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{{Short description|Ritualistic killing, usually as an offering}}
{{For|the Vengeance Rising album|Human Sacrifice (album){{!}}''Human Sacrifice'' (album)}}
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[[File:Sacrifici d'Ifigènia (Empúries).jpg|thumb|271x271px|''The Sacrifice of Iphigeneia'', a depiction of a sacrificial procession on a [[Roman mosaic|mosaic]] from [[Roman Spain]]]]
{{Homicide}}

'''Human sacrifice''' is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a [[ritual]], which is usually intended to please or appease [[deity|gods]], a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by [[capital punishment]], an authoritative/priestly figure, spirits of [[veneration of the dead|dead ancestors]] or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a  monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some [[tribe|tribal]] societies are [[human cannibalism|cannibalism]] and [[headhunting]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Michael Rudolph |title=Ritual Performances as Authenticating Practices |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |year=2008 |page=78 |isbn=978-3-8258-0952-2}}</ref> Human sacrifice is also known as ritual murder.

Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the [[Iron Age]] {{nobr|(1st millennium BCE),}} with the associated developments in religion (the [[Axial Age]]), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout [[Africa]], [[Europe]], and [[Asia]], and came to be looked down upon as [[barbarian|barbaric]] during [[classical antiquity]]. In the [[New World|Americas]], however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the [[European colonization of the Americas]]. Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare.

Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices as [[murder]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4098172.stm |title=Boys 'used for human sacrifice' |website=[[BBC News]] |date=16 June 2005 |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415502.stm |title=Kenyan arrests for 'witch' deaths |website=[[BBC News]] |date=22 May 2008 |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> Most major religions in the modern day condemn the practice. For example in [[Hinduism]], the [[Shrimad Bhagavatam]] condemns human sacrifice and cannibalism, warning of severe punishment in the afterlife for those who commit such acts.<ref>{{cite book|title=Shrimad Bhagavatam|volume=5 |chapter=26 |type=verse 5 |url=https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/26/31/}}</ref>
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==Evolution and context==
{{Further|Origin of religion|Magical thinking|Anthropology of religion|Life-death-rebirth deity|Fertility rite}}
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2022}}
[[File:Le Tour du monde-07-p101.jpg|thumb|Human sacrifice in the kingdom of [[Dahomey]]]]
Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationalisations behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice is typically intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. [[Fertility]] was another common theme in ancient religious sacrifices, such as sacrifices to the Aztec god of agriculture [[Xipe Totec]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Enríquez |first1=Angélica María Medrano |title=Child Sacrifice in Tula: A Bioarcheological Study |date=2021 |journal=Ancient Mesoamerica |volume=31 |issue=1 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/abs/child-sacrifice-in-tula-a-bioarchaeological-study/DD773D4781249E7D8D85D621B22927AD}}</ref>

[[File:Figurina di bambino nudo accovacciato, da tomba di bambino a Macri langoni T66 (123), 425-400 ac ca..JPG|thumb|In Octavius, [[Minucius Felix]] asserts that various ancient cultures engaged in human sacrifices, stating,  'It was a rite among the Taurians of Pontus and the Egyptian Busiris to sacrifice guests, and for the Galli to slay human or inhuman victims to Mercury; the Romans buried alive a Greek man and woman, a Gallic man and woman as a sacrifice; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped with murder, and as befits the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the blood of an evil and criminal man.'" <ref>'Tauris etiam Ponticis et Aegyptio Busiridi ritus fuit hospites immolare, et Mercurio Gallis humanas vel inhumanas victimas caedere, Romani Graecum et Graecam, Gallum et Gallam sacrificii viventes obruere, hodieque ab ipsis Latiaris Iuppiter homicidio colitur, et quod Saturni filio dignum est, mali et noxii hominis sanguine saginatur,'</ref><ref>Minucius Felix, *Octavius*, Book 30. Available at: [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/octavius.html Early Christian Writings]</ref>
]]

In ancient Japan, legends talk about ''[[hitobashira]]'' ("human pillar"), in which maidens were [[premature burial|buried alive]] at the base of or near some constructions to protect the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks,<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Japanese Castles |website=Japanfile.com |url=http://www.japanfile.com/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=HistoryofJapaneseCastles&back=CastleSection |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727160336/http://www.japanfile.com/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=HistoryofJapaneseCastles&back=CastleSection |archive-date=27 July 2010}}</ref> and almost identical accounts appear in the [[Balkans]] ([[The Building of Skadar]] and [[Bridge of Arta]]).{{cn|date=July 2024}}

For the re-consecration of the [[Templo Mayor|Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan]] in 1487, the [[Aztecs]] reported that they killed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. According to [[Ross Hassig]], author of ''Aztec Warfare'', "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hassig |first=Ross |year=2003 |title=El sacrificio y las guerras floridas |journal=[[Arqueología Mexicana]] |pages=46–51 |number=63 |issn=0188-8218}}</ref>

Human sacrifice can also have the intention of winning the gods' favor in warfare. In [[Homer]]ic legend, [[Iphigeneia]] was to be sacrificed by her father [[Agamemnon]] to appease [[Artemis]] so she would allow the Greeks to wage the [[Trojan War]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In some notions of an [[afterlife]], the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. [[Mongols]], [[Scythians]], early [[Egypt]]ians and various [[Mesoamerica]]n chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and [[concubine]]s, with them to the next world. This is sometimes called a "retainer sacrifice", as the leader's retainers would be sacrificed along with their master, so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

[[File:Arago – 'Supplice Sandwich'.jpg|thumb|[[Hawaii]]an sacrifice, from [[Jacques Arago]]'s account of [[Louis de Freycinet|Freycinet]]'s travels around the world from 1817 to 1820]]
Another purpose is [[divination]] from the body parts of the victim. According to [[Strabo]], [[Celt]]s stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Strabo]] |title=Geography |title-link=Geographica |chapter=Book&nbsp;IV, chapter&nbsp;4:5 |series=Loeb Classical Library |volume=II |year=1923 |via=penelope.uchicago.edu |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/4D*.html |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}}

[[Headhunting]] is the practice of taking the head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige. It was found in many pre-modern [[tribal societies]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Human sacrifice may be a ritual practiced in a stable society, and may even be conducive to enhancing societal unity (see: [[Sociology of religion]]), both by creating a [[human bonding|bond]] unifying the sacrificing community, and by combining human sacrifice and [[capital punishment]], by removing individuals that have an adverse effect on societal stability (criminals, religious heretics, foreign slaves or prisoners of war). However, outside of [[civil religion]], human sacrifice may also result in outbursts of blood frenzy and [[mass murder|mass killings]] that destabilize society.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Many cultures show traces of prehistoric human sacrifice in their mythologies and religious texts, but ceased the practice before the onset of historical records. Some see the story of [[Binding of Isaac|Abraham and Isaac]] ([[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 22) as an example of an [[etiological]] myth, explaining the abolition of human sacrifice. The Vedic ''[[Purushamedha]]'' (literally "human sacrifice") is already a purely symbolic act in its earliest attestation. According to [[Pliny the Elder]], human sacrifice in [[ancient Rome]] was abolished by a senatorial decree in 97&nbsp;BCE, although by this time the practice had already become so rare that the decree was mostly a symbolic act. Human sacrifice once abolished is typically replaced by either animal sacrifice, or by the mock-sacrifice of [[effigy|effigies]], such as the [[Argei]] in ancient Rome.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==History by region==
{{Main|Timeline of human sacrifices}}

===Ancient Near East===
{{Further|Religions of the ancient Near East|Minoan religion#Possibility of human sacrifice|Binding of Isaac|Jephthah#Sacrifice controversy| Iphigenia|Moloch}}

