Topic: 2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century)
Religious sacrifices across various cultures and contexts sparked widespread interest in Early Modern Europe. As Christianity expanded into regions inhabited by "infidels" and "pagans", Europeans encountered a diverse array of sacrificial customs, ranging from the Sati rituals in India to the Aztec sacrifices in the Americas. This cross-cultural exposure captivated a wide audience, including theologians, philosophers, political thinkers, antiquarians, orientalists, missionaries, poets, artists, and even the general public. These encounters broadened the European understanding of sacrifice and led to a critical reassessment of classical and biblical sacrificial rites. This section includes:
- Sources: A selection of early modern printed materials, which include descriptions of the Americas, Asia, and Africa, alongside antiquarian and philological studies on religious sacrifice in classical antiquity and beyond. It also presents early modern works of ethnological observations and the first attempts to compare different sacrificial practices in various traditions and contexts, laying the groundwork for disciplines like the history of religions and anthropology.
- Iconographic Representations: A rich collection of images from the 16th to 18th centuries, illustrating a range of sacrificial rituals and practices as seen in different cultural and geographical contexts.
- Related Bibliography: An extensive bibliography spanning scholarly works from the 19th to 21st centuries, providing contemporary analyses and interpretations of these early studies and observations.
Muslims and Christians in the Bulgarian Rhodopes. Studies on Religious (Anti)Syncretism
Warsaw: De Gruyter Open Poland, 2015.
Veda on Parade: Revivalist Ritual as Civic Spectacle
in: Journal of the American Academy of Religion , v. 69 (2001), issue 2: pp.377-408.
Satyrs offering a sacrifice to Pan (1510)
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
Iphigenia at Aulis
Chiswick: Charles Whittingham & Co., 1909.
Human sacrifice in ancient Near Eastern
in: Human Sacrifice and Value. Revisiting the Limits of Sacred Violence from an Anthropological and Archaeological Perspective, pp. Chap. 6
London: Routledge, 2023.
The Idol Moloch with Seven Chambers or Chapels (1711)
from: Lund, Johann. Die Alten Jüdischen Heiligthümer, Hamburg, Fickweiler, 1711
Sacrifice of the red young cow (1683)
from: Petrus Cunaeus, De republyk der Hebreen, of gemeenebest der joden, 3 delen, Amsterdam, Wilhelmus Goeree, 1683
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Discorso circa il stato de gl'Hebrei, et in particolar dimoranti nell'inclita citta di Venetia, di Simone Luzzatto rabbino hebreo, et e vn'appendice al Trattato dell'openioni e dogmi de gl'Hebrei dall'vniuersal non dissonanti, e de' riti loro più principali
Venezia: Gioanne Calleoni, 1638.
Regenerating Life in the Face of Predation: A Study of Mortuary Ritual as Sacrifice among the Siberian Chukchi
in: Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies, v. 15 (2016), issue 2: pp.--.
The Hermeneutics and Genesis of the Red Cow Ritual
in: The Harvard Theological Review, v. 105 (2012), issue 3: pp.351–71.
Immolations in Japan
in: Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, v. 25 (2012), issue : pp.191-201.
Martyrdom and the Muslim World through Franciscan Eyes
in: The Catholic Historical Review, v. 97 (2011), issue 1: pp.1-23.
Zum Bedeutungswandel der Begriffe des Opfers und des Opfertodes im 20. Jahrhundert
in: Nachleben der Religionen. Kulturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zur Dialektik der Säkularisierung, pp. 225–235
Leiden: Brill, 2011.
0. General bibliography (19th-21th Century) 2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century) 3. Sacrifice and politics (16th-18th Century)
Christian Accusation of Jewish Human Sacrifice in early modern Poland: the Case of Jan Serafnowicz
in: Gal-Ed, v. 22 (2010), issue : pp.15-66.
Saint Cecilia (1600)
Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Altar, Rome
La riscoperta dell'esotismo nel Seicento. Le 'Imagini de gli dei indiani' di Lorenzo Pignoria
Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2020.
Animals of Sacrifice: Animals and the Blót in the Old Norse Sources and Ritual Depositions of Animals of Sacrifice
in: Myth, Materiality and Lived Religion, pp. 303-307
Stockholm : Stockholm University Press, 2019.