Child sacrifice

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For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation).

Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please, propitiate or force supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result. Similar in concept but different in meaning is the blood libel, in which groups (such as the Jews or Roma) are accused of killing children and drinking their blood. The blood libel was then used as an excuse to attack these groups (pogrom being one term for this kind of attack).

The practice has been believed to be central to some religions, made to a wide variety of gods, goddesses and spirits. These religions often depict the practice in myths as absolutely necessary to save the world from "chaos". In many cases, archaeologists have found evidence that suggests that the prevalence of child sacrifice in a culture (Carthaginian for instance) was probably far less than commonly believed, perhaps only as part of myths from some cultures. In other cases, archaeological evidence has confirmed the written sources, and even added new information that keeps the debate open.

References to child sacrifices have been found since the beginning of human history in many cultures.

• In Greek mythology, King Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigeneia in order to gain favorable weather for an invasion.
• In the Bible, Abraham is told to sacrifice his son Isaac for the glory of God, though angelic intervention prevents it; the binding of Isaac is one of the most challenging, and perhaps ethically troublesome, parts of the Bible.
• The Bible implies that the Ammonites offered child sacrifices to Moloch.
• The Bible (Judges 11:29) describes Jephtha, whilst under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, offering up his daughter as a holocaust in order to obtain victory in battle.
• Yoruba myths refer to "twin infanticide" as an ancient practice stopped by divine intervention of Shango.

Aztec religion is perhaps one of the most widely documented prehispanic cultures. Several missionaries documented the religious practices devoted to the water gods, Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, and a very important part of the ritual included the sacrifice of young children. (See Child Sacrifice in prehispanic cultures)

Archaeology has uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations. Some examples include:

• A young child was buried with its skull split by a weapon at Woodhenge. This was interpreted by the excavators as a child sacrifice.^[1]
• Sites within Carthage and other Phoenician centers revealed the remains of infants and children in large numbers; most historians interpret this as evidence for frequent and prominent child sacrifice to the god Ba'al Hammon. Greek, Roman and Israelite writers refer to Phoenecian child sacrifice. However, some historians have disputed this interpretation, suggesting instead that these were resting places for children miscarried or who died in infancy.^{[citation needed]}
• The Incan culture most likely sacrificed children. Their frozen corpses are still being discovered in the South American mountains. The first of these corpses, a female child who had died from a blow to the skull, was discovered in 1995 by Johan Reinhard.[1] Other methods of sacrifice included wrapping living children in their burial clothes tightly enough to cause asphyxiation. These findings corroborated the documented stories by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century. The practice itself was called capacocha by the Incans. One theory of why the Incans sacrificed children was that the children were to be emissaries to their deities. Archaeologists corroborated this theory with their own, that the child to be sacrificed met the Emperor and was the guest of honor at a feast before being sacrificed.^{[citation needed]}
• The Moche of northern Peru practiced mass sacrifices of men and boys.^{[citation needed]}
• In Knossos and dating to Minoan Crete, the bones of at least four children (who had been in good health) were found which bore signs that they were butchered in the same way the Minoans slaughtered their sheep and goats, suggesting that they had been sacrificed and eaten.

[edit] See also

• infanticide

[edit] External links

• Minoan Child Sacrifice

[edit] References