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.
Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Human Sacrifice : Archaeological Perspectives from around the World
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Angelic Death and Sacrifice in Early Modern Hispanic America
in: Death and Dying in Colonial Spanish America, pp. 142-69
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011.
The Circumcision of Christ (1620-1626)
from: France. Series: Vita Deiparae Virginis Mariae
1. Sacrifice and Bible (16th-18th Century) 2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century)
The Triumph of Christ´s Sacrifice (1733 - 1735)
from: Rentz, H. Das christliche Jahr, oder, Die Episteln und Evangelien [...], Prag, Labaunischen Erben, 1733 - 1735
The Collection of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London
Wonder, and Absence: Our Distorted View of Moctezuma’s Tenochtitlan
in: A Companion to Viceregal Mexico City, 1519–1821, pp. 29-50
Leiden: Brill, 2021.
The Jewish Pig Prohibition from Leviticus to the Maccabees
in: Journal of Biblical Literature, v. 141 (2023), issue 2: pp.221-241.
The Prohibition of Local Butchery in Leviticus 17:3–4: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls
in: Semitica, v. 62 (2020), issue : pp.307-327.
The Positive Functions of Levitical Sacrifice in Hebrews
in: Son, Sacrifice, and Great Shepherd : Studies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 95-113
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020.
Allegory of Triumph and Sacrifice [1520]
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Tableaux sacrez des figures mystiques du tres-auguste sacrifice et sacrement de l'Eucharistie dediez a la tres chrestienne royne de France et de Nauarre Marie de Medicis
Paris: Laurens Sonnius, 1601.
A criticism upon modern notions of sacrifices being an examination of Dr. Taylor's scripture-doctrine of atonement examined, In Relation I. To Jewish Sacrifices. II. To the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. To which is added an appendix, containing an examination of another notion of Jewish sacrifices, which is exhibited in an anonymous Piece
London: C. Henderson, T. Becket, P. A. de Hondt, 1761.
Human Sacrifice among Pagans and Christians.
in: The Journal of Roman Studies , v. (1995), issue 85: pp.65-85.
The Theology of Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World : Origins and Developments
in: Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice, pp. 187-202
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Abraham's Sacrifice (1595)
from: Histoire du Coran ou Histoire des prophètes et des rois passés. Qisas al-anbiyyâ [Supplément Persan 1313, fol. 40]
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Keeping God’s distance: sacrifice, possession, and the problem of religious mediation
in: American Ethnologist, v. 44 (), issue 3: pp.464–475.
Preparation for a Suttee (1816)
British Library, London (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1800_1899/hinduism/sati/sati.html)
A New Specimen of the Revenge Play
in: Modern Philology, v. 16 (1918), issue 1: pp.1-10.
Lectures on the Religion of the Semites
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1889.