Human sacrifice (Anthropology Of Religion)

The use of sacrificial language is a given widely certified by the first Christian authors to describe the redeeming death of Christ and of Christian moral behavior. This article aims to highlight the hermeneutical strategies employed in dissociating the sacrifice of Christ and of Christians from the connections with Jewish ritual and pagan superstition. From the Patristic period onwards, it is therefore possible to find some criteria to offer to today’s theological research on the use of the references to the world of sacrifices in the proclamation of the faith and that of Christian morals.

General Theme - an attempt to explain "fittest" and "fitness" language with a nod toward evolutionary theory to note how Jesus Christ in his flesh flipped that understanding on its head. In essence, the fittest does not survive, but sacrifices and is sacrificed.

I grew up in Mexico and I have been a Christian for 22 years. I have frequent interactions with skeptics and Christian Spanish-speakers alike in the United States. Sooner or later the question of the eternal destiny of the unevangelized Aztecs comes up: if Christ is the only way to God, what happened to the Aztecs? If God is just, did he provide a way for them to be saved? Why did God allow the conquistadors to commit genocide on such a rich culture?
These are poignant questions that deserve fair answers. In this document I will argue that in fact God provided a way for the Aztecs, and other pre-Columbian cultures to be saved, but it is unlikely that they responded favorably to God’s natural revelation given the similarity of their sin with that of the ancient Canaanites.

The Minoan civilization of Crete survived from the 3rd millennium to the 1st millennium BCE. By the 2nd millennium BCE, Minoan society shaped into a highly differentiated complex society, with a diverse division of labor and permanent social statuses, manifest not least in its ceremonial courtyard complexes, known as "palaces," its depiction of ritual behavior, and its religious iconography. Along with this came an affluent Minoan culture, teeming with labyrinthine palaces, beautiful frescoes, and intriguing ritual life. Unfortunately for scholars, the Minoan scripts, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A, have not yet been deciphered and so there is no linguistic evidence to assist in understanding more about Minoan life. Scholars rely heavily on archaeological information, such as material culture and human remains, in order to understand Minoan society.

Resumen. Este artículo examina las tragedias de honra conyugal de Calderón de la Barca a partir de los esquemas hermenéuticos propuestos por Réné Girard. Estos se muestran especialmente útiles para analizar la culpabilidad o inocencia de las esposas, la importancia del código de honor como agente dramático o el mismo papel del poderoso, ya que de la interpretación de estas cuestiones problemáticas parece depender la recepción última de estas piezas.

Abstract. This paper aims at examining Calderón de la Barca's honor plays from a Girardian perspective. Réné Girard's hermeneutic theories provide useful tools to tackle controversies such as the spouses' degree of culpability or innocence, the importance of the code of honor as a dramatic agent or the role of the powerful, as the ultimate reception of the plays seems to depend on the interpretation of these problematic issues.

Human sacrifice is a well-attested and much mythologised phenomenon of human society, but what constitutes human sacrifice? Why is socially sanctioned violence considered sacrifice? And why are human lives sacrificed? New research uses archaeological case studies from Scandinavia to understand performative violence.

Chidra follows the figure of Ram Nath, a low-caste villager in the West Himalayan highlands of Himachal Pradesh, who plays a special role in the biannual Kahika festival: he serves as the “human sacrifice” that culminates the ritual proceedings. Over the course of several days, the documentarians follow Ram Nath as he and his wife make preparations for the festival and perform their various ritual activities for Ram Nath to take on the negative karma of the villagers through the chidra rites, rites that “perforate” the link between action and consequence and allow for the dispersal of negative karma.

The presented article deals with an issue of images of druids as human sacrifice performers found in classical sources and their later reception in the English culture and contemporary pop-culture. The main part of the paper forms a critique of the source material with an emphasis on the inter-cultural influences and styles of interpretation that led not only the classical authors but also some researchers to the conclusion that human sacrifice was one of the main religious rituals performed by druids. Author suggests that we must approach the issue of human sacrifices in Celtic religion with a great doze of skepticism when proposing new hypotheses in the field and always be aware which part of the examined material is based on the sources and which forms a part of the myth. The article concludes with a short description of contemporary image of druids in the pop-culture and the place of human sacrifice in these representations.

