Broad question. Human sacrificing has existed in almost every area of the world. Why did it go out? Was it because as things continued to stay good, cultures no longer saw the need for them and they gradually died out? Was it inevitable that human sacrifices would go out of style?
Why did human sacrifice go out?
- Thread starter MrNumbahOne
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Didn't the Romans accuse the Carthaginians of human sacrifice? If it was true, Carthage winning the Punic Wars might be enough to keep it in style. Tbh though, just have a culture that practices it become the foundation of modern society in the same way that Roman and Greek are IOTL. And get rid of Christianity too.
It was shunned apon by the bible. God asked Abraham to sacrafice his son as an offering, but found the gester strong enough.
So when Christianity became the strongest religion in Europe and the Europeans started travelling the world, any culture that had sacraficing in their society, were deemed "barbaric and savages" so people had to change or be killed.
Over time survival of the fittest, ment that human sacrifice was seen as a heretic and satanistic practice.
Was human sacrifacing norm even on year 100 in Europe or anywhere else in the world? Couldn't it disappear without Christianity?
twovultures
Donor
IIRC it did in China, falling out of fashion shortly after the Shang were conquered by the Zhou.
The celtics and pagan tribes of northern europe were said to have had human sacrafices, while the greeks made a law against human sacrafices.
Human sacrifice was formally outlawed in Rome in 97 BC and they did their best to stamp out the practice in all the territories they controlled.
It is true they accused the Carthaginians of human sacrifice, though it certainly did not stop the Romans themselves indulging in the odd offering to the gods when things were looking grim.
The Roman authorities sacrificed people during the Second Punic War after Cannae to get the gods back on their side by burying them alive under the Forum. A male and female of Iberian, Gallic and Libyan ethnicity. The three major groups of mercenaries serving in Hannibals army.
They also buried alive any Vestal Virgins that broke their vows.
Beyond that, I cannot really give a good reasoning why human sacrifice died out among the ancient world besides the rise of christianity and judiasm (it was spreading quite rapidly through the middle east and had its thunder stolen somewhat by Jesus).
Even that answer is rather unsatisfying as even before that there seemed to be a gradual decline in the practice and it may have altogether been rather rare.
I can just imagine if there were newspapers in Rome:
Praeco
Consuls Lentulus, Crassus Outlaw Human Sacrifice
Leading Senators: "This law is a threat to our way of life"
Praeco
Consuls Lentulus, Crassus Outlaw Human Sacrifice
Leading Senators: "This law is a threat to our way of life"
The Romans themselves weren't beyond human sacrifice in times of crisis. They sacrificed 3 people during Hannibal's invasion of Italy.
Christianity can't be it either. According to Pliny The Elder, human sacrifice was banned by Rome in 97 BCE.
I'd say in the West/ Mediterranean Basin, human sacrifice was doomed when the Romans outlawed it, if not later when Christianity and Islam rose to prominence.
In the East, it certainly went out with the rise of religions like Buddhism.
The Americas... well, I think we all know how that happened.
So, I'd say the logical conclusion is to prevent the widespread extinction of human sacrifice, we need to snuff out Buddhism. Without Buddhism, there is no Roman Empire (affects the Diadochi, intern affecting the rise of Rome), which means no Christianity or Islam.
Though Hellenistic states (and Persian? Did the Persians practice human sacrifice?) would outlaw the practice, I think we would still see it in Western/Northern Europe, Africa, and Arabia.
In the East, it certainly went out with the rise of religions like Buddhism.
The Americas... well, I think we all know how that happened.
So, I'd say the logical conclusion is to prevent the widespread extinction of human sacrifice, we need to snuff out Buddhism. Without Buddhism, there is no Roman Empire (affects the Diadochi, intern affecting the rise of Rome), which means no Christianity or Islam.
Though Hellenistic states (and Persian? Did the Persians practice human sacrifice?) would outlaw the practice, I think we would still see it in Western/Northern Europe, Africa, and Arabia.
I meant generally, not just in Rome and the Empire. At the temple of Atargatis in Syria they also sacrificed children by tying them in sacks and tossing them down the steps or throwing them in the Holy Lake, but the practice declined.
The Dacians used to toss 'Messengers' onto spears to send their prayers to their god, but that practice was stopped by a priest called Deceneus in the early 40s bc.
It is rather difficult to understand why it seemed to decline so rapidly overall.
They performed human sacrifice about as often as the Romans did; which is to say that it wasn't very frequent. For instance, one archaeologist estimated that at some point, there would have been about 25 sacrificed children buried per year out of a population of roughly 500,000 people. While we do have strong evidence that these sacrifices took place, the evidence also implies that the Romans deliberately overestimated the frequency of human sacrifice in Carthage in order to slander them. Finally, it's notable that other Carthaginian sources don't mention the sacrifices, suggesting that they weren't publically accepted or mainstream. TL;DR: Human sacrifice wasn't that common in Carthage either and probably wasn't a Carthaginian societal norm.
Proximity to the Greco-Roman world and the inevitable cultural influence that comes with that?
But then the question arises of what caused the Greco-Roman world to abandon human sacrifice for no apparent cause while it persisted in other worldwide cultures.
The people powerful enough to sacrifice others generally found the labour of their possible victims more profitable than killing them, so it does seem human sacrifice was gradually selected out.
In war, too, soldiers would fight harder if they knew there was a good chance of their being sacrificed rather than enslaved.
In war, too, soldiers would fight harder if they knew there was a good chance of their being sacrificed rather than enslaved.
There is apparent cause. The Greeks abandoned it much earlier as a way to differentiate themselves from other "barbarian" groups.
The Romans abandoned it, likely, in part because of the heavy Greek influence they had within their culture, but also because of why the Romans performed it. When human sacrifice was outlawed by the Romans, it was in the midst of one of the most chaotic and frankly terrifying moments in the late Republic, just after the Cimbrian War. The Romans, at least according to the books I've read on the matter, had a bad habit of freaking the fuck out when their luck looked to be running out, and would sacrifice humans like crazy. The practice wasn't outlawed in Rome because it was deemed vestigial or barbaric, it was outlawed because it threatened the security and stability of the state.
I have read about that practice before. Albinos in Africa are sought after as their body parts are used in witch doctor rituals. They will pay a huge amount of money for any part of an albino and these men are usually quite wealthy and peddle their magic to often very powerful figures in African nations.