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.
Mimetic Theory, the Wall Paintings, and the Domestication, De-domestication, and Sacrifice of Cattle at Çatalhöyük
in: Violence and the Sacred in the Ancient Near East. Girardian Conversations at Çatalhöyük , pp. 153-164
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Sacrifice in the Greek Magical Papyri
in: Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, pp. 344–358
Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Zoroastrianism: a Ritual and its Interpretations
in: Sacrifice in Religious Experience, pp. 127-148
Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Human Sacrifice at Prambanan
in: Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde, v. 152 (1996), issue 1: pp.45-73.
Problems of the Meat Market of Béziers 1240-1247: A Question of Anti-Semitism
in: Revue des Études juives, v. 135 (1976), issue 1-3: pp.31-49.
Sacred Violence in Early America
Philadelphia,: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Animal Sacrifice in Greek and Roman Religion
Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1976.
Le religieux sublimé dans le sacrifice du mouton : un exemple de coexistence communautaire au Liban
in: L'Homme, v. 37 (1997), issue 141: pp.83-100.
Du divin à l’humain, du religieux au social : les repas sacrificiels au Liban
in: Sacrifices en Islam: Espaces et temps d'un rituel, pp. 199-213
Paris: CNRS, 1999.
Eine wenig bezeugte Mit-Feier des muslimischen Opferfestes in Jerusalem: das “vor-Gott-Stehen wie in ʿArafāt” (taʿrīf)
in: Compar(a)ison , v. 2 (1994), issue : pp.91-108.
A Comparative and Evolutionary Perspective on Sacrifice and Cooperation
in: Mimesis and Sacrifice. Applying Girard's Mimetic Theory Across the Disciplines, pp. --
London: Bloomsbury, 2019.
0. General bibliography (19th-21th Century) 2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century)
Das antijüdische Ritualmordrelief von 1727 an der Wernerkapelle von Oberwesel und seine widerwillige Entfernung
in: Aschkenas, v. 30 (2020), issue 1: pp.37-60.
Ox-Slaughter and Goring Oxen: Homicide, Animal Sacrifice, and Judicial Process
in: Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, v. 4 (1992), issue 2/3: pp.249-278.
The Virgin Mary, Monotheism, and Sacrifice
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Nietzsche and the eternal return of sacrifice
in: Research in Phenomenology, v. 33 (2003), issue : pp.167-185.
Transkulturelle Imaginationen des Opfers in der Frühen Neuzeit Übersetzungsprozesse zwischen Mexiko und Europa
Berlin: Berlin Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2015.