert. Stanford University Press. 191–205.Google Scholar
Smith, Mark S. 2001/2003. “The Life and Death of Baal.” In The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. Edited by Mark S. Smith. Oxford Scholarship Online. 1–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/019513480X.001.0001Google Scholar
Spencer, Herbert. 2003(1882). The Principles of Sociology: Vol. I. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Excerpted in Carter, Jeffrey, ed. 2003. Understanding Religious Sacrifice: A Reader. Bloomsbury Publishing. 39–51.Google Scholar
Stromsa, Guy G. 2015. “The End of Sacrifice.” In The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity. Oxford Scholarship Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198738862.001.0001Google Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1979. “A Performative Approach to Ritual.” In Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 65. Oxford University Press. 113–169.Google Scholar
Ter Haar, Barend. 2019. Religious Culture and Violence in Traditional China. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tse, Wicky. 2020. “Violence and Warfare in Early Imperial China.” In The Cambridge World History of Violence: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Edited by Fagan, Garret G., Fibiger, Linda, Hudson, Mark, and Trundle, Matthew. Cambridge University Press. 277–297.Google Scholar
Tylor, Edward Burnett. 2003. “Edward Burnett Tylor (b. 1832).” In Understanding Religious Sacrifice: A Reader. Edited by Carter, Jeffrey. Bloomsbury. 23–38.Google Scholar
Van Straten, F. T. 1995. Hiera Kala: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece. Brill.Google Scholar
Vasquez, Manuel A. 2011. More than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vernant, Pierre. 1978. “Introduction” to Detienne, Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Vernant, Pierre. 1989. “At Man’s Table: Hesiod’s Foundation Myth of Sacrifice.” In The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks. Edited by Detienne, Marcel and Vernant, Pierre. Translated by Wissing, Paul. University of Chicago Press. 21–86.Google Scholar
Versnel, H. S. 2015. “Devotio.” Oxford Classical Dictionary. Editor in Chief, Tim Whitmarsh. Oxford University Press. 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.2134.Google Scholar
Visser, Edzard. 1988. “Formulae or Single Words? Towards a New Theory on Homeric Verse-Making.” Würzburger Jarbücher für die Altertumswissenchaft 14:21–37.Google Scholar
Walsh, Thomas R. 2005. Fighting Words and Feuding Words: Studies in the Semantics of Anger in Homeric Poetry. Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Wang, Ping. 2008. “Methods of Killing Human Sacrifice in Shang-Dynasty Oracle-Bone Inscriptions.” minima sinica 20(1):11–29.Google Scholar
Watts, James W. 2006. “’ōlāh: The Rhetoric of Burnt Offerings.” Vetus Testamentum 56:1 (Jan. 2006):125–137.Google Scholar
Weinfeld, Moshe. 1990. “The Common Heritage of Covenantal Traditions in the Ancient World.” In I Trattati nel mondo antico, forma, ideologia, funzione. Edited by Canfora, Luciano, Liverani, Mario, and Zaccagnini, Carlo. L’Erinna di Bretschneider. 17–191.Google Scholar
West, Martin L. 2011a. “Analysts.” In The Homer Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Edited byt Finkelberg, Margalit. Wiley-Blackwell. 47–50.Google Scholar
West, Martin L. 2011b. “Unitarians.” In The Homer Encyclopedia, Vol. 3. Edited by Finkelberg, Margalit. Wiley-Blackwell. 911–913.Google Scholar
Willerslev, Rane, Vitebsky, Piers, and Alekseyev, Anatoly. 2015. “Sacrifice As the Ideal Hunt: A Cosmological Explanation for the Origin of Reindeer Domestication.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21(1):1–23. www.jstor.org/stable/43907808Google Scholar
Wilson, Donna. 2002. Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yates, Robin C. S. 2013. “Human Sacrifice and the Rituals of War in Early China.” In Sacrifices humains: Perspectives croisées et représentations [online]. University Press of Liege. 153–173. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pulg.8173Google Scholar
Yu, Jimmy. 2012. Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500–1700. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Froma I. 1965. “The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 96:463–508.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Froma I. 1966. “Postscript to Sacrificial Imagery in the Oresteia (Ag. 1235–37).” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 97:645–653.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Froma I. 1991. “Introduction.” In Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays. Edited by Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Princeton University Press. 3–24.Google Scholar
- 5
- Cited by