/tags/mythos/ Recent content in Mythos on Keren Wang Hugo en-us Thu, 11 Jun 2015 17:08:00 +0000 /blog/2015/06/the-history-and-challenges-of-theorizing-human-sacrifice/ Thu, 11 Jun 2015 17:08:00 +0000 /blog/2015/06/the-history-and-challenges-of-theorizing-human-sacrifice/ <figure> <img alt="Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century AD, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac" class="size-full wp-image-161" height="386" src="/images/uploads/2015/06/Beit_alfa02.jpg" width="600"/> <figcaption></a> Fig. 1: Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century CE, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac (public domain art available via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beit_alfa02.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</figcaption> </figure> <p>Human sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. Early comparative studies on human sacrifice were heavily influenced by theories of historical relativism and social evolutionism. [1] Such theory approach is exemplified by the works of nineteenth century cultural-anthropologists <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burnett_Tylor">Edward Tylor</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Mauss">Marcel Mauss</a>, both of whom framed practices of human sacrifice as specific iteration of a general social feature, developed relative to various stages of human historical development. [2]</p>