Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a ritual offering or act directed toward a deity. It may aim to appease a divine power or to express praise and gratitude. Traces of animal sacrifice in religious rites go back at least as far as the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and may be even older. Evidence of human sacrifice appears in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures and in European societies. Today, many religions continue to practice non-human ritual sacrifices.

The Latin word *sacrificium* comes from *sacrificus*, meaning one who performs priestly duties or sacrifices—a term built from *sacra* (sacred things) and *facere* (to make or do). This Latin term later came to refer specifically to the Christian Eucharist, sometimes called a "bloodless sacrifice" to set it apart from blood offerings. In other traditions, equivalent terms include the Indic *yajna*, the Greek *thusia*, the Germanic *blōtan*, the Semitic *qorban* or *qurban*, and the Slavic *żertwa*. The word often implies giving something up or doing without, but it is also used metaphorically—for example, doing good for others or accepting a short-term loss for a greater gain, as in chess.

Scholars have proposed various theories about sacrifice, though no consensus exists. E.B. Tylor saw it as a gift to the divine, valued either for its own sake, as homage, or for the hardship it caused. William Robertson Smith argued that sacrifice was solely about achieving communion with the divine, basing this on the Hebrew Bible’s sacrificial system, where priests eating burnt offerings drew closer to God. He linked Hebrew sacrifice to totem animal rites, a claim later anthropologists rejected. Émile Durkheim, influenced by Smith, proposed a dual function: social communion and divine communion. Using ethnographies of Aboriginal Australians, he claimed sacrifices reinforced community bonds during gatherings. Later scholars have questioned both his functionalist approach and the accuracy of his sources. Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert, building on Durkheim, argued that sacrifice is a gift to gods with the expectation of a greater return. Sigmund Freud, drawing on Smith and Darwin, saw sacrifice in *Totem and Taboo* as a symbolic reenactment of a primal murder, a neurotic ritual to manage guilt from the Oedipal complex. René Girard countered that sacrifice provides temporary relief from mimetic desire—the urge to possess what others have—by displacing aggression onto an innocent scapegoat, not a guilty one. Nancy Jay argued that sacrifice, almost always performed by men, creates and maintains patrilineal kinship by contrasting the “pure” blood of sacrifice with the “impure” blood of childbirth and menstruation, justifying male inheritance of wealth and power. Georges Bataille viewed sacrifice in pre-modern societies as a deliberate, conspicuous consumption of surplus.

Animal sacrifice—the ritual killing of an animal for religious purposes—is used to appease gods or alter natural events. It also had social and economic roles, with edible portions shared among participants. It appears in nearly all cultures: Hebrews, Greeks, Romans (in the *lustratio* purification rite), Egyptians (such as in the cult of Apis), Aztecs, and Yoruba. Ancient Egyptians restricted sacrifice to sheep, bulls, calves, male calves, and geese. Today, Muslims practice animal sacrifice during Eid al-Adha. Followers of Santería and related Yoruba-derived traditions also perform it to heal the sick or thank the *Oriṣa* (deities), though such offerings are a small part of broader ritual activities called *ebos*. In some Greek villages, Christians sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice called *kourbánia*, which, though publicly condemned, is often tolerated.

Human sacrifice was practiced by many ancient cultures, where people were ritually killed to please or appease a god or spirit. Occasions for human sacrifice included...