1 CHAPTER ONE 1.1 INTRODUCTION Much Has Been

CHAPTER ONE 1.1 INTRODUCTION Much has been written about sacrificial performances within Christendom, in the Bible (Young, 1975; Kodell, 1988), world religions and African traditional religions, including some tribal, traditional religious groups of South Africa (Awolalu, 1973; Ukpong, 1982; Mbiti, 1975; Magesa, 1997 and Ngubane, 1977). It seems as though all the areas connected to sacrificial performances have already been invaded through academic exploration. However, one of the rhetorical questions relevant to all this remains unexploited. This dissertation will attempt to uncover this mystery. But, before this, let us attempt to uncover the meaning, as well as some interpretations, of the concept of sacrifice in general. This study will look at the definition of the concept of sacrifice, the classification of the concept, how it can be classified, instances occurring in everyday life, human and divine benefits of sacrifice, and sacrificial ideologies. It will then go on to discuss sacrificial interpretations, that is, sacrifice as a gift exchange and renunciation, the sacramental sacrificial meal, sacrifice as a communicative act, sacrifice as a purifying power, as well as some spiritualised modes of sacrifice. Following this will be a statement of the problem, outline of the study, motivation for the study, as well as its hypothesis and methodology. Finally, this study will draw conclusions. Therefore, it is appropriate to begin with a definition of the concept of sacrifice. 1.1.1 Definition of the concept of sacrifice Sacrificial performances play a significant role in the religions of the world. “They are most of the time very complicated ritual performances through which communication between worshippers and spirit beings may be made viable, impeded and severed” (Von Stuckrad, 2006:1657). Attempts to define the “concept of sacrifice” have revealed that it is “problematic”, given the fact that such differentiations in “religious phenomena” are known under “sacrifice” as “Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement, votive gifts, and animal sacrifices, that are basically distinct, in the intentions of actors as well as in the main theological picture and faith systems” (Von Stuckrad, 2006:1657). Van Baal claims that there is a difference of meaning between sacrifice and offering: “an offering is that act of presenting something to a supernatural being, a sacrifice an offering accompanied by the ritual killing of the object of the offering” (Van Baal, 1976:161). This meaning seems too narrow, since killing is only applicable to “living beings, animals, human beings and not to some other sacrificial materials such as food stuffs, drink offering and libations”. A “supernatural being with supernatural power” constitutes the most critical element that the worshipper desires to relate to and stay in communion with (Eliade, 1 1987:544). According to Eliade, bloodless sacrifices also include “consecration of human beings and animals” (Eliade, 1987:546). A sacrifice is” a cultic act in which objects were set apart or consecrated and offered to a god or some other supernatural power” (Fahert, 1977:128b). Therefore, the ideas of “bloodless and bloody offerings” (sacrifices) are to be taken into account. Blood functions as an important “power-laden substance that brings fertility”; it is moistened over the fields in order to increase the harvest. “Head-hunting and human sacrifices belong to the same complex of ideas and rites”. The compound term “human sacrifices” has to do with all “cultic killings” of human beings. This also includes “self-inflicted death…the complete laying down of one’s life in order to pay a debt or to make atonement” (Obstat, 1967:831). Blood rites are often combined with fertility concepts. Usually, blood sacrifices are primarily made from “domesticated animals” (sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, fowl, horses and camels). The objective of the sacrifice will determine the characteristics of the sacrificial animal. Brightly coloured animal victims are sacrificed to the divinity of the sky, and black animals to the divinity of the “underworld and the dead, or to feared demonic beings” (Eliade, 1987:545-546 - see Zulu sacrificial thoughts later on in this dissertation). Therefore, let us now look at the classification of the concept of sacrifice. 