Successful agricultural cities had already emerged in the Near East by the [[Neolithic]], some protected behind stone walls. [[Jericho]] is the best known of these cities but other similar settlements existed along the coast of the [[Levant]] extending north into [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] and west to the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] rivers. Most of the land was arid and the religious culture of the entire region centered on fertility and rain. Many of the religious rituals, including human sacrifice, had an agricultural focus. Blood was mixed with soil to improve its fertility.<ref>{{cite book |last=Glassman |first=Ronald M. |title=The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. |year=2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNgoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA419 |page=421|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-51695-0 }}</ref>

====Ancient Egypt====
{{Further|Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifices}}

There may be evidence of retainer sacrifice in the [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|early dynastic period]] at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], when on the death of a King he would be accompanied by servants, and possibly high officials, who would continue to serve him in eternal life. The skeletons that were found had no obvious signs of trauma, leading to speculation that the giving up of life to serve the King may have been a voluntary act, possibly carried out in a drug-induced state. At about 2800&nbsp;BCE, any possible evidence of such practices disappeared, though echoes are perhaps to be seen in the burial of statues of servants in [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] tombs.<ref>{{cite web |first=Jacques |last=Kinnaer |title=Human sacrifice |website=Ancient-egypt.org |url=http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html <!-- retrieved 12 May 2007 --> |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Abydos – life and death at the dawning of Egyptian civilization |magazine=National Geographic |date=April 2005 |url=http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature7/ |access-date=12 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509215457/http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature7/ |archive-date=9 May 2007}}</ref>

Servants of both royalty and high court officials were slain to accompany their masters into the next world.<ref>Spencer, A.J. ''Death In Ancient Egypt''. 1st. Great Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1982. 68:139. Print.</ref> The number of retainers buried surrounding the king's tomb was much greater than those of high court officials, however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh.<ref>Trigger, B.G., B.J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A.B. Lloyd. ''Ancient Egypt: A Social History''. 1st. Great Britain: University Press, Cambridge, 1983. 52–56. Print.</ref> For example, [[Djer|King Djer]] had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb.<ref>Morris, Ellen F. "Sacrifice for the State: First Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites at Macramallah's Rectangle." 15–37. Print.</ref>

====Biblical accounts====
{{Further|Binding of Isaac|Herem (war or property)|Gehenna}}

References in the [[Bible]] point to an awareness of and disdain of human sacrifice in the history of [[ancient Near East]]ern practice. During a battle with the [[Israelites]], the King of [[Moab]] gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole [[Burnt offering (Judaism)|burnt offering]] (''olah'', as used of the Temple sacrifice) ([[2 Kings]] 3:27).<ref>{{cite book |first1=N.C. |last1=Asthana |first2=Anjali |last2=Nirmal |year=2009 |title=Urban Terrorism: Myths and realities |publisher=Pointer Publishers |isbn=978-81-7132-598-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EqWnqdsgZMC}}</ref> The Bible then recounts that, following the King's sacrifice, "There was great indignation [or wrath] against Israel" and that the Israelites had to raise their siege of the Moabite capital and go away. This verse had perplexed many later Jewish and Christian commentators, who tried to explain what the impact of the Moabite King's sacrifice was, to make those under siege emboldened while disheartening the Israelites, make God angry at the Israelites or the Israelites fear his anger, make [[Chemosh]] (the Moabite god) angry, or otherwise.<ref>{{cite web |title=Commentaries on 2&nbsp;Kings 3:27 |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/3-27.htm |website=Bible Hub |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} Whatever the explanation, evidently at the time of writing, such an act of sacrificing the firstborn son and heir, while prohibited by Israelites ([[Deuteronomy]] 12:31; Deut. 18:9–12; Leviticus 18,22-23, about [[Moloch]]<ref name="Manzini">[[Vincenzo Manzini]] (1 January 1988), ''Sacrifici umani e omicidi rituali nell'antichità'', Fratelli Melita Editori, pp. 64-65. {{ISBN|978-8840391281}} (reprinted by Gherardo Casini editore, Series "Esoterismo e magia", 2022, {{ISBN|9788864101262}}).</ref>), was considered as an emergency measure in the Ancient Near East, to be performed in exceptional cases where divine favor was desperately needed.{{npsn|date=July 2024}}

{{bibleref2|Leviticus|27,29|NKJV}} prohibits redeeming those destined for sacrifice (''Non redimatur, sed morte moriatur''). This concerned offenders condemned to death by penal ''[[Herem (censure) |Herem]]'', an [[anathema]] pronounced solemnly by God or authority, akin to the Roman ''[[sacratio]]''.[17] [[Canaanites]] and [[Amorites]] were punished by God without possibility of redemption (Exodus 22; Deuteronomy 13; Judges 21).<ref name ="Manzini" />

The [[binding of Isaac]] appears in the [[Book of Genesis]] (22), where God tests [[Abraham]] by asking him to present his son as a sacrifice on [[Moriah]]. Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. The story ends with an [[angel]] stopping Abraham at the last minute and providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be sacrificed instead. Many Bible scholars have suggested this story's origin was a remembrance of an era when human sacrifice was abolished in favour of animal sacrifice.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Susan |last=Ackerman |author-link=Susan Ackerman (biblical scholar) |date=June 1993 |title=Child Sacrifice: Returning God's Gift |journal=[[Biblical Archaeology Review]] |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=20–29, 56 |url=http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBR&Volume=9&Issue=3&ArticleID=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1= Lawrence E. |last1=Stager |first2=Samuel R. |last2=Wolff |date= Jan–Feb 1984 |title=Child sacrifice at Carthage – religious rite or population control? |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=30–51 |url=http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=10&Issue=1&ArticleID=2}}</ref>

Another probable instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Bible is [[Jephthah]]'s sacrifice of [[Jephthah's daughter|his daughter]] in Judges 11. Jephthah vows to sacrifice to God whatever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home if he is victorious in his war against the [[Ammon]]ites. The vow is stated in the [[Book of Judges]] 11:31: "Then whoever comes of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord's, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering ([[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]])." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him, and Jephthah laments to her that he cannot take back his vow. She begs for, and is granted, "two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I", after which "[Jephthah] did with her according to the vow he had made."<ref>(excerpted from Judges 11:34–39, [[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]])</ref> Jewish rabbis, [[Saint Jerome]] and Saint [[Augustine of Hippo]] state that the daughter of Jephthah was sacrificed, but not according to the will of the Judeo-Christian God, but in a cruel and arbitrary manner.<ref name ="Manzini" />

Two kings of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], [[Ahaz]] and [[Manasseh of Judah|Manassah]], sacrificed their sons. Ahaz, in 2&nbsp;Kings 16:3, sacrificed his son. "...&nbsp;He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel (NRSV)." King Manasseh sacrificed his sons in [[2 Chronicles]]&nbsp;33:6. "He made his son pass through fire in the [[Valley of Hinnom|valley of the son of Hinnom]]&nbsp;... He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger (NRSV)." The valley symbolized hell in later religions, such as [[Christianity]], as a result.{{npsn|date=July 2024}}

{{bibleref2|1 Corinthians|10,20}} affirms that [[Gentiles]] do sacrifices to [[demon|demons]] and not to God.

