Ritual slaughter
Encyclopedia
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. Animal sacrifice
by contrast involves motives beyond mere food production.
The current term in use that includes Jewish and Muslim slaughter together is Religious slaughter
in Homo Necans
discusses animal sacrifice as arising from the anthropological transition to hunting
. With the domestication of livestock, the hunt was gradually replaced by the slaughter of livestock, and hunting rituals were consequently transformed to the context of slaughter.
In antiquity, ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice was one and the same. Thus, as argued by Detienne et al. (1989), for the Greeks
, consumption of meat not slaughtered ritually was unthinkable, so that beyond being a tribute to the gods, Greek animal sacrifice marked a cultural boundary, separating "Hellenes" from "barbarians". Greek animal sacrifice was christianized into slaughter ceremonies involving Greek Orthodox Christian ritual, known as kourbania
.
Ancient Egypt
ian slaughter rituals are frequently depicted in tombs and temples from the Old Kingdom
onwards. The standard iconography of the ritual involves a bull lying fettered on the ground with the butcher standing over it cutting its foreleg. The scene is attended by a woman and two priests.
: ) is the Jewish ritual slaughter for poultry and cattle for food according to Halakha
. Talmud – Tractate Hulin Shulkhan Arukh Yore De'ah. The method of slaughter of animals for food is the same as was used for Temple sacrifices, but since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, sacrifices are prohibited. The biblical verse explains that animals not sacrificed must be slaughtered by the same method, and today Shechita, kosher slaughtering does not include any religious ceremony, although the slaughtering method may not be deviated from, if the meat is to be consumed by Jews.
The act is performed by drawing a very sharp knife back and forth rapidly across the animal's throat making a single incision incising the main structures of the neck and allowing the blood to drain out. Islamic dietary laws
require a similar procedure
.
The animal must be killed by a shochet (religious slaughterer also known in Hebrew as shochet ubodek (slaughterer and inspector). An inspection is mandatory and the animal is rejected for Jewish consumption if certain imperfections are discovered. A shochet must be a God fearing Jew of consistent religious practice. The training period for a shochet is from three to five years, although to qualify as a slaughterer of chickens only can be achieved with a shorter period of study.)
Regarding cattle, the animal can be in a number of positions; when the animal is lying on its back, this is referred to as shechita munachat in a standing position it is known as shechita me'umedet.
. This method of slaughtering animals consists of a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular vein
s and carotid arteries of both sides but leaving the spinal cord
intact. The objective of this technique is to more effectively drain the body of the animal's blood, resulting in more hygienic meat, and to minimize the pain and agony for the animal.
, from the 1840s onward. Most of them have been removed. Although ostensibly introduced for reasons of animal welfare, the consistent involvement of antisemites in the campaigns from the outset in the 1840s lead to the conclusion that the purpose of the campaigns was to impose restrictions on Jews at a time when they were just beginning to achieve enfranchisement.
soldiers who worshiped Mithras.
. Jhatka
is the proscribed method for Hindu Ritual sacrifice, however other methods such as strangulation and the use of a wooden spile (sphya) driven into the heart is used. The reason for this is that priest saw the animal making a noise as a bad omen. Jhatka requires the instant killing of the animal in a single decapitating
blow with an axe or sword. Those Hindus who do eat meat prescribe jhatka.
It is to be noted that certain sections of Sikh society are opposed to this ritual and there exists a debate abouts religious roots within Sikh society.
Monica Hunter in her 1936 study of the Mpondo people of the Transkei
described the ritual:
The bellowing of the animal is supposed to represent communication with the ancestors. (David Welsh
2007 http://www.ever-fasternews.com/index.php?php_action=read_article&article_id=363)
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....
manner. Ritual slaughter involves a prescribed method of slaughtering an animal for food production purposes. Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature...
by contrast involves motives beyond mere food production.
The current term in use that includes Jewish and Muslim slaughter together is Religious slaughter
History
Walter BurkertWalter Burkert
Walter Burkert is a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult.An emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he also has taught in the United Kingdom and the United States...
in Homo Necans
Homo necans
Homo 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...
discusses animal sacrifice as arising from the anthropological transition to hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
. With the domestication of livestock, the hunt was gradually replaced by the slaughter of livestock, and hunting rituals were consequently transformed to the context of slaughter.
In antiquity, ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice was one and the same. Thus, as argued by Detienne et al. (1989), for the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, consumption of meat not slaughtered ritually was unthinkable, so that beyond being a tribute to the gods, Greek animal sacrifice marked a cultural boundary, separating "Hellenes" from "barbarians". Greek animal sacrifice was christianized into slaughter ceremonies involving Greek Orthodox Christian ritual, known as kourbania
Kourbania
Kourbania is a practice of Christianized animal sacrifice in some parts of Greece. It usually involves the slaughter of lambs to certain saints...
