Blood, War, and Ritual
Religious Ecology, 'Strong' Culture, and Human Sacrifice in the Premodern World
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2144752 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel A Acevedo, Gregory Acevedo (0000-0003-2125-722X, Moscow State University of Technologies and Management named after K.G. Razumovskiy, corresponding author), Miriam Thompson |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 266-288 |
| Publication date | 2013-06-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological Forum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00664677.2013.805121 |
| OpenAlex | W2034774683 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 51 |
What social factors predict human sacrifice in premodern societies? After summarising key insights from competing theoretical perspectives that seek to explain the presence of human sacrifice in premodern societies, we empirically assess the explanatory utility of each theory. We draw from Stark's ‘moral communities’ argument and Alexander and Smith's insights regarding cultural autonomy to highlight how the macro-level organisation of premodern societies impacted the practice of human sacrifice. Using data from Murdock and White's Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, logistic regression models suggest that premodern societies that expressed community ties through religious ceremonies were more likely to engage in human sacrifice, while beliefs in spirit aggression are correlated with lower likelihood of human sacrifice. In terms of non-religious factors, societies that experienced frequent famine were slightly less likely to activity in the ancient world are partly a function of societal complexity. We conclude by specifying the theoretical implications of these findings
Argument (complex analysis) · Autonomy · Environmental ethics · Political science · Sacrifice · Sociology · Theology · Anthropology · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions
Sacrifice
The ritual process
Culture
The Strong Program In Cultural SociologyElements of a Structural Hermeneutics (with Philip Smith)
The Interpretation of Cultures
The Ethnography of cannibalism
Caníbales y reyes
Ritual, politics, and power
Rational Choice Theory and Religion
The archaeology of complex hunter-gatherers
Rituals of Sacrifice in Early Post‐European Contact Tonga and Tahiti
Slavery and Human Sacrifice in Yorubaland
Language and Region Codes for the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
Networks and Contexts
From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers
Very Local Structure in Social Networks
Cosmic Jaws
Religious Effects
Structure and Behavior in the Social Demography of Africa
"The Aztec "Flowery War
Aztec Warfare
Aztec Human Sacrifice
Testing Theory and Why the "Units of Analysis" Problem Is Not a Problem
Measurement of Cultural Complexity
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Culture and Practical Reason
The Ritual Process
Beyond Santley and Rose (1979)
Standard Cross-Cultural Sample
Religion as Context
Structure and Agency and the Sticky Problem of Culture
Public Opinion toward Equal Opportunity Issues
Religion and Deviance among Adult Catholics
Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom
Demystification, enriddlement, and Aztec cannibalism
The ecological basis for Aztec sacrifice1
Purple People Eaters
The Noneconomic Nature of Eating People
Love Thy Neighbor? Moral Communities, Civic Engagement, and Juvenile Homicide in Rural Areas
Thinking About Cannibalism
Economy, Society, and Myth in Aboriginal Australia
Moral Communities and Adolescent Delinquency
Micro Foundations of Religion
Testing the Hypothesis of a Worldwide Neolithic Demographic Transition
Consuming Counterrevolution
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |