Animal sacrifice
Encyclopedia
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
killing of an animal as part of a religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature. Animal sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
has turned up in almost all cultures, from the Hebrews
Hebrews
Hebrews is an ethnonym used in the Hebrew Bible...
to the Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, Israelites, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and from the Aztecs.
Remnants of ancient rituals of animal sacrifice are apparent in many cultures, for example the Spanish bullfights, or kapparos
Kapparos
Kapparot is a Jewish ritual practiced by some Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur. The person swings a live chicken or a bundle of coins over one's head three times, symbolically transferring one's sins to the chicken or coins...
in Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, or ritual slaughter
Ritual slaughter
Ritual slaughter is the practice of slaughtering livestock for meat in a ritual manner. Ritual slaughter involves a prescribed method of slaughtering an animal for food production purposes...
procedures like shechita
Shechita
Shechita is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws...
or ḏabīḥah in Judaism and Islam, respectively.
Ancient world
Animal sacrifices were common throughout the Ancient Near EastAncient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
, and throughout Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
The Minoan
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
culture of Phaistos
Phaistos
Phaistos , also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. Phaistos was located in the south-central portion of the island, about 5.6 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze...
on Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
reveals basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BC.
Indo-European cultures
- Historical Vedic religionHistorical Vedic religionThe religion of the Vedic period is a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites...
: AshvamedhaAshvamedhaThe Ashvamedha was one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described in detail in the Yajurveda... - Ancient Roman religion: Equus October, Tauromachy, TauroboliumTauroboliumIn the Roman empire of the 2nd to 4th centuries, taurobolium referred to practices involving the sacrifice of a bull, which after mid-2nd century became connected with the worship of the Great Mother of the Gods; though not previously limited to her cultus, after 159 CE all private taurobolia...
- Ancient Greek religionAncient Greek religionGreek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These different groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or "cults" in the plural, though most of them shared...
: Holocaust (sacrifice)Holocaust (sacrifice)A holocaust is a religious animal sacrifice that is completely consumed by fire. The word derives from the Ancient Greek holocaustos , which is used solely for one of the major forms of sacrifice....
, HecatombHecatombIn Ancient Greece, a Hecatomb was a sacrifice to the gods of 100 cattle . Hecatombs were offered to Greek gods Apollo, Athena, and Hera, during special religious ceremonies.... - Celtic paganism
- Germanic paganismGermanic paganismGermanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...
: BlótBlótThe blót was Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the spirits of the land. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples, such as the pagan Anglo-Saxons...
Judaism
- See main article: KorbanKorbanThe term offering as found in the Hebrew Bible in relation to the worship of Ancient Israel is mainly represented by the Hebrew noun korban whether for an animal or other offering...
Many Jewish sources discuss the deeper meaning behind korbanot. For example, Sefer Hachinuch explains that an individual bringing an animal sacrifice for a sin understands that he personally should have been sacrificed as punishment for the rebellion against God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
inherent his the sin, but God mercifully accepts the sacrifice in his or her place. Furthermore, it is considered fitting that an animal is used as a sacrifice because at the moment of sin, the individual in question disregarded his elevated human soul, effectively acting as an animal.
Christianity
References to animal sacrifice appear in the New TestamentNew Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, such as the parents of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
sacrificing two doves and the Apostle Paul performing a Nazirite
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or nazarite, , refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in . The term "nazirite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated"...
vow even after the death of Christ .
Christ is referred to by his apostles as "the Lamb of God
Lamb of God
The title Lamb of God appears in the Gospel of John, with the exclamation of John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" in John 1:29 when he sees Jesus....
", the one to whom all sacrifices pointed (Hebrews 10). Christ's crucifixion is comparable to animal sacrifice on a large scale as His death serves as atonement for ALL of man's sins.
Some villages in Greece also sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbània
Kourbania
Kourbania is a practice of Christianized animal sacrifice in some parts of Greece. It usually involves the slaughter of lambs to certain saints...
. Sacrifice of a lamb, or less commonly a rooster, is a common practice in Armenian Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
. This tradition, called matagh
Matagh
In Armenian Christian tradition, matagh is a lamb or a rooster slated for sacrifice to God, a ritual which has continued from the pagan past. In many regions of Armenia today, this pagan-Christian synthesis is very much alive in the regular slaughter of chosen animals in front of churches....
, is believed to stem from pre-Christian pagan rituals.
