Fertility Rite

Fertility Rite

Fertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes: 'sexual intoxication is a typical component of the...rites of the various functional gods who control reproduction, whether of man, beast, cattle, or grains of seed'.

They may alternatively involve the sacrifice of 'a primal animal, which must be sacrificed in the cause of fertility or even creation', while there is evidence that 'prehistoric mother worship in the form of fertility rites is tied to human sacrifice'.