====Phoenicia====
[[File:Moloch the god.gif|thumb|upright| 18th&nbsp;century depiction of the Moloch idol (''Der Götze Moloch mit 7 Räumen oder Capellen.'' "The idol Moloch with seven chambers or chapels"), from [[Johann Lund]]'s ''Die Alten Jüdischen Heiligthümer'' (1711, 1738)]]
According to Roman and Greek sources, [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[Carthage|Carthaginians]] sacrificed infants to their gods. The bones of numerous infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times, but their cause of death remain controversial.<ref>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Higgins |date=26 May 2005 |title=Carthage tries to live down image as site of infanticide |publisher=[[Post Gazette]] |access-date=25 May 2010 |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510878.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918085258/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510878.stm |archive-date=18 September 2009}}</ref> In a single child cemetery called the "Tophet" by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000&nbsp;urns were deposited.<ref>{{cite news |title=Relics of Carthage show brutality amid the good life |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1 September 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/01/science/relics-of-carthage-show-brutality-amid-the-good-life.html?pagewanted=all}}</ref>

[[Plutarch]] ({{circa|46|120&nbsp;CE}}) mentions the practice, as do [[Tertullian]], [[Orosius]], [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Philo]]. [[Livy]] and [[Polybius]] do not. The Bible asserts that children were sacrificed at a place called the [[tophet]] ("roasting place") to the god [[Moloch]]. According to Diodorus Siculus's ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'', "There was in their city a bronze image of [[Cronus]] extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire."<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua>{{cite book |last=Salisbury |first=Joyce E. |author-link=Joyce E. Salisbury |year=1997 |title=Perpetua's Passion: The death and memory of a young Roman woman |publisher= Routledge |page=228}}</ref>

Plutarch, however, claims that the children were already dead at the time, having been killed by their parents, whose consent – as well as that of the children – was required. Tertullian explains the acquiescence of the children as a product of their youthful trustfulness.<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua/>

The accuracy of such stories is disputed by some modern historians and archaeologists.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Fantar |first=M'Hamed Hassine |title=Were living Children Sacrificed to the Gods? No |url=https://www.baslibrary.org/archaeology-odyssey/3/6/11 |magazine=Archaeology Odyssey |date=Nov–Dec 2000 |pages=28–31 |access-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>

==== Mesopotamia ====
Retainer sacrifice was practised within the royal tombs of ancient [[Mesopotamia]]. Courtiers, guards, musicians, handmaidens, and grooms were presumed to have committed ritual suicide by taking poison.<ref>
{{cite news |last=Parker-Pearson |first=Mike |date=19 August 2002 |title=The Practice of Human Sacrifice |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/human_sacrifice_03.shtml}}
</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bowe |first=Bruce |date=8 July 2008 |title=Acrobats Last Tumble |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32999/title/Acrobats_last_tumble |website=Science News |volume=174 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629213949/http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32999/title/Acrobats_last_tumble |archive-date=29 June 2011 |access-date=16 September 2021}}</ref>
A 2009 examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at [[Ur]], discovered in Iraq in the 1920s by a team led by [[Leonard Woolley|C. Leonard Woolley]], appears to support a more grisly interpretation of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia than had previously been recognized. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet death serenely. Instead, they were put to death by having a sharp instrument, such as a pike, driven into their heads.<ref>
{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=26 October 2009 |title=Ritual Deaths at Ur were anything but serene |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html?_r=4}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite magazine |date=27 October 2009 |title=Iraq's ancient past: Rediscovering Ur's royal cemetery |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v56/n09/ur.html |magazine=Almanac |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] |volume=56 |access-date=17 July 2020 |via=almanac.upenn.edu |number=9 |place=Philadelphia}}
</ref>

===Europe===
====Neolithic Europe====
{{Further|Neolithic religion}}
There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] to [[Eneolithic]] Europe.<ref>{{cite news |title=Human sacrifices as "crisis management" ? |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02785538/ |work=Science ouverte |date=2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='German Stonehenge' Yields Grisly Evidence of Sacrificed Women and Children |url=https://www.livescience.com/62939-german-stonehenge-human-sacrifices.html |work=Live Science |date=28 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Metcalfe |first1=Tom |title=7,000-year-old mass grave in Slovakia may hold human sacrifice victims |url=https://www.livescience.com/neolithic-mass-grave-slovakia |work=Live Science |date=3 October 2022}}</ref>

====Greco-Roman antiquity====
{{Further|Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Roman religion}}
[[File:Sacrifice Polyxena BM GR1897.7-27.2.jpg|thumb|The mythological sacrifice of [[Polyxena]] by the triumphant Greeks at the end of the [[Trojan War]]]]The ancient ritual of expelling certain slaves, disabled individuals, or criminals from a community to ward off disaster (known as [[pharmakos]]), would at times involve publicly executing the chosen prisoner by throwing them off of a cliff.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology. The human sacrifice in mythology, the ''[[deus ex machina]]'' salvation in some versions of [[Iphigeneia]] (who was about to be sacrificed by her father [[Agamemnon]]) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess [[Artemis]], may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

[[Human sacrifice in ancient Rome|In ancient Rome, human sacrifice]] was infrequent but documented. Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice, as human sacrifice was often looked down upon. These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010">{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=Celia E. |year=2010 |title=The Romans and ritual murder |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=516–541|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfq002 |pmid=20726130 }}</ref> It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] |title=[[Roman Antiquities]] |section=i.19, 38 |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |via=Penelope.uchicago.edu |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html#38.2 |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref> says that the ritual of the [[Argei]], in which straw figures were tossed into the [[Tiber river]], may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men. [[Cicero]] claimed that puppets thrown from the ''[[Pons Sublicius]]'' by the [[Vestal Virgins]] in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=Pro Roscio Amerino |at=35.100}}</ref>

After the [[Battle of Cannae|Roman defeat at Cannae]], two Gauls and two Greeks in male-female couples were buried under the [[Forum Boarium]], in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before.<ref name="z445">{{cite journal | last=Rosenberger | first=Veit | title=The Gallic Disaster | journal=The Classical World | volume=96 | issue=4 | date=2003 | doi=10.2307/4352787 | pages=365–373| jstor=4352787 }}</ref>{{pn|date=July 2024}}<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.55–57}}</ref> In [[Livy]]'s description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57}}</ref> The rite was apparently repeated in 113&nbsp;BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57.4 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Roman Questions]] |at=83 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Marcus Claudius Marcellus|Marcellus]] |at=3 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author1-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |first1=M. |last1=Beard |first2=J.A. |last2=North |first3=S.R.F. |last3=Price |title=Religions of Rome: A history |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |volume=1 |page=81}}</ref> They buried the two Greeks and the two Gauls alive as a plea to the gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of [[Hannibal]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

