lecture 7 Flashcards
human sacrifice
define human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is defined as the ritualized, religiously motivated killing of a human being.
In a survey of 93
traditional Austronesian societies, researchers
found that __% of the societies practiced human sacrifice
43%
why is caution needed when references historical evidence of human sacrifice
Ritualized killings may be an attempt by colonial societies to
dehumanize Indigenous peoples
as part of justification for colonial administration. Incidences of cannibalism was also likely embellished.
Cahokia: East St Louis, Illinois - Mound 72
AD 1050-1350
Long pit dug and lined with white sand. 39 men and women found in a mass burial
Mass grave contained the remains of 53 females ranging in age
between 15–30. evidence of strangulation. neatly placed.
The Ancient Maya
AD 250 to AD 1600s
“divine king” who ruled (with family)
CLASSIC PERIOD (AD 250-900)
- Human sacrifice
- Public events tied to religious beliefs and cosmology.
- to appease the gods for fertility, harvest, and protection.
- Social hierarchy reflected in choice
of sacrificial victims
- Methods of sacrifice varied, including decapitation, heart extraction, and bloodletting
- must be public
- sacrificial artifacts = flint knives, ceremonial vessels
Who was killed during human sacrifices
Criminals
Prisoners of War
Slaves
Children
4 Early Theories of Human Sacrifice
1.) gift to gods (Taykor 1871)
2.) ritual slaying of a god (frazer 1891)
3.) parricide (freud 1913)
4.) control misfortune (evans-pichard 1950)
4 later theories of human sacrifice
1.) scapegoat mechanism (rene girard)
2.) protein deprivation (michael harner)
3.) state control (barbara price)
4.) social control (joseph watts)
describe the scapegoat theory
- violence = endemic in human society therefore retaliation
- how to maintain social stability when in the face of propensity of violence
- “scapegoat” is chosen to be sacrificed
- the scapegoat (sacrificial victim) is the root idea of all religious ideology
describe the protein theory
- Complex societies with high population
densities had difficulties meeting the
nutritional needs
describe the political conflict theory
human sacrifice in combination with cannibalism stabilizes and reinforces an existing system
describe the social control hypothesis theory
human sacrifice legitimizes political authority and social class systems
predicts that the sacrifice:
1.) co-evolves w social stratification
2.) increases the chance of a culture gaining social stratification
3.) reduces the chance of a culture losing social stratification once stratification has arisen
t/f human sacrifice co-evolved with social stratification
t
t/f Human sacrifice affects the rate at which cultures lose social stratification
t
t/f Human sacrifice functioned to stabilize
social stratification once it had arisen
t
marxism and historical materialism
SUPERSTRUCTURE
ideology/cosmology
(art, religion, philosophy, games, etc.)
|
v
BASE
maintains and justifies:
means of production (tools, tech, land, materials) and relations of production (slaves, armies, property, aristocracy)
|
v
determines and maintains superstructure
what are the 2 categories of cannibalism
endocannibalism:
eating insiders
exocannibalism:
eating outsiders
franklin expedition
he presence of cut marks on approx one quarter of the remains
supports 19th-century Inuit accounts of cannibalism on the expedition
what is medicinal cannibalism
A Spanish medical text from 1732 discusses the power of meat from executed criminals as useful in love magic as well as for treatment of broken bones, smallpox, and general wounds.
Common in Europe through the 19th century for human fat rendered from executed criminals to be used for treatment of illnesses
what is Gastronomic Cannibalism
In cases where there may have been protein and fat shortages, eating the bodies of sacrificial victims
what is Ritual Cannibalism
Cannibalism used to be the normal treatment for all Wari’ who died of any cause, except for a few
circumstances in which bodies were cremated rather than eaten. In some funerals, especially funerals for children, all or most of the flesh was eaten
For dying individuals, the idea of disappearing into fellow tribes members’ bodies apparently was
considerably more appealing than the alternative of being left to rot in the ground
what is kuru
Infectious protein (prion) found in
contaminated human brain tissue
found among people from New Guinea who practiced a form of cannibalism in which they ate the brains of dead people as part of a funeral ritual. This practice stopped in 1960, but cases of kuru were reported for many years afterward
what is Vengeance cannibalism
Translations to enable conversion of
Indigenous Tupinambá peoples in Brazil by
Jesuit missionaries merged the theophagous
doctrine of the Eucharist with Tupi-Guarani
vengeance and Exocannibalism.
Because the Jesuits did not recognize the
presence of religion among the Tupinambá,
they ignored the devotional values that
underlay ceremonial cannibalis
The term Tupã rara (literally “to take thunder”
was the term used to describe the
Eucharistic to the Tupinambá), and the
consumption of a body was not unusual. It
was facilitated by using cauim in place of
wine during communion
Translations to enable conversion of
Indigenous Tupinambá peoples in Brazil by
Jesuit missionaries merged the theophagous
doctrine of the Eucharist with Tupi-Guarani
vengeance and Exocannibalism.
Because the Jesuits did not recognize the
presence of religion among the Tupinambá,
they ignored the devotional values that
underlay ceremonial cannibalism.
what is fetish cannibalism
Through the 1800s vampires feature
across a wide range of Victorian literature.
In 1897, Bram Stoker published the famous novel Dracula that defines the genre
Vampire stories implicitly ask us: Would
I pay that price for such freedom, such
pleasure? Would I trade the light for
immortality? Would I become a killer
to cheat death? Could this be who I am?
Thus, although the vampire has
great power, it is also a figure of pathos,
an outsider, and this fusion of
mastery and vulnerability invites our
complex identification with it.
