A Literary Survey of the Phenomenology of Sacrifice

Abstract

Throughout the world, many adherents of different religious traditions still believe, especially in times of crisis, in the effectiveness of traditional religious sacrifices designed to meet their diverse needs. This paper is a literary survey of the opinions of foremost anthropologists on the phenomenology of sacrifice. It reveals that sacrifice is a complex phenomenon that has been universally found in the earliest known forms of worship and that an offering does not become a sacrifice until a real change has been effected in the visible gift by slaying it, shedding its blood, burning it or pouring it out. The paper proposes that as the meaning and importance of sacrifice cannot be established by a priori methods, every admissible theory of sacrifice must shape itself in accordance with the sacrificial systems of each religious tradition.