According to [[Pliny the Elder]], human sacrifice was banned by law during the [[Roman consul|consulship]] of [[Publius Licinius Crassus (consul 97 BC)|Publius Licinius Crassus]] and [[Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (consul 97 BC)|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]] in 97&nbsp;BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] |title-link=Natural History (Pliny) |title=Natural History |at=30.3.12}}</ref> Sulla's ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'' in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice.<ref>Paulus, Sententiae, 5.23.14–9</ref> The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste [[Vestal Virgin]]s alive and drowning visibly intersex children. These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition. Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and a special chamber was built to bury them alive. This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010"/>{{efn|
Burying the convicted unchaste [[Vestal virgin|vestal]] in a sealed underground chamber was also a way to impose capital punishment on her for criminally endangering the city by her religious violation, without violating her still-sacred status: Among other prohibitions, no-one could touch her person.
}}
Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome. However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace. Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment, the state of their bodies was preserved in order to maintain the peace.<ref>
{{cite AV media
 |medium=image
 |title=Frieze (Pentelic Marble; Ht. 29"; 1. 10 1/2")
 |website=Artstor |url=http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8CdEdFUgJjg1QEI8dzF8KBUrWHcmfV16
}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reid|first=J. S.|date=1912|title=Human Sacrifices at Rome and other notes on Roman Religion|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/human-sacrifices-at-rome-and-other-notes-on-roman-religion/CF02226957B67367A969D1D3BFA7D6E7|journal=The Journal of Roman Studies|language=en|volume=2|page=40|doi=10.2307/295940|jstor=295940|hdl=2027/mdp.39015017655666|s2cid=162464054 |issn=1753-528X|hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Captured enemy leaders were only occasionally executed at the conclusion of a [[Roman triumph]], and the Romans themselves did not consider these deaths a sacrificial offering.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} [[Gladiator]] combat was thought by the Romans to have originated as fights to the death among war captives at the funerals of Roman generals, and [[Christian polemic]]ists, such as [[Tertullian]], considered deaths [[Recreation and spectacle in the Roman Empire|in the arena]] to be little more than human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |first=Catharine |last=Edwards |author-link=Catharine Edwards (historian) |title=Death in Ancient Rome |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007 |pages=59–60 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |first=David S. |last=Potter |section=Entertainers in the Roman Empire |title=Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1999 |page=305 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Tertullian]] |title=[[De Spectaculis]] |at=12}}</ref> Over time, participants became criminals and slaves, and their death was considered a sacrifice to the [[Manes]] on behalf of the dead.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Piscinus |first1=M. Horatius |title=Human sacrifice in Ancient Rome |url=http://societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/human_sacrifice.php |website=Societas via Romana}}</ref>

Political rumors sometimes centered around sacrifice and in doing so, aimed to liken individuals to barbarians and show that the individual had become uncivilized. Human sacrifice also became a marker and defining characteristic of magic and bad religion.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rives |first=J. |year=1995 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice among pagans and christians |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=85 |pages=65–85|doi=10.1017/S0075435800074761 }}</ref>
{{see also|Parthenon Frieze}}

==== Carthage ====
There is literary evidence for infant sacrifice being practiced in [[Carthage]], however, current anthropological analyses have not found physical evidence to back up these claims. There is a Tophet, where infant remains have been found, but after current analytical techniques, it has been concluded this area is more representative of the naturally high infant mortality rate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. D. |last3=Bondioli |first3=L. |last4=Macchiarelli |first4=R. |date=2012 |title=Bones, teeth, and estimating age of perinates: Carthaginian infant sacrifice revisited |url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/086/ant0860738.htm |journal=Antiquity |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=738–745|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047888 |s2cid=162977647 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. |last3=Macchiarelli |first3=R. |last4=Bondioli |first4=L. |title=Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants |journal=PLOS ONE |year=2010 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 |pmid=20174667 |pmc=2822869 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...5.9177S |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. D. |last3=Bondioli |first3=L. |last4=Macchiarelli |first4=R. |date=2017 |title=Two tales of one city: data, inference and Carthaginian infant sacrifice |journal=Antiquity |publisher=Antiquity Publications Ltd. |volume=91 |issue=356 |pages=442–454 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.270 |s2cid=164242410 |jstor=|doi-access=free }}</ref>

====Celtic peoples====
[[File:What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is (14579559547).jpg|thumb|upright|A 19th century depiction of a wicker man]]
{{further|Ancient Celtic religion|Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula}}
There is some evidence that ancient [[Celts|Celtic peoples]] practiced human sacrifice.<ref name="koch687-690">{{Cite book |last=Koch |first=John |author-link=John T. Koch |title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-964-6 |pages=687–690}}</ref> Accounts of Celtic human sacrifice come from Roman and Greek sources. [[Julius Caesar]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Caesar]] |title=[[Commentaries on the Gallic War]] |section=Book&nbsp;VI:16 |year=1869 |translator1-first=W.A. |translator1-last=McDevitte |translator2-first=W.S. |translator2-last=Bohn |place=New York, NY |publisher=Harper & Brothers |section-url=http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/caesar/gallic6.html#16}}</ref> and [[Strabo]] wrote that the [[Gauls]] burnt animal and human sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a [[wicker man]], and said the human victims were usually criminals; while [[Posidonius]] wrote that [[druid]]s who oversaw human sacrifices foretold the future by watching the death throes of the victims.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |pages=60–61}}</ref> Caesar also wrote that slaves of Gaulish chiefs would be burnt along with the body of their master as part of his funeral rites.<ref name=caesar>{{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Caesar]] |title=[[Commentaries on the Gallic War]] |section=Book&nbsp;VI:19 |year=1869 |translator1-first=W.A. |translator1-last=McDevitte |translator2-first=W.S. |translator2-last=Bohn |place=New York, NY |publisher=Harper & Brothers |section-url=http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/caesar/gallic6.html#19}}</ref> In the 1st century AD, Roman writer [[Lucan]] mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods [[Esus]], [[Teutatis]] and [[Taranis]]. In a 9th-century [[Scholia|commentary]] on Lucan, an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Esus were [[Hanging|hanged]] from a tree, those to Teutates were [[Execution by drowning|drowned]], and those to Taranis were [[Death by burning|burned]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maier |first=Bernhard |author-link=Bernhard Maier |title=Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture |date=1997 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |page=36}}</ref> According to the 2nd-century Roman writer [[Cassius Dio]], [[Boudica]]'s forces impaled Roman captives during her rebellion against the [[Roman invasion of Britain|Roman occupation]], to the accompaniment of revelry and sacrifices in the sacred groves of [[Andraste|Andate]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Cassius Dio]] |title=Roman History |page=95 |section=ch&nbsp;62:7 |translator-first=Earnest |translator-last=Cary |series=Loeb classical Library |access-date=24 May 2007 |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html |via=penelope.uchicago.edu |publisher=[[University of Chicago]]}}</ref> It is important to note, however, that the Romans benefited from making the Celts sound barbaric, and scholars are more skeptical about these accounts now than in the past.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wells|first=Peter S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vru5XzGXkuAC|title=The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe|year=2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-08978-2|language=en}}</ref>

There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although it is rare.<ref name="koch687-690"/> [[Decapitation#Celts|Ritual beheading]] and [[headhunting]]  was a major religious and cultural practice that has found copious support in the archaeological record, including the numerous skulls found in [[Londinium]]'s [[River Walbrook]] and the twelve headless corpses at the Gaulish sanctuary of [[Gournay-sur-Aronde]].{{efn|
French archaeologist Jean-Louis Brunaux has written extensively on human sacrifice and the sanctuaries of [[Belgic Gaul]].<ref name=Brunaux-2001-03--04-gallic-blood/><ref name=Brunaux-1990-11-08--11-sanct-celtqs/><ref name=Brunaux-2000-mort-guerrier/>
}}

Several ancient Irish [[bog bodies]] have been interpreted as kings who were ritually killed, presumably after serious crop failures or other disasters. Some were deposited in bogs on territorial boundaries (which were seen as liminal places) or near royal inauguration sites, and some were found to have eaten a ceremonial last meal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Eamonn |title=The Archaeology of Violence |date=2013 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-4442-0 |editor-last=Ralph |editor-first=Sarah |pages=232–240 |chapter=An Archaeological Interpretation of Irish Iron Age Bog Bodies |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/3209307}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bentley |first=Diana |date=March–April 2015 |title=The Dark Secrets of the Bog Bodies |url=https://www.academia.edu/11790293 |journal=[[Minerva (archaeology magazine)|Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology]] |location=Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=Clear Media |pages=34–37}}</ref> Some academics suggest there are allusions to kings being sacrificed in Irish mythology, particularly in tales of [[threefold death]]s.<ref name="koch687-690"/>

