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.
L’Oriente in città: crociate, manoscritti e nuovi saperi ad Avignone
in: A banchetto con gli amici: studi per Massimo Montanari, pp. 219-230
Roma: Viella, 2021.
2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century) 5. Sacrifices of self: Martyrology and crusades including Reconquista (12th-20th Century)
Homo necans: interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen
Berlin-New York: De Gruyter, 1972.
Camel
in: Encyclopaedia Iranica, v. - (1990), issue -: pp.open access.
Idolatry, Markets, and Confession: The Global Project of the de Bry Family
in: Protestant Empires: Globalizing the Reformations, pp. 140-176
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Understanding Aztec Cannibalism
in: Archiv Für Religionspsychologie / Archive for the Psychology of Religion, v. 26 (2004), issue : pp.1-14.
Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religion
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
The problem of Ritual Killing
in: Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation, pp. 149-176
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987.
Sacrificio-Sacrilegio: il trickster fondatore
in: Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico, pp. 163-175
Roma - Bari: Laterza , 1988.
Sacrificial Violence: A Problem in Ancient Religions
in: The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, pp. 437–454
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
0. General bibliography (19th-21th Century) 2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century) 3. Sacrifice and politics (16th-18th Century)
Le radici cristiane dell'antisemitismo politico (fine XIX-XX secolo)
in: Alle origini dell'antisemitismo politico: l'accusa di omicidio rituale nel Sei-Settecento tra autodifesa degli ebrei e pronunciamenti papali, pp. 25-59
Roma: Ecole Française de Rome, 2003.
Sacrificio e profanazione nel sangue. Riflessioni su Flavio Giuseppe
in: Atti del convegno Sangue e antropologia nel Medioevo (1989), pp. 1-19
Roma: , 1989.
L'ardore
Milano: Adelphi, 2010.
From Midrash to scripture: the sacrifice of Abraham in early Islamic tradition
in: Le Muséon, v. 101 (1988), issue : pp.375-402.
L’omicidio Rituale Nell’italia del Settecento Tra Polemica Antigiudaica Ed Erudizione Agiografica
in: Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, v. 38 (2002), issue 2: pp.475-508.
Writing the Holy Land: The Franciscans of Mount Zion and the Construction of a Cultural Memory, 1300-1550
--: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.