Islam
IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
makes no general provision for animal sacrifice. However, it is considered to be incumbent upon sufficiently wealthy Muslims to sacrifice a large mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
during Eid ul-Adha
Eid ul-Adha
Eid al-Adha or "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice...
(the Festival of Sacrifice), which falls during the period of Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
(pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
). Typically, a sheep or goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
is sacrificed, although some sacrifice cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
or a camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
instead. The meat is usually given as charity to the poor, in commemoration of the Sacrifice of Ismail, in which God
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
tested the faith of Abraham (Ibrahim) by ordering him to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Ismail).
Hinduism
Animal sacrifice was common in Vedic religionHistorical Vedic religion
The religion of the Vedic period is a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites...
, the highest or "royal" such sacrifice being the Ashvamedha
Ashvamedha
The Ashvamedha was one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described in detail in the Yajurveda...
. The last known performance of the Ashvamedha was that by Jai Singh II of Amber
Jai Singh II of Amber
Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh was ruler of the kingdom of Amber . He was born at Amber, the capital of the Kachwahas. He became ruler of Amber at the age of 11 after his father Maharaja Bishan Singh died on 31 December 1699...
in 1716.
Classical (Puranic, Vedantic) Hinduism as it emerged in the medieval period de-emphasizes animal sacrifice, and indeed any meat processing, based on the doctrine of ahimsa
Ahimsa
Ahimsa is a term meaning to do no harm . The word is derived from the Sanskrit root hims – to strike; himsa is injury or harm, a-himsa is the opposite of this, i.e. non harming or nonviolence. It is an important tenet of the Indian religions...
. Such practices as are still current are mostly associated with either Shaktism
Shaktism
Shaktism is a denomination of Hinduism that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi – the Hindu Divine Mother – as the absolute, ultimate Godhead...
or with local tribal traditions.
There are Hindu temple
Hindu temple
A Mandir, Devalayam, Devasthanam, or a Hindu temple is a place of worship for followers of Hinduism...
s in Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, India as well as Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
where goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s and chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
s as well as buffaloes are sacrificed. These sacrifices are mainly done at mandirs following the Shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
school of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
where the female nature of Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
is worshipped in the form of Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
and Durga
Durga
For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...
. There are many village temples in Tamil Nadu where this kind of sacrifice takes place.
In many Shakti shrines of Orissa animals like goat and chicken are sacrificed on Durga Puja in the month of Aswina (September–October) every year. In Sambalpur, this ritual sacrifice is performed in the Samaleswari temple (Pasayat, 2003:67-84).
The three methods used by Hindus to kill an animal are: Jhatka
Jhatka
Jhatka or Chatka meat is meat from an animal which has been killed by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever the head, as opposed to Jewish slaughter or Islamic slaughter in which the animal is killed by ritually slicing the throat.-Jhatka meat and Sikhs:Jhatka for Sikhs is the...
(decapitation with a single blow); piercing the heart with a spike; and asphyxiation.
Possibly the largest animal sacrifice in the world occurs during Gadhimai
Gadhimai
Gadhimai is the name of one of the Hindu goddesses of power, though the term usually refers to the world's biggest animal sacrifice conducted at the Gadhimai temple area in central Terai of Nepal....
festival in Nepal. In the 3 day long sacrifice in 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed while 5 million devotees attended the festival.
In India ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities. For instance, Kandhen Budhi is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. She is the presiding deity of Kandha people of this area. She is represented in the natural form of stone under a tree on the bank of the river Tel. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual Yatra/Jatra (festival) held in the month of Aswina (September–October). The main attraction of Kandhen Budhi Yatra is Ghusuri Puja. Ghusuri means pig, which is sacrificed once in every three years. Kandhen Budhi is also worshipped at Lather village under Mohangiri GP in Kalahandi district of Orissa, India(Pasayat, 2009:20-24).
Bali Jatra of Sonepur in Orissa, India is also an annual festival celebrated in the month of Aswina (September–October) when animal sacrifice is an integral part of the ritual worship of deities namely Samaleswari, Sureswari and Khambeswari. Bali refers to animal sacrifice and hence this annual festival is called Bali Jatra (Barik, 2009:160-162).
Far East
Many people, especially Wang MangWang Mang
Wang Mang , courtesy name Jujun , was a Han Dynasty official who seized the throne from the Liu family and founded the Xin Dynasty , ruling AD 9–23. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow and his rule marks the separation between the Western Han Dynasty and Eastern Han Dynasty...
, offered animal products in ancestor worship.