The medieval ''[[Dindsenchas]]'' (Lore of Places) says that, in pagan Ireland, first-born children were sacrificed at an idol called [[Crom Cruach]], whose worship was ended by [[Saint Patrick]]. However, this account was written by Christian scribes centuries after the supposed events and may be based on biblical traditions about the god [[Moloch]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=65}}</ref>

In Britain, the medieval legends of [[Dinas Emrys]] and of Saint [[Oran of Iona]] mention [[Builders' rites|foundation sacrifices]], whereby people were ritually killed and buried under [[Foundation (engineering)|foundations]] to ensure the building's safety.<ref name="koch687-690"/> The [[Waldensians]] sect was later accused of child sacrifice by the Church.<ref name="Tice Wickliffe 2003 p. 19">{{cite book | last1=Tice | first1=P. | last2=Wickliffe | first2=H.J.T.L. | title=History of the Waldenses: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time | publisher=Book Tree | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-58509-099-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3v-YdBOpt0C&pg=PP19 | access-date=21 October 2022 | page=19}}</ref><ref name="Holmes 2015 p. 105">{{cite book | last=Holmes | first=C. | title=Immigrants and Minorities in British Society | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Routledge Library Editions: Racism and Fascism | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-317-38440-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9m9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT105 | access-date=21 October 2022 | page=105}}</ref>

====Baltic peoples====
{{Main|Baltic mythology}}
According to written sources from the 13th–14th centuries, the [[Lithuanians (tribe)|Lithuanians]] and [[Old Prussians|Prussians]] made sacrifices to their [[List of Lithuanian gods and mythological figures|pagan gods]] at their sacred places, [[Alka (Baltic religion)|alka hills]], battlefields and near natural objects ([[Baltic Sea|sea]], rivers, lakes, etc.).<ref name="Balsys">{{cite web |last1=Balsys |first1=Rimantas |title=Pagoniškieji lietuvių ir prūsų aukojimai |url=http://tautosmenta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Balsys_Rimantas/Balsys_GK_8_2015.pdf |website=Tautosmenta.lt |access-date=4 March 2023 |language=lt}}</ref> In 1389 following the military victories in the land of [[Varniai|Medininkai]] the [[Samogitians]] cast lots which indicated Marquard von Raschau, the commander of [[Klaipėda|Klaipėda (Memel)]], as a suitable victim for gods and burnt him on horseback in full armour.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania">{{cite book|last1=Rowell|first1=Stephen Christopher|url=https://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/fedora/objects/LT-LDB-0001:B.03~2015~1467038656538/datastreams/DS.001.1.01.BOOK/content|title=The conversion of Lithuania: from pagan barbarians to late medieval Christians|last2=Baronas|first2=Darius|date=2015|publisher=Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore|isbn=978-609-425-152-8|location=[[Vilnius]]|author-link1=Stephen Christopher Rowell|page=333|access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref> It possibly was the last human sacrifice in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] Europe.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania"/>

====Finnic peoples====
{{Further|Finnish paganism|Finnish mythology}}
[[Pope Gregory IX]] described in a papal letter how the [[Tavastians]] in Finland sacrificed Christians to their pagan gods:
"The little children, to whom the light of Christ was revealed in baptism, they violently tore from this light and killed, and adult men, after pulling out their entrails, they sacrifice them to evil spirits and force others to run around trees until death, and some of the priests they blind, from others they brutally sever their hands and other limbs and wrap what is left behind in straws and burn them alive."<ref>toim. Martti Linna: Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä, s. 64. Historian aitta, 1989. {{ISBN|951-96006-1-2}}.</ref>

There have been found bog graves in [[Estonia]] that have been interpreted to have been part of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://researchinestonia.eu/2023/09/19/bogs-bones-and-bodies-violent-past-of-northern-european-mires/|title=Bogs, bones and bodies: Violent past of northern European mires|work=Research in Estonia|date=22 January 2024}}</ref> According to Aliis Moora, mostly enemy prisoners of war were sacrificed, the main reason indicated in the ''[[Livonian Chronicle of Henry|Livonian Chronicle]]'' as alleviating crop failure. Sacrifices were also performed as a show of gratitude after a victorious battle. Ritual cannibalism also took place, in order to gain the power of the enemy.<ref name=Jonuks>[https://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr19/inimohver.pdf Inimohver eesti eelkristlikus usundis. Human Sacrifice in Estonian Pre-Christian Religion]; Author(s): Tõnno Jonuks . Publisher: Estonian Literary Museum of Scholarly Press. Publication Date: 2001</ref> The ''[[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum]]'' by [[Adam of Bremen]] written at the end of the 11th century claims that behind the island of Kuramaa there is an island called Aestland (Estonia), whose inhabitants do not believe in the Christian God. Instead, they worship dragons and [[Finnish paganism#Sacred animals|birds]] (dracones adorant cum volucribus) to whom people bought from slavers are sacrificed.<ref name=Jonuks/> According to the ''Livonian Chronicle'', describing the events after the [[Battle of Ümera]], "Estonians had seized some Germans, Livs, and Latvians, and some of them they simply killed, others they burned alive and tore the shirts off some of them, carved crosses on their backs with a sword and then beheaded". The Chronicle explicitly states they were sacrificed "to their gods" (diis suis).<ref>{{cite book |title=Eesti ajalugu (1. osa) |last=Mäesalu |first=Ain |year=1997 |publisher=Avita |isbn=9985-2-0043-8 |pages=168 |url=http://www.raamatukoi.ee/cgi-bin/raamat?277 }}</ref>

====Germanic peoples====
[[File:Germania, 1882 "Sacrificios humanos en la antigua Germania". (4358475665).jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Cimbrian seeresses]] performing human sacrifice, from ''Germania'' by [[Johannes Scherr]].]]
{{Further|Germanic paganism|Old Norse religion|Blót}}
Human [[Blót|sacrifice]] was not particularly common among the [[Germanic peoples]], being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from environmental crises (crop failure, drought, famine) or social crises (war), often thought to derive at least in part from the failure of the king to establish or maintain prosperity and peace ({{lang|non|árs ok friðar}}) in the lands entrusted to him.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Peter Buchholz |last=Buchholz |first=Peter |year=1993 |section=Pagan Scandinavian religion |editor-last=Pulsiano |editor-first=P. |title=Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia |place=New York|publisher=Routledge |pages=521–525}}</ref> In later Scandinavian practice, human sacrifice appears to have become more institutionalised and was repeated periodically as part of a larger sacrifice (according to [[Adam of Bremen]], every nine years).<ref name = "Simek">{{cite book |last=Simek |first=Rudolf |year=2003 |title=Religion und Mythologie der Germanen |publisher=Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellschaft |place=Darmstadt, DE |pages=58–64 |isbn=3-8062-1821-8}}</ref>

Evidence of human sacrifice by [[Germanic paganism|Germanic pagans]] before the [[Viking Age]] depend on archaeology and on a few accounts in [[Greco-Roman ethnography]]. Roman writer [[Tacitus]] reported the [[Suebians]] making human sacrifices to gods he [[interpretatio romana|interpreted]] as [[Germanic Mercury|Mercury]] and [[Isis]]. He also claimed that Germans sacrificed Roman commanders and officers as a thanksgiving for victory in the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=62}}</ref><ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 1#61|I.61]]</ref> [[Jordanes]] reported the [[Goths]] sacrificing [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] to [[Teiwaz|Mars]], suspending the victims' severed arms from tree branches.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Origin and Deeds of the Goths |url=https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023529/https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=10 July 2021 |website=people.ucalgary.ca}}</ref> Tacitus further refers to those who have transgressed certain societal rules being drowned and placed in [[Wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism|wetlands]]. This potentially explains finds of [[bog bodies]] dating to the Roman Iron Age although none show signs of having died by drowning.<ref name="Simek"/>

