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.

Displaying results from 741 to 760 of 1019


Puett, Micheal

The work of appropriation, domestication, and substitution: theories of sacrifice in the Liji

in: All about the Rites: From Canonised Ritual to Ritualised Society, pp. open access

Paris : Collège de France, 2023.

Keywords: China

Purdum, E. - Parades, J.; Radelet, M. (Ed.)

Rituals of death: capital punishment and human sacrifice

in: Facing the death penalty, pp. 139–155

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.

Quaglioni, D. ; Perini, V. (Ed.)

Uno stereotipo antigiudaico per immagini

in: Il Simonino. Geografia di un culto.Con saggi di Diego Quaglioni e Laura Dal Prà , pp. 9-16

Trento: Società di Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche, 2012.

Quiñones Keber, E.; Farago, C. (Ed.)

Collecting Cultures: A Mexican Manuscript in the Vatican Library

in: Reframing the Renaissance: Visual Culture in Europe and Latin America, 1450–1650, pp. 228-242

New Have, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.

Ramusio, Giovanni Battista; Milanesi, M. (Ed.)

Navigazioni e viaggi

Torino: Einaudi, 1980.

Redden, A.; Achim, M. - Chaparro, W. de (Eds.)

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.

Restall, M.; Lopez, J. F. (Ed.)

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.


Displaying results from 741 to 760 of 1019