Sacrifice (redirected from sacrifice fly)

sacrifice [Lat. sacrificare=to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction.

The Nature of Sacrifice

Sacrifices may be performed on a regular basis, according to established patterns of daily, monthly, or seasonal acts, or on special occasions, notably at important times in an individual's life (birth, puberty, marriage, death), and in the face of extraordinary conditions. The purpose of the act is either to establish or sustain a proper relationship with the god or gods. Sacrifices may simply express homage and veneration, or they may give thanks for good fortune. Sacrifices of supplication are intended to provoke good fortune, and sacrifices of expiation are offered to appease the divine wrath kindled by humanity's transgression of other arrangements. Humans have been known to sacrifice anything that they have ever used or produced; the oblation may be left exposed; poured, if liquid, into the ground; or burned.

History

The Paleolithic evidence for sacrifice is unclear, and it has not been observed in contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. It has been observed, however, in pastoral and agricultural societies. In simpler societies, anyone is usually permitted to offer a sacrifice, but in more complex societies, this right is generally reserved for either a religious specialist or a person of high political rank. Often, the sacrificial cult is linked to the legitimacy of a king or emperor, as in classical Japan, China, Sumeria, Egypt, and Rome; sometimes, struggles for control over this cult lead to conflict between priests and kings.

Biblical accounts of sacrifice begin with Cain's sacrifice of the fruit of the ground, not acceptable to God, and Abel's rightful sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock. The release of Abraham from the vow to sacrifice Isaac has been read as an argument against human sacrifice in Hebrew tradition, evidenced elsewhere in the story of Jephthah's daughter. After their Temple was destroyed by Romans in A.D. 70, the Jewish sacrificial cult was replaced by other activities; among present-day Samaritans, however, the paschal lamb is still sacrificed at the time of the Passover. In the New Testament, the symbolization of Jesus by the sacrificial lamb is frequent. In the ancient liturgies, the Eucharist is regarded as a real continuation of this sacrifice of Calvary; hence Roman Catholics call the Mass "the holy sacrifice."

Other ancient cultures of the Middle East, Asia, and Europe also had religions with sacrificial rituals. Perhaps the most fully developed was that of the Vedic religion in India, as worked out in great detail in the Brahmanic texts (see Hinduism). The Maya and the Aztec developed a particularly bloody and elaborate ritual of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice in simpler forms (e.g., cannibalism, head-hunting, killing of prisoners) has also been widespread. The practice of human sacrifice is rare in recent years, although survivals do exist in some parts of the world, and even animal sacrifice has become widely reviled. In the United States, practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religions such as voodoo and Santería have been subject to law enforcement restrictions on animal sacrifice, but in 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was a constitutionally protected practice as a religious rite.

Bibliography

See R. J. Daly, Christian Sacrifice (1978); H. Hubert and M. Mauss, Sacrifice (tr. 1964, repr. 1981); M. I. Siddiqui, Animal Sacrifice in Islam (1981); W. Burkert, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (1983); U. M. Vesci, Heat and Sacrifice in the Vedas (1986); N. Davies, Human Sacrifice in History and Today (1988); P. Tierney, The Highest Altar: The Story of Human Sacrifice (1989).

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sacrifice

Act of offering objects to a divinity, thereby making them holy. The motivation for sacrifice is to perpetuate, intensify, or reestablish a connection between the human and the divine. It is often intended to gain the favour of the god or to placate divine wrath. The term has come to be applied specifically to blood sacrifice, which entails the death or destruction of the thing sacrificed (see human sacrifice). The sacrifice of fruits, flowers, or crops (bloodless sacrifice) is more often referred to as an offering.

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sacrifice

Chess the act or an instance of sacrificing a piece

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Sacrifice

See also Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice.

Adrammelech and Anammelech

Sepharvaite gods to whom children were immolated. [O.T.: II Kings 17:31]

Akedah

biblical account of God commanding Abraham’s offerings. [Jewish Hist.: Wigoder, 17]

Burghers of Calais

they sacrificed themselves to save city from British siege after Battle of Crécy (1346). [Fr. Hist.: EB, II: 447]

Idomeneus

Cretan king sacrifices his son to fulfill a vow. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 492]

Iphigenia

slain to appease Artemis’ wrath. [Gk. Myth.: Walsh Classical, 156]

Moloch

god to whom idolatrous Israelites immolated children. [O.T.: II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31–32, 32:35]

Moriah

site intended for Abraham’s offering up of Isaac. [O.T.: Genesis 22:2]

Norma

priestess betrays her vows and sacrifices herself in atonement. [Ital. Opera: Bellini Norma in Benét, 720]

Tophet

site of propitiatory immolations to god, Moloch. [O.T.: II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31–32]

suttee

former practice of self-immolation by widow on husband’s pyre. [Hinduism: Brewer Dictionary, 1049]

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Sacrifice 

an essential part of religious ritual, the offering of gifts to various spirits, deified objects, gods, and saints. There are several theories concerning its origins. Some scholars, including the Australian ethnologist W. B. Spencer, link sacrifices with the custom of feeding the dead. Others, such as the English ethnologist E. Tylor, view sacrifice as a traditional means of placating and propitiating the spirits. The Scottish scholar W. R. Smith suggests that its origins lie in the custom of group tribal feasts. Theories linking the ritual of sacrifice with a belief in the magical powers of sacrificed animals have also been advanced. The phenomenon of sacrifice is clearly complex, having a number of origins.

The most ancient forms of sacrifice include feeding the deceased and fetishes, propitiatory and redemptive sacrifices, the offering of firstfruits (the ritual removal of taboos that had been temporarily placed upon products of gathering or agriculture and the offspring of the livestock). With the growth of social inequality in slaveholding, feudal, and capitalistic societies, professional clergymen demanded from believers greater sacrifices to the spirits and gods. Out of this grew the custom of offering donations, sacrifices, and grants to temples and later to churches and monasteries. This led to the acquisition of vast holdings, which served as the church’s principal economic power, for example, in medieval Europe and Rus’.

Historically, an extremely wide variety of sacrifices have been known in all religions. They range from simple and harmless sprinklings or libations before eating and drinking in honor of the spirits and gods to bloody and cruel human sacrifices and hecatombs (the slaughter of 100 bulls) in antiquity. Particularly savage were the sacrifices of children in ancient Phoenicia and Carthage, religious suicides in India and Japan, and ritual castrations by the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor and by the Skoptsy in tsarist Russia. Consecration of the spirits of living animals, which is practiced in Siberia, as well as monasticism, religious asceticism, and fasting can also be considered as forms of sacrifice. Sacrificial ritual has appeared in modified forms—for example, symbolic sacrifices made of paper (in China) or the offering of votive objects. Vestiges of sacrifice continue to exist in modern religions; examples include the burning of votive candles and lamps, as well as the consecration of food.

REFERENCES

Tokarev, S. A. Rannie for my religii i ikh razvitie. Moscow, 1964.
Tokarev, S. A. Religiia v istorii narodov mira. Moscow, 1964.
Kazhdan, A. P. Religiia i ateizm v drevnem mire. Moscow, 1957.
Frazer, J. Zolotaia vetv’, issues 1–4. Moscow, 1928. (Translated from English.)
Shternberg, L. la. Pervobytnaia religiia v svete etnografii. Leningrad, 1936.

S. A. TOKAREV