The city of Tehran contains countless murals of imposing dimensions, in various colors and styles, predominantly featuring portraits of the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). These paintings, which refer to various sociopolitical events, affect multiple different groups within the city: combatants and their family members, amateur or professional artists, public authorities, and more or less involved local residents. This article offers an anthropological reflection on the interactions between these different categories of actors and on the spatial dynamics and meaning of these images, both for those who produce them and those who see them. Based on observations and interviews carried out in Tehran, but also historical sources, published testimonies, and visual documents (photographs, drawings, and sketches), we analyze the progressive appearance and politicization of Tehran’s murals, and how they intersect with local affiliations, through distinct periods in the contemporary history of Iran.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Abstract: The clash between the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, the Pre-Rig Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes, and the Harappan civilization can be described as a world-historical dialectical conflict, in which the sovereign dominant culture subjugates the indigenous subcultures within its dominant caste system, through the ‘Sanskritization’ or ‘Aryanization’ of Ancient India. But the Pre-Rig Vedic and Harappan religions were not destroyed by the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, but were assimilated into Brahminic Hinduism, and reemerged, centuries later, in the Puranic bhakti cults of Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. The conflict between the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, the Pre-Rig Vedic tribes, and the Harappan civilization, is depicted in the Shunashepa story of the Aitareya Brahmana, in which Shunashepa, a subaltern member of a Pre-Rig Vedic tribe, the Angirasas, is recruited as a sacrificial victim by the Brahminic priests, but escapes being sacrificed by reciting the Rig Vedic hymns to Varuna. The Shunashepa story then describes the master/slave dialectic through which a subaltern subject achieves upward mobility in the Brahminic caste system by sublimating and internalizing the sovereign sacrificial discourse, although that upward caste mobility requires that the subaltern subject abandon their indigenous subculture, as Shunashepa abandons his father to be adopted by the Vishvamitra. By contrast, the Rig Vedic Vrishakapi hymn describes the precisely opposite situation, in which a subaltern subject (Vrishakapi) is denied upward caste mobility and finally sacrificed by the Rig Vedic brahmins. But the Vrishakapi hymn, like the Shunashepa story, still testifies to the survival of Pre-Rig Vedic and Harappan cultures in Brahminic Hinduism.

En Metamorfosis de Apuleyo la curiositas del personaje Lucio lo lleva a vivir distintas situaciones que tienen conexión con las prácticas mágicas. El primer encuentro de Lucio con lo mágico es de manera indirecta a través de una fabula (cuento, narración, historia) que escucha de dos viajeros, Aristómenes y el escéptico. Es en este primer cuento insertado que este trabajo se centrará y analizará los aspectos mágicos que lo rodean en relación con el sacrificio humano de Sócrates en manos de las sagae (hechicera, bruja) Meroe y Pantia.

In addressing an audience such as this, I am very conscious of the diversity here in the room today. I know there are women here from the various religious traditions represented in the North of Ireland. For some women this meeting will be their first on the topic of women and religion; there are some who maintain very close personal links with the Christian churches, and I know that there are others whose life-history and experience have taken them in very different directions. Some would describe themselves as "post-Christian." Others might be searching for new ways of reclaiming an ancient religious heritage where women and female symbolism were valued and revered. Their journey might have taken them beyond the Christian churches, and indeed the Christian story itself. Addressing an audience such as this is a very daunting task because we have come with very different expectations. The question that has been foremost for me as I prepared to come here was this: What is it that unites us? What is it that divides us? How can I speak a word that might make sense, and that might offer us a way of understanding our experience in relation to the religious traditions represented here? How can I speak a word that might make sense to us in the context of a province whose political and religious agony has been splashed across the world for the past twenty years? Does the question of the relationship of women to religion have any bearing on what has happened, or is it simply a peripheral issue of very restricted interest? I would like to begin by telling you a little bit about my own personal journey, and then come back to the question again. What is it that unites us; what is it that divides us? I was born in Dublin, and brought up by very pious parents in the Roman Catholic tradition. My father's greatest ambition for me was to see me becoming a contemplative nun. I was called, as I was frequently reminded, after the "Little Flower," St. Therese of Liseaux. Her picture hung over my bed all through my childhood. At the age of twenty I did indeed enter an enclosed Carmelite convent in England, not to fulfil my father's ambitions, but in response to my own religious journeying and questing that throughout all my adolescence had been extremely painful and intense. But my journey did not end there, and within several years I found myself at the University of Hull, in 1970, studying theology, sociology, and social anthropology. There I became involved with the movement for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church. During this time I wrote many articles, gave many lectures, and interviews on television and radio, on the question of women and the church.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The debate on alleged Aztec cannibalism should begin with the statement that history is written by the victors. In this particular case, the popular stereotype portrays the Aztecs as a death-obsessed militaristic culture mostly known for mass human sacrifice. The rituals described by the early colonial Spanish writers were massacres of epic proportions, during which men, women and even children were offered to the blood-thirsty Aztec gods. 16th century Spaniards who participated on the conquest of Mexico provided many accounts on Aztec savagery, the Aztec penchant for wearing ornaments made of human skulls and bones, or ceremonies during which people had been flayed and their skins had been used by the priests as costumes. It is therefore not surprising that the Spaniards accused the Aztecs of cannibalismin general opinion, human sacrifice is frequently accompanied by anthropophagy.