By the 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the [[Norsemen|Norse people]]. One account by [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] in 922 claims [[Varangian]] warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women, in the belief they would become their wives in [[Valhalla]]. He describes [[Norse funeral|the funeral]] of a Varangian chieftain, in which a slave girl volunteered to be buried with him. After ten days of festivities, she was given an intoxicating drink, repeatedly raped by other chiefs, stabbed to death by a priestess, and burnt together with the dead chieftain in his boat (see [[ship burial]]). This practice is evidenced archaeologically, with many male warrior burials (such as the ship burial at [[Balladoole]] on the Isle of Man, or that at [[Oseberg]] in Norway<ref>{{cite magazine |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |magazine=British Archaeology magazine |volume=59 |date=June 2001 |publisher=Britarch.ac.uk |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml |access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-date=13 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213170444/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml }}</ref>) also containing female remains with signs of trauma.
[[File:Tollundmanden DO-10895 original.jpg|thumb|upright|The remains of the [[Tollund Man]] shortly after his discovery in 1950.]]
According to [[Adémar de Chabannes]], just before his death in 932 or 933, [[Rollo]] (founder and first ruler of the Viking [[Duchy of Normandy]]) performed human sacrifices to appease the pagan gods while at the same time giving gifts to the churches in [[Normandy]].<ref>{{cite book |first=François |last=Neveux |title=A brief history of the Normans: the conquests that changed the face of Europe |publisher=Robinson |year=2008}}</ref>

In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the [[Temple at Uppsala|Temple]] at [[Gamla Uppsala]] in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in a [[Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology|sacred grove]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=59}}</ref>

The ''[[Historia Norwegiæ]]'' and ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'' refer to the willing sacrifice of King [[Dómaldi]] after bad harvests.<ref>{{cite book| title = Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | last = Turville-Petre | first = E.O.G. | year = 1975 | orig-date = 1964 | publisher = Greenwood Press | pages = 253–254}}</ref> The same saga also relates that Dómaldi's descendant king [[Aun]] sacrificed nine of his own sons to [[Odin]] in exchange for longer life, until the Swedes stopped him from sacrificing his last son, [[Ongentheow|Egil]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks|Saga of Hervor and Heidrek]]'', [[Heidrek]] agrees to the sacrifice of his son in exchange for command over half the army of [[Reidgotaland]]. With this, he seizes the whole kingdom and prevents the sacrifice of his son, dedicating those fallen in his rebellion to Odin instead.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

====Slavic peoples====
{{Main|Slavic paganism}}
In the 10th century, Persian explorer [[Ahmad ibn Rustah]] described funerary rites for the [[Rus' people|Rus']] (Scandinavian [[Norsemen]] traders in northeastern Europe) including the sacrifice of a young female slave.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120">{{cite book |first=Paul M. |last=Barford |year=2001 |title=The Early Slavs: Culture and society in early medieval Eastern Europe |page=120 |publisher=Cornell University Press |access-date=3 February 2014 |isbn=0-8014-3977-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC&q=sacrifice&pg=PA120}}</ref> [[Leo the Deacon]] describes prisoner sacrifice by the Rus' led by [[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Sviatoslav]] during the [[Rus'-Byzantine War (968-971)|Russo-Byzantine War]] "in accordance with their ancestral custom."<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century |first1=Alice-Mary |last1=Talbot |author-link=Alice-Mary Talbot |first2=Denis F. |last2=Sullivan |isbn=978-0-88402-324-1 |year=2005 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |access-date=3 February 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCDsV41k8A0C&q=sacrifice&pg=PA193}}</ref>

According to the 12th-century [[Primary Chronicle]], prisoners of war were sacrificed to the supreme Slavic deity [[Perun]]. Sacrifices to pagan gods, along with paganism itself, were banned after the [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Christianization of Rus']] by Grand Prince [[Vladimir the Great]] in the 980s.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=''Lavrentevskaia Letopis'', also called the ''Povest Vremennykh Let'' |encyclopedia=Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei (PSRL) |volume=1 |at=col. 102}}</ref>

In 1066, the Bishop of Mecklenburg [[John Scotus (bishop of Mecklenburg)|John Scotus]] was sacrificed to [[Radegast (god)|Radegast]] in [[Rethra]] by the Slavic [[Lutici]].

Archeological findings indicate that the practice may have been widespread, at least among slaves, judging from mass graves containing the cremated fragments of a number of different people.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120" />

=== East Asia ===

==== China ====
[[File:Shang Chariot Burial with Human Sacrifice (10198540254).jpg|thumb|Human sacrifice from the [[Shang dynasty]] in China]]
The history of human sacrifice in China may extend as early as 2300&nbsp;BCE.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG>{{cite web |first=Brook |last=Larmer |date=6 August 2020 |title=Mysterious carvings and evidence of human sacrifice uncovered in ancient city |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/mysterious-carvings-evidence-human-sacrifice-uncovered-ancient-city-china/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807020340/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/mysterious-carvings-evidence-human-sacrifice-uncovered-ancient-city-china/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 August 2020 |access-date=7 August 2020 |series=History |website=National Geographic |language=en}}</ref> Excavations of the ancient fortress city of [[Shimao]] in the northern part of modern [[Shaanxi|Shaanxi province]] revealed 80 skulls ritually buried underneath the city's eastern wall.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Forensic analysis indicates the victims were all teenage girls.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Human sacrifices were also documented in the [[Qijia culture]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Ancient human sacrifice in China likely served to reinforce social hierarchies |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3272202/ancient-human-sacrifice-china-likely-served-reinforce-social-hierarchies |work=South China Morning Post |date=28 July 2024}}</ref>

The [[History of China#Ancient China|ancient Chinese]] are known to have made drowned sacrifices of men and women to the river god [[Hebo]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Strassberg |first=Richard E. |year=2002 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange creatures from the guideways through mountains and seas |place=Berkeley, CA |publisher=University of California Press |page=202}}</ref> They also have buried [[Slavery in China|slaves]] alive with their owners upon death as part of a [[funeral]] service. This was especially prevalent during the [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] and [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] dynasties. During the [[Warring States period]], [[Ximen Bao]] of [[Wei (state)|Wei]] outlawed human sacrificial practices to the river god.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ximen Bao |publisher=Chinaculture.org |date=24 September 2003 |url=http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26349.htm |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174603/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26349.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> In Chinese lore, Ximen Bao is regarded as a folk hero who pointed out the absurdity of human sacrifice.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

