Within archaeology, history and anthropology, for example, violence has been frequently explained by situating it within a ‘sacred vs profane’ dichotomy, with little attention given to the correlation-and even historical co-dependence-between the two. The point of departure for this project is that human sacrifice cannot be studied in isolation or on any essentialist terms, as it previously has been (Bourdillon & Fortes Reference Bourdillon and Fortes1980). The first is what is human sacrifice and how does it differ from other forms of violence? The second is why do people sacrifice human lives? This project, ‘Human Sacrifice and Value’, therefore seeks answers to two fundamental questions. From upper left to lower right corner: Thích Quáng Đúc (1963) the French Revolution (1789–1792) the Tollund Man bog body (fourth century BC) foreign fighters (2015) (photographs from Wikimedia commons). At the same time, the term ‘human sacrifice’ is something of a floating signifier (Smith Reference Smith, Patton and Ray2000 Girard Reference Girard2016 Schwartz Reference Schwartz2017) it is difficult to define, with some anthropologists arguing that human sacrifice is nothing but a mythical Western construct, ascribed to ‘others’ as a way of demonising them (Bremmer Reference Bremmer2007).įigure 1. Reference Watts, Sheehan, Atkinson and Gray2016 see also Figure 1), and policy-makers and the public today are constantly exposed to its realities. In this sense, human sacrifice is well attested throughout history (Campbell Reference Campbell2014 Watts et al.
Critical contemporary phenomena, such as suicide bombings, often defy easy sociological or psychological explanations, but may be motivated by a propensity for self-sacrifice and the sacrifice of others.
Human sacrifice relates to some of the most central political and societal questions of human history, as well as pressing issues on security, the current war on terror and modalities of power in modern liberal societies.
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