if you remember from part one of this
series animal sacrifice seems to have
originated some time after humans
started to domesticate animals so the
question remains why kill animals what
does this do for a more settled
civilization like what we see in the
Hebrew Bible or in the greco-roman world
some scholars have tried to put forward
universal theories that explain animal
sacrifice across cultures and across
time like sacrifice as an outlet for
aggression but the reality is rituals
are embedded in their particular culture
so even rituals that seem similar on the
surface might have different meanings
for different communities based on local
concerns and local interpretations of
that ritual so since it would be
impossible to explain the meaning of
animal sacrifice for every single
culture throughout history I want to
focus on a single case study to
illustrate how animal sacrifice had very
real tangible effects on society ancient
Greek sacrifice called a thew SIA was
practiced around the Greek world from
around the 8th century BCE all the way
into the Roman period in Greek religion
a typical sacrifice might include
leading the animal on a solemn
procession to a sanctuary or to a temple
the animal would have been decorated in
wreaths or as horns covered in gold and
the procession would end at the altar
where the victim would be sprinkled with
water and a prayer would be said before
slaughtering it smaller animals such as
sheep goats and pigs would have had
their throats cut and bigger animals
would have first been stunned with a
blow to the head before cutting his
throat they would then collect the blood
in a bowl called ass fog a yawn and
sprinkle some of the blood on the altar
the thigh bones would be burnt on the
altar which was considered the gods
portion who were thought to really enjoy
the smell of meat and the rest of the
carcass would also be grilled and handed
out to the guests participants or maybe
even sold at the local marketplace so
what are these rituals doing for a
typical Greek society well notice it's a
feast
it's a ritualized feast and this is the
aspect of sacrifice that we often miss
we focus on the killing of the animal
but we don't focus on what happens
afterwards in greco-roman society the
meat was distributed
Eitan and sometimes even sold at a
marketplace sacrifice here is serving a
very tangible role in an ancient Greek
or Roman city not only is it trying to
please the gods but the sacrifice also
provides food for the people in a world
where meat was rare and expensive
sacrifice in the greco-roman world was
something that people would have viewed
favorably and seen as a public good
moreover animal sacrifice here is
establishing and maintaining a social
hierarchy between normal people and a
priesthood vested with the authority to
kill and distribute the animal the
scholar Nancy Jay argues that animal
sacrifice serves to establish and
maintain a male-dominated social order
since sacrifice frequently is controlled
by male-only priesthoods who had passed
down their power through a line of other
male priests so from this example of
greco-roman society we not only see the
nitty-gritty details of what happened
during a sacrifice but we also see some
of the theory behind it why societies
might have actually participated in
animal sacrifice ideas of ownership
religious authority and resource
scarcity underlie this ritual moreover
we see yet another example of how humans
ritualized normal everyday actions one
way that we can define ritual is taking
everyday actions and setting them apart
giving them a sense of significance
butchering distributing and eating an
animal is just a normal action that
would have happened everywhere in a
pre-industrial society but when you do
this at a temple when it's conducted by
a ritual specialist suddenly we're
dealing with a special action a ritual
but keep in mind that the people that
were participating in this ritual were
not necessarily thinking about the
meaning underlying the ritual some Greek
wasn't thinking to himself I am
participating in a ritual that not only
upholds social cohesion but establishes
a male-dominated priesthood no they were
just participating in something that was
common sense to them in their society
for your typical Greek or Roman it was a
habitual practice and was woven into the
fabric of daily life in your typical
Greek or Roman city as always thanks for
watching