What about the time honored practice of the Europeans of burning there victims to death, slowly. It seems far more barbaric than any other method I’ve ever heard of. The mesoamericans ripped the beating hearts out if their enemy’s chest. And this has been labeled by the west as “human sacrifice”. The Spanish and others brunt their enemies at the stake, for much the same reasons ie. religion and it is termed execution. A white washing of Europe’s wicked history? Or a prejudice about people who’s land was stolen from them?
Personally I’d rather have my heart ripped out. Death in two minutes, tops.
An interesting factoid I recently read in the book 1491 by Charles C. Mann is that, corrected for population, all mesoamerican societies sacrificed fewer people than European nations at the time.
If you’re interested in mesoamerican societies, I highly recommend that book.
Yes, the motivation for killing was not just “religion”, but specific aspects of religion and narrower motivations within religion. The intent of “sacrifice” is different than the intent of “execution”, even if the result is similar.
That said, there probably was and may still be a perception difference about the barbarity of the acts that is unjustified.
