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Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Carrasco, David. 2013. Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions." In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, eds. Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson, 209-235. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Published Version doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.013.0011 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34814073 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF RELIGIO AND VIOLENCE Edited by MARK JUERGENSMEYER, MARGO KITTS, and MICHAEL JERRYSON OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTENTS OXFORD VNIVI,ltSlTY l'IlESS List of Contributors ix Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. lL furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Introduction: The Enduring Relationship of Religion and Violence 1 Oxford New York MARK JUERGENSMEYER, MARGO KITTS, AND MICHAEL JERRYSON Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in PART I OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore 1. Violence and Nonviolence at the Heart of Hindu Ethics 15 South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam VEENADAS Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. 2. Buddhist Traditions and Violence 41 Published in the United States of America by MICHAEL JERRYSON Oxford University Press 19B Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 3· Sikh Traditions and Violence 67 CYNTHIA KEPPLEY MAHMOOD © Oxford University Press 2013 All rights reserved. No parl of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a 4· Religion and Violence in the Jewish Traditions 78 retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior RON E. HASSNER AND GIDEON ARAN permission in writing or Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduclion rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope orthe above should be sent to the 5· Religion and Violence in Christian Traditions 100 Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. LLOYD STEFPEN You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. 6. Muslim Engagement with Injustice and Violence 126 BRUCE B. LAWRENCE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Oxford handbook of religion and violence I edited by Mark /uergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson. 7· African Traditional Religion and Violence 153 p.cm. NATHALIE WLODARCZYK Includes index. ISBN 978-o~19-975999-6 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Violence-Religious aspects. 8. Religion and Violence in Pacific Island Societies I. fuergensmeyer, Mark. II. Kitts, Margo, 1952~ III. ferrysnn, Michael K. 167 IV. Title: Handbook of religion and violence. ANDREW STRATHERN AND PAMELA J. STEWART BL65V5S094 2013 201'.76332-dc23 Violence in Chinese Religious Traditions 183 2012012032 9· MEIRSHAHAR ISBN 978-0-19-975999-6 PART II PATTERNS AND THEMES 10. The Religious Problem of Evil 13579 86 42 199 Printed in the United States of America JAMES AHO on acid-free paper 208 PATTERNS AND THEMES we use to fight evil will determine what the end result will be. Instead, Rieux con­ tinues, given the choice between surrender and murder, we should struggle against evil but not allow our illusions (either about it or ourselves) to devolve into delu­ CHAPTER 11 sions. We must be neither victims nor executioners. Camus fails to specify exactly what a disillusioned grappling with evil might ............................................................................................... entail. But I think he might agree that, at a minimum, it would involve clear think­ ing and speaking; that is, carefully parceling out evil's several whys and treating SACRIFICE/HUMAN each separately, its causers), its motives (s), and its purpose(s); this, even as the immensity of evil's horror lures us into confusion. SACRIFICE IN BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................... , ............................................... .. RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS Aho, James. "I Am Death ... Who Shatters Worlds." A Shudderiug Dawu. Eds. Ira Chernus and Edward Linenthal, 49-68. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. , Aha, James. This Thhlg of Darkness. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1994. DAVID CARRASCO Becker, Ernest. The Structure oj Evil. New York: Free Press, 1968. Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973. Becker, Ernest. Escape from Evil. New York: Free Press, 1975. Becker, Howard. The Outsiders. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1963. Berger, Peter. Irlvitation to Sociology. New York: Doubleday-Anchor, 1963. Burkhead, Michael. The Search Jar the Causes oJCril1le. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006. WHEN the archaeologist Saburo Sugiyama opened up a chamber in the center of the Camus, Albert. The Plague. Trans. Stuart Gilbert. New York: Random House, 1947. Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan, Mexico, he found a collection of Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. eighteen male human bodies crowded together wearing greenstone nose pendants, Durkheim, Emile. The Rules oJSociological Method. New York: Free Press, 1938. earplugs, and beads. All had been sacrificed and appear to have been high status Frazer, James. 1922. The Golden Bough. New York: Macmillan, 1951. adults. Further excavating the pyramid, Sugiyama's team discovered human sacri­ Garfinkel, Harold. "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies," American ficial burials along the four borders of the elaborately sculpted ceremonial precinct Journal oj Sociology, 61 (1956): 420-24. Girard, Rene. The Scapegoat', trans. by Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins (Sugiyama 2005). Some wore necklaces of small shell beads while others had the University Press, 1986. unusual adornment of collars with human maxilla (upper human jaw) pendants. Hitler, Adolf. Mei" KalllpJ (idy Struggle), trans. by Ralph Mannheim. Boston: Back disks and abundant projectile points appeared in some burials as well as a Houghton Mifflin, 1943. number of females who had been sacrificed and wore shell earplugs and cylindrical Jurgensmeyer, Marle Terror ill the lVIilld of God. Berkeley: University of California shell beads. The surprising discovery began a reformation in our understanding of Press, 2000. the ritual life and political worldview of the great capital that for decades had been Otto, Rudolf. The Idea oJthe Holy, trans. by John Harvey. London: Oxford University viewed as the center of a "Pax Teotihuacana." Previously it was thought that this Press, 1923. imperial city ruled large numbers of people and territories through a theocratic Peck, M. Scott. People oj the Lie. New York: Century/Hutchinson, 1983. Shaw, Clifford. Tlte Jack Roller: A Delilll]ucllt Boy's OWII Story. Chicago: University of system of persuasion and intimidation with little need of practicing human sacri­ Chicago Press, 1966 (1930). fice. Further studies of these ruins and the sites and inscriptions of the great Classic Simmel, Georg. The Problellls oj the Philosophy oj Hislory, trans. by Guy Oakes. Maya civilization in southern Mesoamerica have transformed our understanding New York: Free Press, 1977. of how thoroughly ritual violence toward human beings and human sacrifice, in particular, created and maintained social order while also serving as instruments of communication about cosmology and moral life (Lopez Lujan and Olivier 2010). We now know that human sacrifice is embedded in the social, pictorial, and literary record of Mesoamerica, which presents a challenge to interpreters of not only this cultural area but of our understanding of religion and violence more broadly. 210 PATTERNS AND THEMES ---SACRIFICE/HUMAN SACRIFICE IN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 211 Spurred by these discoveries in Mesoamerica, scholars have asked about the changes (Henninger 2005). Its common usage today extends to such acts as giving uniqueness of the forms of Aztec and Maya human sacrifices in world religions up a valued object or status for a greater cause or good such as sacrificing a pawn in (Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan 2008). In a surprise to some, it turns out that many chess tor tactical gain or a sacrifice bunt in baseball. But its more durable and power­ societies previously lauded for their sophisticated philosophies, magnificent bUild_ ful meaning of killing as a form of communication with a deity, gift giving, or expia­ ing programs, and the "rise of civilization" carried out human sacrifices and mas­ tion to a higher being points to its long association with performative violence. sacres to their gods as part of their performative traditions, ethical justifications According to scholars such as Henninger, a wide range of objects including and political philosophies. This widespread threading of human sacrifice withi~ animals, plants,
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