Editing Sacrifice (section)

== Theories of Sacrifice ==
While no [[scholarly consensus]] on the origins and function of sacrifice exist, multiple scholars have developed theories on sacrifice.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Robert Alun |date=1981 |title=Robertson Smith, Durkheim, and sacrifice: An historical context for the elementary forms of the religious life |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1520-6696(198104)17:2%3C184::AID-JHBS2300170205%3E3.0.CO;2-J |journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=184–205 |doi=10.1002/1520-6696(198104)17:2<184::AID-JHBS2300170205>3.0.CO;2-J |issn=1520-6696}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Weddle |first=David L. |title=Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |date=2017 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=9780814762813 |location=New York |pages=25-46 |chapter=Theories of Sacrifice}}</ref>

[[Edward Burnett Tylor|E.B. Tylor]] suggested that sacrifice could be understood as a gift to the divine, either valued by the divinity on its own merits, valued as an act of homage, or valued based on the hardship of the sacrifice itself.<ref name=":1" />

[[William Robertson Smith]] in ''The Religion of the Semites'' argued that the sole function of sacrifice was for humans to achieve communion with the divine. Robertson Smith based his theory on the sacrificial system of the [[Hebrew Bible]], where the eating of burnt offerings by priests brought them closer to God. Robertson Smith linked Ancient Hebrew sacrifice to sacrifices of [[totem]] animals, a claim which was rejected by later anthropologists.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Livingstone |first=David N. |date=2004-03-01 |title=Public spectacle and scientific theory: William Robertson Smith and the reading of evolution in Victorian Scotland |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369848603001067 |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2003.12.002 |issn=1369-8486}}</ref>

Influenced by Robertson Smith, [[Émile Durkheim]] in ''[[The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life]]'' argued that sacrifice served a dual function: social communion and divine communion. Working from ethnographies of the [[Aboriginal Australians]] published by [[Baldwin Spencer (anthropologist)|Walter Baldwin Spencer]] and [[Francis James Gillen]], Durkheim argued that the Aboriginal Australians sacrificed to reinforce communal ties, as sacrifices took place during [[Fission–fusion society|periods of social gathering]]. Both the broader [[Structural functionalism|functionalist]] explanations of Durkheim and the accuracy of his ethnographic sources have been questioned by later scholars.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Building from Durkheim's functionalist theories of sacrifice Durkheim’s nephew and disciple [[Marcel Mauss]] collaborated with historian [[Henri Hubert]] to argue that sacrifice is a form of gift directed to the gods with the social expectation that the gods would offer a greater gift at a later date.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hart |first=Keith |date=2007 |title=Marcel Mauss: In Pursuit of the Whole. A Review Essay |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/abs/marcel-mauss-in-pursuit-of-the-whole-a-review-essay/E46EDD8A3FEFB6A3474691F2E5F0D8AC |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=473-485}}</ref>

[[Sigmund Freud]], influenced by the Robertson Smith’s theories of sacrifice and by [[Charles Darwin]]’s theory of evolution by natural selection, argued in ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' that the sacrifice of a totem animal was a symbolic recapitulation of the [[murder]] and [[Cannibalism|cannibalization]] of the primal father. Sacrifice, Freud argued, was a [[Neuroticism|neurotic]] ritual to displace [[Guilt (emotion)|guilt]] for inner-psychic tension produced by repressing the [[Oedipus complex|Oedipal Complex]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

[[René Girard]] argued that sacrifice functioned as a temporary [[catharsis]] for the [[Mimetic theory|mimetic desire]] individuals have to possess what others have. Thus, sacrifice functions as a form of [[displaced aggression]] on an innocent [[scapegoat]]. Girard rejected Freud’s interpretation that the victim of the sacrifice was guilty, emphasizing that the victim is a surrogate target for, not a symbol of, collective violence.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=King |first=C.J. |date=2016 |title=Girard Reclaimed: Finding Common Ground between Sarah Coakley and René Girard on Sacrifice |journal=Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture |volume=23 |pages=63-74}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=ARPPE |first=TIINA |date=2009-01-01 |title=Sacred Violence: Girard, Bataille and the Vicissitudes of Human Desire |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1600910X.2009.9672747 |journal=Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=31–58 |doi=10.1080/1600910X.2009.9672747 |issn=1600-910X}}</ref>

[[Nancy Jay]] argued that sacrifice creates and maintains [[Patrilineality|patrilineal]] [[kinship]] structures. Jay observed that sacrificial rituals were almost exclusively performed by men. Jay argued that the shedding of “pure” blood in sacrifice by men contrasted with the shedding of “impure” blood in [[childbirth]] and [[menstruation]] by women, allowing patriarchs to ideologically justify the patrilineal inheritance of wealth and power.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raab |first=Kelley Ann |date=1997 |title=Nancy Jay and a Feminist Psychology of Sacrifice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002299 |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=75–89 |issn=8755-4178}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fink |first=Virginia |date=2013-01-14 |title=A Cross-cultural Test of Nancy Jay’s Theory About Women, Sacrificial Blood and Religious Participation |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol6/iss1/5/ |journal=Journal of International Women's Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=54–72 |issn=1539-8706}}</ref>

[[Georges Bataille]] in ''[[The Accursed Share]]'' argued that sacrifice in pre-modern societies was a deliberate form of [[conspicuous consumption]] of [[surplus value]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" />