Ok, Children of the Corn was true classic from the days when Stephen King was the King of horror. However its true glory lies in marking an era where the Green Revolution has shown its true face as the unlikely Terminator. High-yield strains were developed and seeded everywhere around the world, supplanting most of the old gene pools and agrarian biodiversity since Neolithic Revolution to kingdom come. Especially so in the third or the second world, the Communist East being very much into the same ‘let’s have mutant, pest-resistant, gigantic, super-sweet corn’ wave. In fact, we could argue that much of the Eastern ‘collectivization’ was a more or less a camouflaged fertility cult celebrating chthonian energies, renewal and miraculous hybrids.

Аннотация. Статья посвящена понятию «айналайын», которое рассма-тривается изнутри жертвенного комплекса тюркского мифопоэзиса. Важное для кыргызской и казахской культур понятие «айналайын» описывается как семантический пучок и этнометафизический концепт. Его деконструкция но-сит двойной характер: философ ский и антропологический. В «айналайын» различимы несколько ключевых, включенных друг в друга смысловых эле-ментов: жертвенность, вращение, превращение, преодоление субъект-объ-ектной границы, символический обмен, «энергетика непрерывности». Особое внимание уделяется шаманству как истоку мифопоэзиса, в связи с чем анали-зируется присутствие понятия «айналайын» в заклинательных и ритуальных стихах-шаманских песнях и зикрах, сложившихся на стыке центральноазиат-ского шаманизма и суфизма.

At the beginning of the lyrical parodos of the "Agamemnon", the old men of the chorus declare to possess the authority to speak on behalf of the Achaean army and its king. Once their account of the events at Aulis has reached its emotional peak in the instant preceding Iphigenia's death on the altar of Artemis, the old men give up their authority to narrate. Instead, they choose to be silent. The present article examines this change of plan in light of the previous appearances, in epic and lyric poetry, of the myth of Iphigenia's sacrifice.

In apertura della parodo lirica dell'"Agamennone", il coro di anziani dichiara di essere in possesso dell'autorità per farsi portavoce dell'esercito acheo e del suo re. Una volta che il racconto degli eventi di Aulide, oggetto del canto d'ingresso, è arrivato al suo momento di massima tensione, quello che precede la morte di Ifigenia sull'altare di Artemide, i coreuti rinunciano all'autorità di narrare e scelgono invece il silenzio. L'articolo indaga questo slittamento sulla base delle precedenti attestazioni letterarie (epiche e liriche) del sacrificio di Ifigenia.

