Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of an animal to appease or maintain favour with a divine agency. Such forms of sacrifice are practised within many religions around the world and have appeared historically in almost all cultures, including those of the Sumerians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Germanics, Celts, Aztecs, and Mayans.
All or only part of a sacrificial animal may be offered, especially in the context of ritual slaughter.
Remnants of ancient animal sacrifice can also found in various contemporary practices, the bullfights of Spain, kapparos and shechita of Judaism, or ḏabīḥah of Islam, for example.
Read more about Animal Sacrifice: Ancient World, Hinduism, Buddhism, Far East, African Traditional Religions
Famous quotes containing the words animal and/or sacrifice:
“Certain anthropologists hold that man, having discovered tools, ceased to evolve biologically. Animals, never having discovered them, continue to fashion drills out of their beaks, oars out of their hind feet, wings out of their forefeet, suits of armor out of their hides, levers out of their horns, saws out of their teeth. Whether this be true or not, all authorities agree that man is the tool-using animal. It sets him off from the rest of the animal kingdom as drastically as does speech.”
—Stuart Chase (1888–1985)
“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)