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.
Los quinze libros de los metamorphoseos de el excellente poeta latino Ovidio. Traduzidos en verso suelto y octava rima por Antonio Perez, con sus alegorias al fin de cada libro. Dirigidos al illustrissimo señor dõ Gaspar de Zuñiga, y Azeuedo, Conde de Monterrey, señor de la casa de Vìezma i Ulloa
Salamanca: Iuan Perier, 1580.
Les metamorphoses d’Ovide. Traduites en prose françoise, et de nouveau soigneusement reveuës, corrigees en infinis endroits, et enriches de figures à chacune fable. Avec XV discours contenans l’explication morale et historique. De plus outre le jugement de Paris, augmentees de la Metamorphosedes abeilles, traduite de Virgile de quelques Epistres d’Ovide, et autres divers traitez
Paris: n.p., 1619.
De Sacrificiis libri duo; quorum altero explicantur omnia Judaeorum, nonnulla Gentium Profanarum Sacrificia altero Sacrificium Christi. Utroque Ecclesiae Catholicae his de rebus Sententia contra Faustum Socinum, ejusque sectatores defenditur
London: Richard Chiswell, 1677.
Two Dissertations on Sacrifices
London: Burton and Briggs; Gale and Fenner Hatchard, [1817].
Sacrifice and Cosmos : a Confrontation between the Vedic and Eucharistic Sacrifice
Padova: Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, 2000.
Les sacrifices d’animaux dans le Picatrix latin et d’autres textes de magie médiévale
in: Images et magie: Picatrix entre Orient et Occident, pp. 187-211
Paris: Champion, 2011.
Sheep, Wheat, and Wine: An Achaemenian Antecedent of the Sasanian Sacrifices pad ruwān
in: Bulletin of the Asia Institute - Iranian and Zoroastrian Studies in Honor of Prods Oktor Skjærvø , v. 19 (2005), issue : pp.111-118.
Aspects of the ‘Interiorization’ of the Sacrifice in the Zoroastrian Tradition
in: Zoroastrian Rituals in Context, pp. 233-252
Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Le sacrifice rituel de l’Aïd el-Kébir: une tradition musulmane à l’épreuve de la République
in: Hommes & Migrations, v. 1254 (2005), issue : pp.104-112.
Aqui se contiene una obra verdadera, muy digna de memoria [...] de como la Soltana fue bautizada en Berberia y de la orden y traza que tuvo ella y otras quatro renegadas y un renegado, y otros cautivos Christianos para venirse a España y de como se embarcaron en Argel y de como tomaron puerto en Denia. Compuesta por Francisco Pardo privado de la vista corporal; con dos letrillas al cabo de una en alabanza de la Madre de Dios, y la otra en alabanza de Sant Iacintho
Barcelona: Sebastian de Cormella, 1595.
Sacrificio e misura del valore nella Grecia antica
in: Studi storici, v. 4 (1984), issue : pp.913-923.
Sacrificio e misura del valore nella Grecia antica
in: Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico, pp. 253-265
Roma - Bari: Laterza , 1988.
Substitution in Greek Sacrifice
in: Sacrifices humains: Perspectives croisées et représentations, pp. Online http://books.openedition.org/pulg/8163
Liège : Presses universitaires de Liège, 2013.
Livestock Symbolism and Pastoral Ideology Among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush
in: Man , v. 22 (1987), issue 4: pp.637-660.
Sacrifice of Iphigenia [1602 - 1607]
from: Salsmann, Wilhelm. P. Ovid Nasonis XV Metamorphoseon librorvm figurae elegantissime a Cr[i]spiano Passaeo laminis aeneis incisae: quibus subiuncta sunt epigrammata latine ac germanice conscripta, fabularum omnium summam breviter ac erudite comprehendentia, Cologne, Joannem Jansonium, 1607
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
An Eighteenth-Century Account of Sati: John Zephaniah Holwell's ‘Religious Tenets of the Gentoos’ and ‘Voluntary Sacrifice’ (1767)
in: South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, v. 40 (2017), issue 1: pp.24-39.
Bringing the Gods to Mind. Mantra and Ritual in Early Indian Sacrifice
Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2005.