Ah :smack: Managed to miss that. To busy going off to look up chapter and verse…and trying to remember that it was Jephathat’s daughter that I was thiking about.
It’s OK. I didn’t give the story, which I’ll bet isn’t well known these days. And you literally cited chapter and verse.
TygerBryght, I think your reply was a little uncalled for, and have opened up a place to discuss that.
Another pretty decent book along those lines, is Hans Askenasy’s Cannibalism: From Sacrifice to Survival.
Uh, no it doesn’t. Got a cite for that?
:dubious:
You have been misinformed, or believed fiction to be truth.
OTOH, you may go too far in the other direction, depending on who we’re grouping in with witch/wiccan/neopagan groups. If we’re including Ifa, Santeria and Voudoun, they do practice animal sacrifice even today, though not human.
Whether the Cartaginians sacrificed children as was contended by Roman writers is a matter of serious debate. The evidence is circumstantial at best. A cemetery of sorts in Carthage (knows as the tophet) was excavated in 1817, and housed the cremated remains of hundreds of young children. There’s no proof, though, that these were sacrificial victims. That’s simply a matter of conjecture.
Livy also notes that, during the Punic Wars, the Romans, at one point, sacrificed two Gauls and two Greeks, upon instructions given them in the Sybilline books.
And, of course, the gladitorial funeral games could be seen as a form of human sacrifice itself. The death of a gladiator in honor of the spirit of the dead man.
:dubious: Just out of curiosity, where did you read this?
Human sacrifice was also apparently found in early Egypt. See http://www.ancient-egypt.org/glossary/miscellaneous/human_sacr.html
-Lil
Care to provide a cite or two?
Incidentally, Good Egg, so I can place you. You’re the one who homeschools her kids, right? I think we had a bit of an argument over the merits of homeschooling when you joined? Just to make sure I’m associating it with the right user name.
I beg to differ; I don’t think *suttee *should be considered human sacrifice. And if you *are *considering it, then I’d like your definition for human sacrifice, please.
Yes, the Hindu attitude toward death *is *vastly different. Your post sounds like the early explorers attitude toward seppuku, and I don’t consider that sacrifice, either. Even the wiki article on human sacrifice doesn’t include it, and the article on *suttee *doesn’t call it sacrifice. I’m not saying it was a good thing, but there was as much culture behind it as seppuku.
Also, would it be too much to ask for cites for all of these? I’m not doubting anyone…I know the Aztecs & Mayans did so, for example, but it would be interesting to read all the same. And claims like these:
definitely need cites in GQ, methinks.
Thanks to all who did provide them. Fascinating topic.
No, I have no children.
So, uh, how about those cites?
Some online page of some fundie. I said I read the theory posited by this guy, I did not say I believed it.
Read what you actually said; the second sentence reads like a declarative statement, which is why you’re being called out for it:
It would be helpful if, from now on, you provided cites for things like that (“some online page of some fundie” doesn’t count, BTW, unless you can provide a URL.)
In Santaria at least, they eat the animals they kill as well. I believe this is also true much of the time for Voudoun, and perhaps in Yoruban practices as well.
It is mostly, but not always, true of Ifa. If the animal is killed for a blessing, it will be eaten. If it is killed to absorb a curse, it is tainted and will not be eaten.
I’m hardly an authority, but I would not classify Santeria or Voudoun as “neopagan”, and certainly not as Wiccan. (I’m not familiar with Ifa, so I can make no assessment of it.) Santeria and Voudoun are syncretist religions that had established traditions well before the modern neopagan movement began. Neopagan religions are generally considered modern religions formed as a deliberate reconstruction of pre-Christian beliefs and practices of various societies.
I have also never heard of a practitioner of Santeria or Voudoun referred to as a “witch”, except perhaps as a derogatory term applied by someone who did not share their faith.