Buddhism and Taoism prohibited killing. Animal product offering is accepted in some Taoism factions.
Temples of Tongyuanwang (通遠王), Mazu (goddess), Fu De Zheng Shen (福德正神 God of the Land), Yo Chang Gong (右昌公) in Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...
may not accept animal products.
Lucumi/Santería
In SanteríaSantería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
, such animal offerings constitute a portion of what are termed "ebos" – ritual activities that include offerings, prayer and deeds. The blood of the animals is thought to hold "aché", or life force.
Strangite Latter Day Saints
Animal sacrifice was instituted in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement with around three hundred members as of 1998...
, a minor Latter Day Saint faction founded by James J. Strang in 1844. Strang's Book of the Law of the Lord
Book of the Law of the Lord
The Book of the Law of the Lord is a book accepted as scripture by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . It is alleged to be a translation by the Strangite prophet James Strang of the Plates of Laban, originally acquired by Nephi, a leading character in the early portion of The Book of...
(1851) deals with the topic of animal sacrifice in chapters 7 and 40.
Given the prohibition on sacrifices for sin contained in III Nephi 9:19-20 (Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
), Strang did not require sin offerings. Rather, he focused on sacrifice as an element of religious celebrations, especially the commemoration of his own coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
as king over his church, which occurred on July 8, 1850. The head of every house, from the king to his lowest subject, was to offer "a heifer, or a lamb, or a dove. Every man a clean beast, or a clean fowl, according to his household."
While the killing of sacrifices was a prerogative of Strangite priests, female priests were specifically barred from participating in this aspect of the priestly office. "Firstfruits" offerings were also demanded of all Strangite agricultural harvests. Animal sacrifices are no longer practiced by the diminunitive Strangite organization, though belief in their correctness is still required.
Neither The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nor the Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
, the two largest Latter Day Saint factions, ever accepted Strang's teachings on this (or any other) subject.
Sources
- Barik, Sarmistha (2009), "Bali Yatra of Sonepur" in Orissa Review, Vol.LXVI, No.2, September, pp. 160–162.
- Burkert, Walter (1972), Homo NecansHomo necansHomo Necans: the Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth is a book on ancient Greek religion and mythology by Walter Burkert, which won the Weaver Award for Scholarly Literature, awarded by the Ingersoll Foundation, in 1992...
pp. 6–22 - Pasayat, C. (2003), Glimpses of Tribal an Folkculture, New Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., pp. 67–84.
- Pasayat, C. (2009), "Kandhen Budhi" in Orissa Review, Vol.LXVI, No.2, September, pp. 20–24.
- Petropoulou, M.-Z. (2008), Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200, Oxford classical monographs, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199218547.
See also
- Animals in BuddhismAnimals in BuddhismThe position and treatment of animals in Buddhism is important for the light it sheds on Buddhists' perception of their own relation to the natural world, on Buddhist humanitarian concerns in general, and on the relationship between Buddhist theory and Buddhist practice.-Animals in Buddhist...
- Animal rightsAnimal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
- Animal welfareAnimal welfareAnimal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
- Animal worshipAnimal worshipAnimal worship refers to religious rituals involving animals, especially in pre-modern societies, such as the glorification of animal deities, or animal sacrifice....
- Bans on ritual slaughterBans on ritual slaughterThe legal aspects of ritual slaughter include the regulation of slaughterhouses, butchers, and religious personnel involved with traditional shechita and dhabiĥa . Regulations also may extend to butchery products sold in accordance with kashrut and halal religious law. Governments regulate ritual...
- Folk religionFolk religionFolk religion consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices...
- Human SacrificeHuman sacrificeHuman sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
- Islam and animalsIslam and animalsThe Qur'an strongly enjoins Muslims to treat animals with compassion and not to abuse them. The animals, together with all creatures, are believed to praise God, even if this praise is not expressed in human language....
- PaganismPaganismPaganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
- Ritual of oak and mistletoeRitual of oak and mistletoeThe ritual of oak and mistletoe is described by Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD, as a religious ceremony in Gaul in which white-clad druids climbed a sacred oak, cut down the mistletoe growing on it, sacrificed two white bulls and used the mistletoe to cure infertility:Pliny was...
- ScapegoatScapegoatScapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
- Slaughter offerings
- TotemismTotemismTotemism is a system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant...
- TzavTzavTzav, Tsav, Zav, Sav, or in Biblical Hebrew Ṣaw is the 25th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the book of Leviticus...