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.
Sacrificial skins: the value of Pakistan’s Eid al-Azha animal hide collection
in: Muslim World, v. 112 (2022), issue 1: pp.14-32.
Il carattere religioso del sacrificio
in: Miti e riti della preistoria : un secolo di studi sull'origine del senso del sacro : fonti scelte, pp. 179-191
Milano: Jaca book, 2000.
John Seldens De Diis Syris: Idolatriekritik und vergleichende Religionsgeschichte im 17. Jahrhundert
in: Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, v. 3 (2001), issue 1: pp.1-24.
Antiquarianism and Idolatry: The Historia of Religions in the Seventeenth Century
in: Historia, Empiricism and Erudition in Early Modern Europe, pp. 181-209
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005.
Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Attitudes Toward a Resumption of Sacrificial Worship in the Nineteenth Century
in: Modern Judaism, v. 7 (1987), issue : pp.29-49.
Gory Details? The Iconography of Human Sacrifice in Greek Art (Plates II-IX)
in: Sacrifices humains: Perspectives croisées et représentations, pp. -
Liège: Presses Universitarie de Liège, 2013 [open access].
Sul simbolismo della ripartizione nella poesia elegiaca
in: Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico, pp. 203-209
Roma - Bari: Laterza , 1988.
Smoke Signals for the Gods : ancient Greek Sacrifice from the Archaic through Roman Periods
New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Sati: A Nineteenth Century Tale of Women, Violence and Protest
in: At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, pp.
Delhi: -, 1980.
The Embarrassment of Blood : Early Christians and others on Sacrifice, War, and Rational Worship
in: Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice, pp. 142-166
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Il sacrificio tarentino dell'asino ai venti (Hesych., s.v. ἀνεμώτας)
in: Annali Della Scuola Normale Superiore Di Pisa. Classe Di Lettere e Filosofia, v. 25 (1995), issue 4: pp.1345–1358.
Map Without Territory: The Mishnah's System of Sacrifice
in: History of Religions, v. 19 (1979), issue : pp.103-127.
The challenge of Biblical passion narratives: negotiating, moderating, and reconstructing Abraham’s sacrifice in the Qurʾan
in: Narratology, hermeneutics, and Midrash: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim narratives from the Late Antique period through to modern times, pp. 251-263
Göttingen: V&R Unipres, 2014.
Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition
Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Recompositions sacrificielles au Nigéria contemporain
in: Archives européennes de sociologie, v. 32 (1991), issue : pp.299-326.
Des moutons pour la fête: l’approvisionnement de Dakar en moutons de Tabaski
in: Cahiers d’Outre-Mer, v. 63 (2010), issue 249: pp.141-164.
Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
2. Sacrifice and religion: Comparisons, Antiquarians, Anthropology (16th-18th Century) 3. Sacrifice and politics (16th-18th Century)
Self-sacrifice and Care Ethics
in: Sacrifice in Modernity : Community, Ritual, Identity : from Nationalism and Nonviolence to Health Care and Harry Potter, pp. 270-287
Leiden: Brill, 2017.