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.
Sacrifice in Africa : a structuralist Approach
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Pietro Della Valle's Letters on India
in: East and West, v. 2 (1952), issue 4: pp.205-217.
Iphygénie en Tauride
in: Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France, v. 17 (1910), issue 3: pp.581-611.
Living Ashura in Lebanon: mourning transformed to sacrifice
in: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, v. 25 (2005), issue 1: pp.122-137.
Living Ashura in Lebanon: mourning transformed to sacrifice
in: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, v. 25 (2005), issue 1: pp.122-137.
Offrandes et sacrifice en Mésoamérique
Paris: Riveneuve, 2007.
Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Religions des sémites occidentaux et de la Bible hébraïque
in: Annuaire EPHE-SR, v. . (1980 [open access]), issue 89: pp.313-318.
Les origines du culte des martyrs.
Brussels (Belgium): Société des Bollandistes, 1912.
Espacio sagrado, espacio de la violencia : el lugar del sacrificio en un ritual taurino en Cataluna (El corre-de-bou de Cardona)
in: Luoghi sacri e spazi della santità, pp. 209-218
Torino: Rosemberg & Sellier, 1990.
Le sacrifice de l'oryx
Bruxelles: Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1962.
Cibo carneo, sacrificio e società in Grecia : Il coltello da carne
in: Dialoghi di archeologia : rivista quadrimestrale, v. 1 (1979), issue : pp.6-16.
Culinary Practice and the Spirit of Sacrifice
in: The Cusine of Sacrifice Among the Greeks
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
I limiti della spartizione in Grecia
in: Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico, pp. 177-187
Roma - Bari: Laterza , 1988.
La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec
Paris: Gallimard, 1979.
La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec
Paris: Gallimard, 1979.
A View of the Jewish Religion. Conceptions of Jewish Practice and Ritual in Early Modern Europe
in: Archiv für religionsgeschichte, v. 3 (2001), issue : pp.273-295.