1.1.2 Classification of the concept of sacrifice The words that are used for the concept of sacrifice are not only clear, but are also ambiguous. In other modern languages, the word for “sacrifice” is not a “scientific concept, but a loan word”, coined from the church Latin word Operari: “to serve God through works”. Modern, everyday speech therefore uses the word “sacrifice”, on the one hand, in keeping with Christian moral conceptualizations, for the designation of non-ritualised, ethical activities, distinguished by renunciation, suggesting “painful loss for a higher end”. For instance, one sacrifices a day for one’s family (Ubrurhe, 1996:13). Theological ideologies of renunciation can be re-formed and harnessed for political ends. In sacrificial ideology, the sense and meaning of cultic sacrifice is equated with giving one’s life for the good of the community (Hinnells, 1995:440). For example, one can mention soldiers of a given country in general, and freedom fighters during the apartheid era in South Africa in particular. However, this does not meet the objective of any of this dissertation’s rubrics. On the other hand, the meaning of the Latin word victima passively refers to the “sacrificial animal” that is given without its consent, or through exercising its will, and this “led to the now metaphorical altar of slaughter as ‘road casualty’”, or indeed, that which is produced as a sacrifice of the holocaust, that is, a whole burnt offering” (Hinnells, 1995:439). “This double meaning has been understood against the background of the Christian theology of sacrifice “(Von Stuckrad, 2006:1658). “These ambivalent uses and subtexts of words used for ‘sacrifice’ have led to conceptual confusion. Hence, modern religious studies seem more 2 precisely orientated in the context of the Latin concept sacrificium: sacred action: however, no unitary scientific usage prevails” (Eliade, 1987:544). How can we then classify sacrifices as such? 1.1.3 How can sacrifices be classified? Sacrificial rituals are classified in accordance with the make-up of the sacrificial materials or how they are used. Nevertheless, one can distinguish between “vegetable sacrifices, animal sacrifices, human sacrifices, bloody and non-bloody sacrifices, or again, immersion sacrifices, drink sacrifices (libations), and sacrifices of annihilation” (Hinnells, 1995:439-440). Typologies have more to do with the actors’ motivations that support “sacrificial rituals; the traditional categories of praise, thanksgiving, impetration, and satisfaction would correspond here” (Eliade, 1995:545). Theoretical works, as well as those concerned with description, “classification and sacrificial types, frequently overlap” if sacrifice is “conceptualized as an action performed by human beings, one effectuating a symbolic exchange with gods or spirits”. Thus, in a “communicative structure then, the ‘connecting’ type of sacrifice versus the ‘dividing’ will be conceived as following: sacrifices are then rituals performed by the actors in order to produce or to discontinue a communication with the sacred region, the divine powers” (Von Stuckrad, 2006:1659). The type of sacrifice that connects the worshipper to a deity is equivalent to “sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving and impetration”. In fact, the material of the sacrifice that generates “connection between human and spirit beings, and in the course of communicative process, human intercourse is withdrawn, destroyed” (Hubert & Mauss, 1968:11). Some examples of a connecting aspect would be the “food sacrifices” in African religions, or votive gifts based on the Do ut des concept - “I give in order that you give”. In the “dividing type of sacrifice, the ritual process is set in motion in order to break off the contact with spiritual beings by means of a communicative act” (Obstat, 1967:831). Thus, in the African rite of the “exchange of heads”, evil, psychic or physical infirmity is transferred from the head of the patient to that of the sacrificial cock- interpreted as a “quest for a homecoming” on behalf of the malevolent spiritual being. The animal is then exposed or slain, that is, offered as a whole to the deity in question (Figge, 1973:131-132). In scapegoat rituals, however, the meal to be eaten by human beings is absent (Von Stuckrad, 2006:1659). What are the occasions for sacrifices in the real world? 1.1.4 Instances occurring in everyday life Convenient opportunities for sacrifices that emerge in everyday life are as numerous as the circumstances in which human beings are forced to live – here, sacrifices are made in order to secure the benefaction of the deity out of actual need, to give thanks to it (sacrifices of thanksgiving, first fruits, thanksgiving 3 festivals after harvests), to increase the fertility of the field through the use of sacrificial blood and other matter (“agrarian religion and agrarian magic”), to appease the wrath of the deity or cleanse the community (scapegoat), or to make the dead friendly by placing food and drink offerings on their graves (sacrifices to the dead). Sacrificial acts can also form sets of complicated rituals, for instance, of prophecy: or the “sacrificial reading of the innards of the slain animal, or of initiation or feasts” (Von Stuckrad,

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