The sacrifice of a high-ranking male's slaves, [[concubine]]s, or servants upon his death (called ''Xun Zang'' 殉葬 or ''Sheng Xun'' 生殉) was a more common form. The stated purpose was to provide companionship for the dead in the afterlife. In earlier times, the victims were either killed or buried alive, while later they were usually forced to commit suicide.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Funeral human sacrifice was widely practiced in the ancient Chinese [[state of Qin]]. According to the ''[[Records of the Grand Historian]]'' by [[Han dynasty]] historian [[Sima Qian]], the practice was started by [[Duke Wu of Qin|Duke Wu]], the tenth ruler of Qin, who had 66&nbsp;people buried with him in 678&nbsp;BCE. The 14th&nbsp;ruler [[Duke Mu of Qin|Duke Mu]] had 177&nbsp;people buried with him in 621&nbsp;BCE, including three senior government officials.<ref name="shiji">
{{cite book
 |script-title=zh:秦本纪
 |trans-title=Annals of Qin
 |series=[[Records of the Grand Historian]]
 |first=Sima |last=Qian
 |language=zh
 |url=http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/shiji/sj_005.htm
 |access-date=1 May 2012|author-link=Sima Qian
}}
</ref><ref name="han">
{{cite book
 |title=Annotated Shiji
 |author=Han, Zhaoqi
 |year=2010 |publisher=Zhonghua Book Company
 |isbn=978-7-101-07272-3
 |language=zh
 |chapter=Annals of Qin
 |pages=415–420}}
</ref>
Afterwards, the people of Qin wrote the famous poem ''Yellow Bird'' to condemn this barbaric practice, later compiled in the [[Confucian]] ''[[Classic of Poetry]]''.<ref>
''[[:zh:s:詩經/黃鳥|Yellow Bird]]'', ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' (in Chinese)
</ref>
The tomb of the 18th&nbsp;ruler [[Duke Jing of Qin]], who died in 537&nbsp;BCE, has been excavated.  More than 180&nbsp;coffins containing the remains of 186&nbsp;victims were found in the tomb.<ref>
{{cite news
 |last=Burns |first=John F.
 |date=4 May 1986
|title=China hails finds at ancient tomb
 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/04/us/china-hails-finds-at-ancient-tomb.html
 |access-date=8 May 2012
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |script-title = zh:秦公一号大墓
 |trans-title  = First tomb of Qin dukes
 |publisher    = Baoji city government
 |language     = zh
 |date         = 7 June 2011
|url          = http://www.bjdqw.cn/fjms/fxx/201106/t20110607_311703.htm
 |access-date  = 3 May 2012 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20140714215419/http://www.bjdqw.cn/fjms/fxx/201106/t20110607_311703.htm
 |archive-date = 14 July 2014
}}
</ref>
The practice would continue until [[Duke Xian of Qin (424–362 BC)|Duke Xian of Qin (424–362 BCE)]] abolished it in 384&nbsp;BCE. Modern historian Ma Feibai considers the significance of Duke Xian's abolition of human sacrifice in Chinese history comparable to that of [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s abolition of slavery in American history.<ref name="han"/><ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Zhu |first=Zhongxi
 |year=2004
 |title=On Duke Xian of Qin
 |journal=Long You Wen Bo (陇右文博)
 |issue=2
 |language=zh
 |publisher=Gansu Provincial Museum
 |url=http://wenku.baidu.com/view/f09be6efaeaad1f346933f4c.html
 |access-date=3 May 2012
}}
</ref>

After the abolition by Duke Xian, funeral human sacrifice became relatively rare throughout the central parts of China. However, the [[Hongwu Emperor]] of the [[Ming dynasty]] revived it in 1395, following the Mongolian [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] precedent, when his second son died and two of the prince's concubines were sacrificed. In 1464, the [[Emperor Yingzong of Ming|Tianshun Emperor]], in his will, forbade the practice for Ming emperors and princes.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Human sacrifice was also practised by the [[Manchus]]. Following [[Nurhaci|Nurhaci's]] death, his wife, [[Lady Abahai]], and his two lesser consorts committed suicide. During the [[Qing dynasty]], sacrifice of slaves was banned by the [[Kangxi Emperor]] in 1673.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

==== Japan ====
In the practice known as [[Hitobashira]]  (人柱, "human pillar"), a person was buried alive at the base of large structures such as dams, castles, and bridges.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==== Tibet ====
Human sacrifice was practiced in [[Tibet]] prior to the arrival of [[Tibetan Buddhism|Buddhism]] in the 7th century.{{efn|
"Human sacrifice seems undoubtedly to have been regularly practised in Tibet up till the dawn there of Buddhism in the seventh century."<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=L. Austine |last=Waddell |author-link=L. Austine Waddell
 |year=1895
 |title=Tibetan Buddhism: With its mystic cults, symbolism, and mythology, and in its relation to Indian Buddhism
 |page=516
}}
</ref>
}}
Historical practices such as burying bodies under the cornerstones of houses may have been practiced during the medieval era, but few concrete instances have been recorded or verified.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29>{{cite book |first=A.T. |last=Grunfeld |author-link=A. Tom Grunfeld |title=The Making of Modern Tibet |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-56324-714-9 |page=29|publisher=M.E. Sharpe }}</ref>

The prevalence of human sacrifice in medieval Buddhist Tibet is less clear. The [[Lamaism|Lamas]], as professing Buddhists, could not condone blood sacrifices, and they replaced the human victims with effigies made from dough which is still to this day dyed partially red to symbolize sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> This replacement of human victims with effigies is attributed to [[Padmasambhava]], a Tibetan saint of the mid-8th century, in Tibetan tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Richard J. |last=Kohn |title=Lord of the Dance: The Mani Rimdu festival in Tibet and Nepal |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2001 |page=120 |isbn=0-7914-4891-6}}</ref>

Nevertheless, there is some evidence that outside of orthodox Buddhism, there were practices of [[tantra|tantric]] human sacrifice which survived throughout the medieval period, and possibly into modern times.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> The 15th&nbsp;century [[Blue Annals]] reports that in the 13th&nbsp;century so-called "18&nbsp;robber-monks" slaughtered men and women in their ceremonies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Blue Annals |edition=1995 |page=697}}</ref> Grunfeld (1996) concludes that it cannot be ruled out that isolated instances of human sacrifice did survive in remote areas of Tibet until the mid-20th&nbsp;century, but they must have been rare.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> Grunfeld also notes that Tibetan practices unrelated to human sacrifice, such as the use of human bone in ritual instruments, have been depicted without evidence as products of human sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/>

===Indian subcontinent===
[[File:Camunda5.JPG|thumb|upright|Fierce goddesses like [[Chamunda]] are recorded to have been offered human sacrifice.]]

In India, human sacrifice is mainly known as ''Narabali''. Here "nara" means human and "bali" means sacrifice. It takes place in some parts of India mostly to find lost treasure. In [[Maharashtra]], the government made it illegal to practice with the [[Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act]]. Currently human sacrifice is very rare in modern India.<ref>{{cite news |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 March 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver}}</ref> There have been at least three cases through 2003–2013 where men have been murdered allegedly in the name of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2892333.stm | work=BBC News | first=Mahesh | last=Pandey | title=Priest 'makes human sacrifice' | date=27 March 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wishesh.com/kollywood/top-stories/27650-dalit-burnt-to-death-it%E2%80%99s-human-sacrifice,-says-family.html | title=Dalit burnt to death; it's human sacrifice, says family! &#124; Top Stories | date=27 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8624269.stm | work=BBC News | first=Subir | last=Bhaumik | title=India 'human sacrifice' suspected | date=16 April 2010}}</ref>
	
[[Thuggee]]s, or thugs, were an organized gang of professional [[Robbery|robbers]] and [[murder]]ers who traveled in groups across the [[Indian subcontinent]] for several hundred years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Crispin |title=Human Sacrifice in Colonial Central India: Myth, Agency and Representation |date=January 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=19–54 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273793676}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Thuggee |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/thuggee |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> They were first mentioned in [[Ziauddin Barani|Ẓiyā'-ud-Dīn Baranī's]] {{no wrap|''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi''}} ({{langx|en|History of Fīrūz Shāh}}) dated around 1356.<ref name="thuggee-britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Thug |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/thug |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2 February 2024 }}</ref> Thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence. This would allow them to then surprise and strangle them by tossing a handkerchief or noose around their necks. They would then rob the bodies of valuables and bury them. This led them to also be called ''Phansigar'' ({{langx|en|using a [[noose]]}}), a term more commonly used in southern India.<ref name="RussellLai1995">{{cite book |first1=R.V. |last1=Russell |first2=R.B.H. |last2=Lai |year=1995 |title=The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0833-7 |page=559 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76c1VSYnPE0C&pg=PA559 |access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref>

