Human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the deliberate killing of a person as an offering to a deity, spirit, or supernatural power. It has appeared in some societies as part of ritual, political authority, or beliefs about death and renewal.

Ritual: A prescribed sequence of symbolic actions performed in a religious or social setting. Human killing became sacrifice through ritual framing, prescribed acts, and shared meanings.
Archaeology of human sacrifice: The study of material evidence for deliberate ritual killing in past societies. Burials and skeletal remains provide evidence beyond later written accounts.
Bernardino de Sahagún: A Franciscan friar whose sixteenth-century work documented Nahua language and culture in central Mexico. His compilation preserved detailed accounts of Mexica rites while reflecting a colonial Christian setting.
Animal sacrifice: The ritual killing of an animal as an offering to a deity or supernatural power. It shares sacrificial logic while differing in the victim and often the social stakes.
Religious humanism: An approach that interprets human dignity and ethical life through religious traditions. Religious debates over sacrifice helped sharpen claims about the value and protection of human life.
Sacrificial victim: A person selected to be killed as part of a sacrificial rite. Selection of the victim could express status, community membership, or ritual symbolism.
Shang dynasty: A Chinese dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BCE, known from archaeological sites and oracle-bone inscriptions. Shang royal tombs and ritual contexts contain evidence of human offerings.
Diego Durán: A sixteenth-century Dominican friar who wrote a history of the Mexica and their religious practices. His descriptions are a major but mediated source for Aztec sacrifice.
Execution: The deliberate killing of a person as punishment imposed by an authority. Execution and sacrifice may look similar materially but differ in purpose and ritual meaning.
Abolition of human sacrifice: The historical decline or suppression of ritual practices involving the killing of people as offerings. Its uneven history involved religious change, state authority, and colonial intervention.

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