Human sacrifice
Offering of life
Human sacrifice is the ritual killing of a person as an offering to a deity, spirit, or supernatural force.
Ancient and indigenous cultures practiced it to ensure good harvests, appease gods, or consecrate important events: The Aztecs performed human sacrifice atop temple pyramids.
The term now appears metaphorically for sacrificing people to serve abstract goals: Workers were treated as human sacrifice to quarterly profits.
- AztecsPre-Columbian Mexican empire
- MayansPre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- ritual killingCeremonial taking of life
- atonementCompensation for wrongdoing
offering · anthropology · scapegoat · morality · taboo · altar · bloodletting · Carthage · divine wrath · deity · redemption · immolation · Phoenicians · wicker man · Druids · purification · Inca · sun god
Human sacrificelife preservation
Safeguarding against death
sanctity of life · reverence for life · lifesaving · humanitarian aid · rescue
Human sacrificeanimal sacrifice
Ritual killing for deities
libation · incense offering · prayer · votive offering · consecration
Human sacrificereligious service
Organized communal devotion
self-sacrifice · martyrdom · pilgrimage · asceticism · tithing
human, sacrifice, humans, humane, humanly, humanity, inhuman, inhumane, humanize