This doctoral thesis analyses the occurrence and context of human sacrifice in Old Norse religion. The aim of this study is to investigate the written sources that mention human sacrifices in the Late Iron Age Scandinavian cultures and discuss the interpretation of these sources. An analysis of the archaeological sources from Sweden, dated to the Late Iron Age, which have previously been interpreted as traces of human sacrifices have also been conducted and discussed in comparison with the written sources. The contextualisation of the human sacrifice in Old Norse religion is in focus and a structural categorisation of the social and religious contexts where human sacrifice occurred, as well as how this theoretical structure entails new interpretations of the phenomenon of human sacrifice in Old Norse religion is conducted.
One question in focus in the study is how to interpret and use the term human sacrifice in Old Norse religion. This includes a discussion of the definition of the term sacrifice and human sacrifice and their potential application in the study of Old Norse religion. An overview of previous research about the topic of human sacrifice in each discipline, from the first beginning of the disciplines in the early 19th century to this day is presented. The study also includes a discussion of whether human sacrifice was a living practice in Old Norse societies, in which contexts it appears, which conceptions are connected to the practice, and how it was reflected in the Old Norse myths. The contextualisation of the human sacrifices in the sources includes a discussion of who sacrificed, where and when the sacrifices were performed, which divinities were the intended receivers, who the victims were, as well as the potential results of the sacrifice within the society, what conceptions the sacrifice was connected with, and how the sacrifice is mirrored in the Old Norse mythology.
The primary source material has been given a prominent position in the analysis and the conclusion of the study is that the occurrence of human sacrifice as a living tradition in Old Norse religion up until the end of the Viking Age is confirmed. From a social perspective, human sacrifices have been useful to consolidate and confirm a prevailing or new power hegemony in the martial contexts where the victorious part use the vanquished enemy as a sacrificial gift to, prominently, the god Óðinn. Besides the religious experience, the sacrifice has also been able to confirm the political structure as the warlord affirms his claim and right to his social position. It concludes with the result that human sacrifices have been useful to maintain and confirm an older social order, when this has been exposed to pressure. A political development, connected to the Christianisation, occurs during the Viking Age and finally leads to the extinction of the human sacrifices as a living practice in the North.

Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press. ISBN 978-951-765-977-2

В статье исследуется специфика жертвоприношения в архаических верованиях и культах, а так же подчеркивается непродуктивность изучения жертвоприношения архаических культов через категориальный аппарат авраамических религий. Анализируются особенности архаического жертвоприношения такие как: невыраженный характер идеи искупления; тяготение его к сложной структуре, характеризующейся множественностью актов; подвижность сроков и места его проведения; отношение к суррогатной жертве.

This paper examines the Roman human sacrifices in situation of political violence, throughout the Republic and the Empire. First are considered the human sacrifices made in a private area, secondly the human sacrifices made in a public context. 15. RIVES, op. cit., 1995, p. 79.

The Incas carried out some of the most dramatic ceremonies known to us from ancient times. Groups of people walked hundreds of miles across arid and mountainous terrain to perform them on mountains over 20,000 feet (6,096 m) high. The most important offerings made during these pilgrimages involved human sacrifices (capacochas). Although Spanish chroniclers wrote about these offerings and the state-sponsored processions of which they were a part, their accounts were based on second-hand sources, and the only direct evidence we have of the capacocha sacrifices comes to us from archaeological excavations. Some of the most thoroughly documented of these were undertaken on high mountain summits, where the material evidence has been exceptionally well preserved. In this study, we describe the results of research undertaken on Mount Llullaillaco (22,109 ft / 6,739 m), which has the world's highest archaeological site. The types of ruins and artifact assemblages recovered are described and analyzed. By comparing the archaeological evidence with the chroniclers' accounts and with findings from other mountaintop sites, common patterns are demonstrated, while at the same time previously little-known elements contribute to our understanding of key aspects of Inca religion. This study illustrates the importance of archaeological sites being placed within the broader context of physical and sacred features of the natural landscape.

ABSTRACT: This documentary response sheet contains a series of sequential questions drawn from the video, Acorn: The Minotaur's Island (shown in-class; also available online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZ6JzBcXjU [95 minutes]).  These sequential questions aim to maximize both student attention to various pertinent points made throughout the documentary and greater retention of the materials covered by the documentary.  In addition, the documentary has been vetted for overall content accuracy (albeit updated and/or corrected in-class), and selected to provide supplementary visual aids (e.g., images of regions, sites, finds, and other materials), additional specialist views (e.g., interviews), and other data to aid in student comprehension of the course lectures and readings from the textbooks.  REVISED: Feb., 2024.

El sacrificio romano ha sido objeto de estudio desde distintas perspectivas y dentro del campo religioso. Siempre se ha estudiado la inmolación desde el punto de vista cultual, en el que se veía cómo hacer el sacrificio correctamente, el sacrificio dentro del marco vinculado con los dioses. Siempre se ha estudiado el sacrificio desde la óptica de uno de los elementos más que tenían los romanos para rendir culto a los dioses. Estudiándose este proceso cultual como una práctica en la que siempre ha de ser correcta.

