SACRIFICE

a religious rite in which an object is offered to a divinity in order to establish, maintain, or restore a right relationship of a human being to the sacred order. It is a complex phenomenon that has been found in the earliest known forms of worship and in all parts of the world. The present article treats the nature of sacrifice and surveys the theories about its origin. It then analyzes sacrifice in terms of its constituent elements, such as the material of the offering, the time and place of the sacrifice, and the motive or intention of the rite. Finally, it briefly considers sacrifice in the religions of the world. the act of offering objects to a god (or other supernatural being), thereby making them the property of the god and thus holy. In a sense, what is always offered in sacrifice is, in one form or another, life itself. Sacrifice is a celebration of life, a recognition of its divine and imperishable nature. In the sacrifice the consecrated life of an oblation is liberated as a sacred potency that establishes a bond between the sacrificer and the sacred. Through sacrifice, life is returned to its divine source, regenerating the power (i.e., life) of that source; life is fed by life. Hence the word of the Roman sacrificer to his god: Be thou increased by this offering. It is, however, an increase of sacred power that is ultimately beneficial to the sacrificer. In a sense, sacrifice is the impetus and guarantee of the reciprocal flow of the divine life force between its source and its manifestations. Often, the act of sacrifice involves the destruction of the oblation, but this destructionwhether by burning, slaughter, or whatever meansis not in itself the sacrifice, the making holy. The killing of an animal is the means by which its consecrated life is liberated and thus made available to the deity, and the destruction of a food offering in an altar's fire is the means by which the deity receives (by olfaction, rather than ingestion) the offering. Sacrifice as such, however, is the total act of offering and not merely the mode in which it is performed. Sacrificial rites are known throughout the history of religions, and, although they have assumed a multitude of forms and intentions, the fundamental meaning is that of effecting a necessary and efficacious relationship with sacred power and of establishing man and his world in the sacred order. As a manifestation of man's experience of sacred reality, sacrifice is rooted in the religious consciousness. Hence, any consideration of its possible origins, like that of the origins of religion itself, is more a matter of conjecture and speculation than of verifiable historical or phenomenological investigation. Attempts have been made (notably by E.B. Tylor, W. Robertson Smith, and J.G. Frazer) to discover the genesis of sacrifice, but these attempts, though helpful for a greater understanding of sacrifice, have not been conclusive. Sacrifices may be broadly classified according to the material of the oblation, the mode in which the oblation is offered, the frequency of performance, and the specific intention of the rite. These categories, of course, often overlap. Additional reading Classic theories of the origin and nature of sacrifice are found in the following: Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2 vol. (1871, reprinted 1958), a presentation of the gift theory of sacrifice; W. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, 3rd ed. (1927), the clearest formulation of the author's theory of communion through a sacrificial meal; James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (190715; abridged ed., The New Golden Bough, 1964), a famous and influential treatise on ancient religion that presents sacrifice as a means for rejuvenating a god; and Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice, L'Anne sociologique (1899; Eng. trans., Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function, 1964), a sociological explanation of the sacrificial victim as a buffer between man and the god. More recent formulations include Gerardus van der Leeuw, Phnomenologie der Religion (1933; Eng. trans., Religion in Essence and Manifestation, 1963), an expansion of the notion of the sacrificial gift by a phenomenologist of religion; Adolf E. Jensen, Mythos und Kult bei Naturvlkern, rev. ed. (1960; Eng. trans., Myth and Cult Among Primitive Peoples, 1963), which correlates types of cultures and their sacrifice; Raymond Firth, Offering and Sacrifice: Problems of Organization, in W.A. Lessa and E.Z. Vogt (eds.), Reader in Comparative Religion, 3rd ed., pp. 185194 (1971), an economic interpretation of sacrifice; and E.O. James, Sacrifice and Sacrament (1962), a good survey. Frances M. Young, Sacrifice and the Death of Christ (1978), is an overview of the theology of sacrifice in the early Christian church.Brief articles on several religions are found in Sacrifice, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 11:139 (1928, reprinted 1955). On Vedic religion, A.B. Keith, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, 2 vol. (1925), is still a standard work; and Louis Renou, Religions of Ancient India (1953), offers a brief survey. On Chinese sacrificial rites, see C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society (1961); on ancient Egypt, J.H. Breasted, The Elder Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912); and on ancient Greek and Roman religions, R.K. Yerkes, Sacrifice in Greek and Roman Religions and Early Judaism (1952), a clearly written, well-documented work; and M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2 vol. (194150; Eng. trans., A History of Greek Religion, 2nd ed., 1963), a good handbook on Greek religion. On sacrificial rites in Judaism there is extensive literature, including Sacrifice, Encyclopedia Judaica, 14:599615 (1971), a good survey with a bibliography; Roland de Vaux, Les Sacrifices de l'Ancien Testament (1964; Eng. trans., Studies in Old Testament Sacrifice, 1964); and Yerkes (above). On ancient Scandinavian rites, see E.O.G. Turville-Petrie, Myth and Religion of the North (1964). Walter Krickeberg et al., Die Religionen des Alten Amerika (1961; Eng. trans., Pre-Columbian American Religions, 1968), discusses the rites of the ancient civilizations of the American continents. On the religions of the peoples of Africa, John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (1970), is an introduction with extensive bibliography. Important specific studies include Melville Herskovits, Dahomey, 2 vol. (1938); E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Nuer Religion (1956); E.B. Idowu, Oldmar: God in Yoruba Belief (1962); and Geoffrey Parrinder, West African Religion, 2nd ed. rev. (1961).