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.
Prey into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Die Opfermaterie in Babylon und Israel
Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1934.
The Konds: Human sacrifice and religious change
Wilts: Aris and Phillips, 1982.
The “Abhorrent” Practice of Animal Sacrifice and Religious Discrimination in the Global South
in: Religions, v. 10 (2019), issue 160: pp.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10030160.
Human Sacrifice and African American Muslims in the 1930s
in: Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur, pp.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Le sacrifice animal : réflexions sur un thème anthropologique
in: Ethnoarchéologie : Justification, Problèmes, Limites. XIIe Rencontres internationales d’Archéologie et d’Histoire d’Antibes, pp. 293-306
Juan-les-Pins: Éditions APDCA, 1992.
Colloquium of the Seven About Secrets of the Sublime
University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008.
The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders & Kabbalah: Seeds of Jewish Extremism and Alienation?
New York: Devora Publishing Company, 2005.
ΙΕΡΑ ΖΩΙΑ, Contribution à l'étude de la place de l'animal dans la religion grecque ancienne
Bruxelles: Académie royale de Belgique, 1978.
Some Ritual Elaborations on Cooking and Sacrifice
in: Early China, v. 23-24 (1998-1999), issue : pp.89-123.
Il sacrificio come rito o come evento? Un problema aperto in René Girard
in: Il sacrificio: evento e rito, pp. 181-202
Padova: Messaggero, 1998.
Sacrifice et sorcellerie. L’économie morale de l’aumône au Sénégal
in: Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales, v. 69 (2014), issue 2: pp.471-504.
Le sacrifice humain en Grece ancienne
Athènes - Liège: Centre international d'Etude de la religion grecque antique, 1994.
Quand le rite devient technique. Sacrifice et abattage dans le monde musulman
in: Techniques & Culture, v. 21 (1993), issue : pp.79-96.
Retour sur ‘Quand le rite devient technique’
in: Techniques & Culture, v. 54-55 (2010), issue : pp.547-561.
Symboliques et rituels de la protection. Le sacrifice tcargîba dans la société maure
in: Sacrifices en Islam: Espaces et temps d'un rituel, pp. 239-261
: , 1999.
Self-Sacrifice and Human Sacrifice in Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman
in: Research in African Literatures, v. 19 (1988), issue 4: pp.529-550.
Incorporating Mesoamerican Cosmology within a Global History of Religion. Some Considerations on the Work of Lorenzo Pignoria
in: Reshaping the World: Debates on Mesoamerican Colonial Cosmologies, pp. 70-99
Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2020.