En este sentido, hemos estudiado lo contrario, los errores que se producen dentro del sacrificio romano. Un funcionamiento del sacrificio que nos ayuda a definir mejor cómo se hacía y qué ocurría cuando se cometía algún error y sus consecuencias legales. De igual manera se reflexiona sobre no sólo el contenido erróneo del mismo, sino también la manipulación política y literaria que hay en torno al uso interesado del sacrificio. También la adivinación y los augurios, falseados o no, la selección del animal a sacrificar, los personajes más importantes que interactúan dentro de la inmolación, los ruidos y silencios dentro del mismo, así como la consecuencia económica, legal que podría tener cometer el error.

El sacrificio es uno de los pilares básicos dentro de toda religión en la Antigüedad, sin embargo, en Roma adquiere un poder capaz de estipular si una persona puede ser nombrada para un cargo, manipular unas votaciones o aplazar una reunión. También tratamos algo que también es poco estudiado, es el sacrificio sin sangre o incruento. Este tipo de sacrificio tendrá también unas reglas, cuidados y una praxis que es analizada para averiguar que realmente podía compartir los mismos errores que un sacrificio cruento.

El análisis para conocer todo lo relacionado con el sacrificio se ha realizado mediante el uso de la hermenéutica, el estudio de textos relacionados con el sacrificio, que obliga a emplear también fuentes epigráficas, arqueológicas, filológicas, del derecho romano, veterinaria o de índole paleoclimática. Cuya transversalidad es fundamental para completar el análisis de los textos presentados por parte de los autores clásicos.

Es también fundamental para nuestro estudio, por esta parte novedoso, de implicarnos en la observación de sacrificios animales actuales, para conocer de primera mano, dentro del sacrificio judío y musulmán, qué parecidos podíamos encontrar con el sacrificio romano y poder, en algunos casos, extrapolar al funcionamiento sacrificial romano, como es el ruido, el silencio y la liturgia que acompaña. Es el significado y parte del funcionamiento del sacrificio, lo que heredará la religión cristiana, pero en una perfecta combinación entre sacrificio cruento e incruento, la eucaristía.

Queriendo demostrar con todo nuestro estudio que el sacrificio romano no era fácil de hacer y que sería muy común la paralización, reinicio del mismo en prácticamente todas las ocasiones en las que se hiciera. Además, de esa manipulación a favor o, en la mayoría de las veces, en contra del personaje principal por parte del autor o de alguna facción política opuesta. Además, se concluye que los sacrificios se realizaban no sólo por adoración, sino porque es un medio perfecto de distribución alimentaria en carne y otros productos. Igualmente, descubrimos que el sacrificio se adapta a la mejoría de las condiciones del animal, cuidándole para que pueda ofrecer menor resistencia a la hora de llevarlo ante el altar y evitar el estrés muscular del mismo y poder así, tener un buen sacrificio.

Palabras clave: Sacrificio romano, inmolación, religión romana, manipulación cultual, delitos religiosos.


ABSTRACT.

Roman sacrifice has been studied from different perspectives and within the religious field. Immolation has always been studied from the cultural point of view: how to sacrifice correctly and sacrifice within the framework of the gods. Sacrifice has always been seen as just another element used by the Romans to worship the gods. This cult process has been studied as a practice which always must have been carried out correctly.

Here, we have studied the opposite: the errors that occur within Roman sacrifice. The analysis of the sacrifice praxis helps us to better define how it was done and what would have happened when a mistake was made and its legal consequences. In the same way, one not only reflects on the erroneous content of the sacrifice, but also on the political and literary manipulation that exists in and around the self-interested use of sacrifice. Also, the divination and the auguries, falsified or not, the selection of the animal to be sacrificed, the most important characters that interact in the act of immolation, the noises and silences, as well as the economic and legal consequences that committing an error might have implied.

Sacrifice is one of the basic pillars within all ancient religions, however, in Rome it acquires a power capable of stipulating if a person is appointed to a position or not, manipulating a vote or postponing a meeting. We also deal with something which is not widely studied: the bloodless sacrifice. This type of sacrifice will also have some rules, cares and a praxis that is analyzed reaching the conclusion that it really shares the same mistakes as a bloody sacrifice.

The analysis to discover everything related to scarification has been made through the use of hermeneutics, the analysis of texts related to sacrifice, which also requires the use of epigraphical, archaeological, philological, veterinarian, paleoclimatic or Roman law sources. Here, transversally is fundamental to completing the analysis of the texts presented by the classical authors.