.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ian slaughter rituals are frequently depicted in tombs and temples from the Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...
onwards. The standard iconography of the ritual involves a bull lying fettered on the ground with the butcher standing over it cutting its foreleg. The scene is attended by a woman and two priests.
Jewish Shechita
Shechita (HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: ) is the Jewish ritual slaughter for poultry and cattle for food according to Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
. Talmud – Tractate Hulin Shulkhan Arukh Yore De'ah. The method of slaughter of animals for food is the same as was used for Temple sacrifices, but since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, sacrifices are prohibited. The biblical verse explains that animals not sacrificed must be slaughtered by the same method, and today Shechita, kosher slaughtering does not include any religious ceremony, although the slaughtering method may not be deviated from, if the meat is to be consumed by Jews.
The act is performed by drawing a very sharp knife back and forth rapidly across the animal's throat making a single incision incising the main structures of the neck and allowing the blood to drain out. Islamic dietary laws
Islamic dietary laws
Islamic dietary laws provide direction on what is to be considered clean and unclean regarding diet and related issues.-Overview:Islamic jurisprudence specifies which foods are ' and which are '...
require a similar procedure
Comparison of Dhabiha Halal and Kashrut
The Islamic dietary laws and the Jewish dietary laws are both quite detailed, and contain both points of similarity and discord...
.
The animal must be killed by a shochet (religious slaughterer also known in Hebrew as shochet ubodek (slaughterer and inspector). An inspection is mandatory and the animal is rejected for Jewish consumption if certain imperfections are discovered. A shochet must be a God fearing Jew of consistent religious practice. The training period for a shochet is from three to five years, although to qualify as a slaughterer of chickens only can be achieved with a shorter period of study.)
Regarding cattle, the animal can be in a number of positions; when the animal is lying on its back, this is referred to as shechita munachat in a standing position it is known as shechita me'umedet.
Islamic Ḏabīḥah
Ḏabīḥah is the prescribed method of slaughtering all animals excluding fish and most sea-life per Islamic lawSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
. This method of slaughtering animals consists of a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular vein
Jugular vein
The jugular veins are veins that bring deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava.-Internal and external:There are two sets of jugular veins: external and internal....
s and carotid arteries of both sides but leaving the spinal cord
Spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
intact. The objective of this technique is to more effectively drain the body of the animal's blood, resulting in more hygienic meat, and to minimize the pain and agony for the animal.
Modern bans
Bans on ritual slaughter have been proposed or enacted in a number of European countriesEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, from the 1840s onward. Most of them have been removed. Although ostensibly introduced for reasons of animal welfare, the consistent involvement of antisemites in the campaigns from the outset in the 1840s lead to the conclusion that the purpose of the campaigns was to impose restrictions on Jews at a time when they were just beginning to achieve enfranchisement.
Tauromachy
Bullfighting and Running of the Bulls is still widely practiced in Spain and many Spanish influenced ares of the Northern Mediterranean and Latin America. It is a modern adaptation of ancient ritual slaughter supposedly imported by RomanAncient 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....
soldiers who worshiped Mithras.
Bali
Bali or Bali Sacrifice (sometimes known as Jhatka Bali) is the ritual killing of an animal in HinduismHinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
. 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...
is the proscribed method for Hindu Ritual sacrifice, however other methods such as strangulation and the use of a wooden spile (sphya) driven into the heart is used. The reason for this is that priest saw the animal making a noise as a bad omen. Jhatka requires the instant killing of the animal in a single decapitating
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
blow with an axe or sword. Those Hindus who do eat meat prescribe jhatka.
Chatka or Jhatka goat sacrifice
Ritual jhatka sacrifice of goats is also practiced by some sections of Sikhs such as Hazuri Sikhs an Nihangs on certain events of religious significance.It is to be noted that certain sections of Sikh society are opposed to this ritual and there exists a debate abouts religious roots within Sikh society.
Africa
Ritual slaughter is practiced in various African traditional religions. Zulu slaughter rituals have led to controversy in South Africa.Monica Hunter in her 1936 study of the Mpondo people of the Transkei
Transkei
The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...
described the ritual:
The bellowing of the animal is supposed to represent communication with the ancestors. (David Welsh
David Welsh
David Welsh was a Scots divine and academic.In the 1820s, Welsh was notable for his attempt to forge an alliance between the evangelicals and the phrenologists - then at the height of their influence...
2007 http://www.ever-fasternews.com/index.php?php_action=read_article&article_id=363)
Literature
- "Regulating Slaughter: Animal Protection and Antisemitism in Scandinavia, 1880-1941," Patterns of Prejudice 23 (1989)
- M. Detienne, J.-P. Vernant (eds.), The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, trans. Wissing, University of Chicago Press (1989).
- Roy A. Rappaport, Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People (1969, 2000), ISBN 978-1577661016.
External links
- Laws of Judaism and Islam concerning food including laws of ritual slaughter