The Role of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East
Author: Alberto Ravinell Whitney Green
Publisher:
Published: 1975
Total Pages: 412
ISBN-13:
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Sacred Killing
Author: Anne Porter
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2012-09-17
Total Pages: 337
ISBN-13: 1575066769
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →What is sacrifice? How can we identify it in the archaeological record? And what does it tell us about the societies that practice it? Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East investigates these and other questions through the evidence for human and animal sacrifice in the Near East from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic periods. Drawing on sociocultural anthropology and history in addition to archaeology, the book also includes evidence from ancient China and a riveting eyewitness account and analysis of sacrifice in contemporary India, which engage some of the key issues at stake. Sacred Killing vividly presents a variety of methods and theories in the study of one of the most profound and disturbing ritual activities humans have ever practiced.
Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel
Author: Heath D. Dewrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2017-05-23
Total Pages: 253
ISBN-13: 1646022017
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.
Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East
Author: Jan Quaegebeur
Publisher: Peeters
Published: 1993
Total Pages: 590
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The volume contains 30 contributions to the theme of Ritual and Sacrifice in Ancient Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and South Arabia, ranging from early historical to Roman times. These are revised and sometimes enlarged versions of papers read at the International Conference on Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, held in Leuven from 17-20 April 1991 to celebrate the centenary of academic teaching of Ancient Near Eastern languages at the KULeuven. The papers are written in English, French and Germand and sometimes illustrated; by their diversity they reflect the richness of international scholarship related to Ancient Near Eastern religious thinking and practice.
Human Sacrifice
Author: Laerke Recht
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-12-20
Total Pages: 198
ISBN-13: 1108687776
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →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.
Greek Myth and Religion
Author: Albert Henrichs
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Published: 2019-08-05
Total Pages: 632
ISBN-13: 3110449242
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This volume contains the collected papers of Albert Henrichs on numerous subjects in ancient Greek myth and religion. What was ancient Greek religion really like? What is the reality of belief and action that lies behind the unwieldy sources, which stem from vast areas and epochs of the ancient world? What is the meaning, intended and otherwise, of religious action and speech in ancient Greece? Who were the Greek gods, how were they worshipped, and how were they viewed by those who worshipped them? One of the leading students of ancient Greek religion over the past five decades, Albert Henrichs, the Eliot Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard University, combines wide and deep learning, a pragmatic, incisive approach to the sources, and an apt use of comparative perspectives. Henrichs breaks new ground in discussing sacrifice, libation, cultic identity, religious action and speech, epiphany, and the personalities of the gods. Special attention is devoted to ancient Greek sources on the ancient Persian prophet Mani, founder of Manichaeism. As a group, Albert Henrichs’ papers on Greek religion offer a basic education on Greek myth and religion and constitute a blueprint for serious study of the subject.
Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition
Author: Karin Finsterbusch
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2018-08-14
Total Pages: 380
ISBN-13: 904740940X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The present volume asks to which extent ancient practices and traditions of human sacrifice are reflected in medieval and modern Judeo-Christian times and also includes contributions concerned with the Ancient Near East and Ancient Greece.
Violence and the Sacred in the Ancient Near East
Author: Ian Hodder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-03-14
Total Pages: 275
ISBN-13: 1108476023
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book is primarily for researchers and students in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. The volume results from intense interaction between archaeologists at these sites and a group of theorists studying the scholarship of René Girard.
King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice
Author: Francesca Stavrakopoulou
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2012-10-24
Total Pages: 424
ISBN-13: 3110899647
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Hebrew Bible portrays King Manasseh and child sacrifice as the most reprehensible person and the most objectionable practice within the story of 'Israel'. This monograph suggests that historically, neither were as deviant as the Hebrew Bible appears to insist. Through careful historical reconstruction, it is argued that Manasseh was one of Judah's most successful monarchs, and child sacrifice played a central role in ancient Judahite religious practice. The biblical writers, motivated by ideological concerns, have thus deliberately distorted the truth about Manasseh and child sacrifice.
Human Sacrifice and Value
Author: Sean O'Neill
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2023-10-26
Total Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 100098186X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →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.