Because of its uniqueness, the observation of current animal sacrifices is also fundamental to our study. We must thoroughly understand Jewish and Muslim sacrifice, find out what they have in common with Roman sacrifice and we can even, in some cases, extrapolate aspects of these sacrifices to Roman sacrificial performance, like noise, silence and liturgy. The Christian religion would inherit the meaning and part of the operation of the sacrifice, but in a perfect combination between bloody and bloodless sacrifice: the Eucharist.

Our study shows that Roman sacrifice was not easy to carry out and that interruptions would have been very common, as well as having to restart from the beginning almost every time it was attempted. In addition, we must consider the existence of literary manipulation on behalf of the author of the presented texts, in most cases against the main character and reflecting the opposition of the less dominant political party at the time. Furthermore, it is concluded that the sacrifices were made not only for adoration, but also as a perfect means of food distribution of meat and other products. Likewise, we discovered that sacrifice was adapted to the improvement of animal conditions, taking care of them so that they would offer less resistance when brought to the altar, preventing muscular stress and therefore resulting in a good sacrifice.

Keywords: Roman sacrifice, immolation, roman religion, cult manipulation, religious crimes.

Il volume offre una sintesi generale e un'analisi critica della documentazione disponibile (diretta e indiretta) relativa ai santuari fenici e punici chiamati tofet, esaminando le diverse proposte interpre-tative e cercando di prospettare nuove strade e di introdurre nuovi elementi. Dopo le prime scoperte archeologiche della seconda metà del XIX sec. e, soprattutto, dopo la sco-perta del tofet di Cartagine nel 1921, questi santuari sono stati considerati il teatro di sacrifici umani, in connessione con le narrazioni di alcuni autori di lingua greco-romana e con la tradizione biblica relativa a Molek/Moloch. A queste ipotesi interpretative si sono affiancate, a partire dalla fine degli anni '80 del secolo scorso, alcune tesi volte a negare in tutto o in parte l'ipotesi del sacrificio : esse considerano i bambini dei tofet morti per cause naturali e deposti in questi santuari per questioni iniziatico-rituali o come mezzo di comunicazione tra il fedele e la divinità. Il dibattito resta aperto: l'esame complessivo della documentazione non permette attualmente di « uscire dal limbo », cioè di prendere una posizione definitiva sull'argomento, ma soltanto di fissare alcuni punti fermi, escludere alcune opzioni e proporre delle ipotesi

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Откъс от книгата "Ведическа Индия: мит и саможертва", Николай Янков, Изток-Запад, 2020 г.

The book "Vedic India: Myth and Sacrifice" is a revised edition of the PHD thesis, entitled "Self-Sacrifice as a Prototype of the Vedic ritual system", defended in March, 2019.

If the motif of self-sacrifice is comparatively a well-known phenomenon in the context of the Hindu religious system, we cannot say the same about the place and role it played within the Vedic sacrificial tradition. The purpose of this book is to present more detailed and comprehensive research of the Vedic notion of self-sacrifice. This includes an analysis of the variety of religious strategics and sacral mechanisms, used by the priesthood to recreate the self-sacrificial myths. Thus it is revealed how these myths manifested in the ritual structure both symbolically and physically and how they affected the Vedic notions of life and death. The second major purpose of the research is to examine and analyze two little-studied subjects, which have a direct relation with the self-sacrificing myth: these are the cases of self-inflicted death and human sacrifice (puruṣamedha) among the Indo-Aryans. The accent of this work lies in examining, systematizing, and elaborating on the textual evidence, either supporting or rejecting the possibility that such ritual practices existed within the Vedicsacrificial system. For this purpose, I rely on various textual material but the main answers are searched within two extensive and significant classes of sacred literature. Being treatises, dedicated to the ritual, the Bràhmanas and the Śrautasutras give a thorough picture of the sacrificial institution of the Vedic Indians and the mythological models, it was built upon.

כדי להציג ולהדגים את גוון האמונה ההיברידית של אברהם נבקש להתחקות אחר שיירים של מיתוס זר, למתוח את הציר שבין נוכחותו בפועל ובין ייצוגו באופן אך סמלי, ולזהות את היסוד שמטשטש את הקשר ויוצר למעשה את הפער. בהתאם להגדרתנו "אמונה היברידית" (שתוצג להלן) ננסה לבחון כיצד באמונת אברהם בא לידי ביטוי היבט קבלת היסוד הזר תוך דחייתו, וכיצד לבסוף נפתר מאבק זה ומושלם התהליך ההיברידי.