Regarding possible [[Vedic]] mention of human sacrifice, the prevailing 19th-century view, associated above all with [[Henry Colebrooke]], was that human sacrifice did not actually take place. Those verses which referred to ''[[purushamedha]]'' were meant to be read symbolically,<ref name="VD">{{Cite book |last1=van Kooij |first1=K.R. |last2=Houben |first2=Jan E.M. |year=1999 |title=Violence denied: Violence, non-violence and the rationalization of violence in South Asian cultural history |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, NL |pages=117, 123, 129, 164, 212, 269 |isbn=90-04-11344-4}}</ref> or as a "priestly fantasy". However, [[Rajendralal Mitra]] published a defence of the thesis that human sacrifice, as had been practised in [[Bengal]], was a continuation of traditions dating back to Vedic periods.<ref name="Bremmer">{{cite book |author=Bremmer, J.N. |date=31 December 2007 |title=The Strange World of Human Sacrifice |publisher=Peeters Akademik |location=Leuven |page=159 |isbn=978-90-429-1843-6}}</ref> [[Hermann Oldenberg]] held to Colebrooke's view; but [[Jan Gonda]] underlined its disputed status.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Thugs Strangling Traveller.jpg|thumb|180px|left|A group of [[Thuggee]]s strangling a traveller on a highway in India in the early 19th century.]]
Human and animal sacrifice became less common during the post-Vedic period, as ''ahimsa'' (non-violence) became part of mainstream religious thought. The [[Chandogya Upanishad]] (3.17.4) includes ahimsa in its list of virtues.<ref name="VD"/> The impact of Sramanic religions such as Buddhism and Jainism also became known in the Indian subcontinent.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the 7th century, [[Banabhatta]], in a description of the dedication of a temple of [[Chandi]]ka, describes a series of human sacrifices; similarly, in the 9th century, [[Haribhadra (Seng-ge Bzang-po)|Haribhadra]] describes the sacrifices to Chandika in [[Odisha]].<ref name="NC">{{Cite book|editor=Hastings, James |editor-link=James Hastings |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol 9. |publisher=Kessenger Publishing |year=2003 |pages=15, 119 |isbn=0-7661-3680-9|title-link=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics }}</ref> The town of [[Kuknur]] in North Karnataka there exists an ancient [[Kali]] temple, built around the 8-9th century CE, which has a history of human sacrifices.<ref name="NC"/>
Human sacrifice is reputed to have been performed on the altars of the [[Hatimura Temple]], a [[Shakti]] (Great Goddess) temple located at [[Silghat]], in the [[Nagaon]] district of [[Assam]]. It was built during the reign of king [[Pramatta Singha]] in 1667 ''[[Saka era|Sakabda]]'' (1745–1746 CE). It used to be an important center of [[Shaktism]] in ancient Assam. Its presiding goddess is [[Durga]] in her aspect of ''[[Mahisamardini]]'', slayer of the demon Mahisasura. It was also performed in the [[Tamresari Temple]] which was located in [[Sadiya]] under the [[Chutiya kingdom|Chutia kings]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Suttee. Wellcome V0041335.jpg|thumb|[[Sati (practice)|Suttee]]-Wife burning with her dead husband]]
Open human sacrifices were carried out in connection with the worship of Shakti until approximately the early modern period, and in [[Bengal]] perhaps as late as the early 19th century.<ref name="Lipner"/><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=atapur |first=Alex Perry |date=22 July 2002 |title=Killing for 'Mother' Kali |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,322673,00.html |access-date=14 January 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Although not accepted by larger section of [[Hindu culture]]{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} certain Tantric cults performed human sacrifice until around the same time, both actual and symbolic; it was a highly ritualised act, and on occasion took many months to complete.<ref name="Lipner">{{Cite book|author=Lipner, Julius |title=Hindus: their religious beliefs and practices |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1994 |pages=185, 236 |isbn=0-415-05181-9|author-link=Julius J. Lipner }}</ref> An occasional ritual murder, to Kali, periodically appears in the contemporary press.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDougall |first=Dan |date=5 March 2006 |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

The free or forced burning of widows, in a Vedic practise known as [[Sati (practise)|Sati]], was noted during Alexander's invasion, of 327 BCE. A practice that was codified during the Gupta empire, and later prohibited, in Bengal via [[Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829]], later across India, the last explicit legislation, in India, being the [[Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 April 2023 |title=Sati: How the fight to ban burning of widows in India was won |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65311042 |access-date=14 January 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

===Pacific===
[[File:James Cook, English navigator, witnessing human sacrifice in Taihiti (Otaheite) c. 1773.jpg|thumb|[[James Cook]] witnessing human sacrifice in [[Tahiti]] c. 1773]]

In [[Ancient Hawaii]], a [[luakini]] temple, or luakini [[heiau]], was a [[Native Hawaiian]] sacred place where human and animal blood sacrifices were offered. ''[[Kauwa]]'', the outcast or slave class, were often used as human sacrifices at the ''luakini heiau''. They are believed to have been [[POW|war captives]], or the descendants of war captives. They were not the only sacrifices; law-breakers of all castes or defeated political opponents were also acceptable as victims.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Related Articles |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-1083579/luakini-heiau |title=luakini heiau (ancient Hawaiian religious site) |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.soulwork.net/huna_articles/pu%27ukohala.htm |title=Pu'ukohala Heiau & Kamehameha I |publisher=Soulwork.net |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=6 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106145213/http://soulwork.net/huna_articles/pu%27ukohala.htm }}</ref> Rituals for the [[Hawaiian religion#Deities|Hawaiian god]] [[Kū|Kūkaʻilimoku]] included human sacrifice, which was not part of the worship of other gods.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

According to an 1817 account, in [[Tonga]], a child was strangled to assist the recovery of a sick relation.<ref>{{cite book |title=An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, with an original grammar and vocabulary of their language |volume=2 |page=220 |first1=William |last1=Mariner |first2=John |last2=Martin |place=London |year=1817}}</ref>

===Pre-Columbian Americas===
{{See also|Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures}}
[[File:Monte Albán-12-05oaxaca031.jpg|thumb|Altar for human sacrifice at [[Monte Albán]]]]

Some of the most famous forms of ancient human sacrifice were performed by various [[Pre-Columbian]] civilizations in the [[Americas]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6756.html |title =Mexican tomb reveals gruesome human sacrifice |publisher=Newscientist.com |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> that included the sacrifice of prisoners as well as voluntary sacrifice. Friar [[Marcos de Niza]] (1539), writing of the [[Chichimeca]]s, said that from time to time "they of this valley cast lots whose luck (honour) it shall be to be sacrificed, and they make him great cheer, on whom the lot falls, and with great joy they lund him with flowers upon a bed prepared in the said ditch all full of flowers and sweet herbs, on which they lay him along, and lay great store of dry wood on both sides of him, and set it on fire on either part, and so he dies" and "that the victim took great pleasure" in being sacrificed.<ref>Grace E. Murray, ''Ancient Rites and Ceremonies'', p. 19, {{ISBN|1-85958-158-7}}</ref>

====North America====
The [[Mixtec]] players of the [[Mesoamerican ballgame]] were sacrificed when the game was used to resolve a dispute between cities. The rulers would play a game instead of going to battle. The losing ruler would be sacrificed. The ruler "Eight Deer", who was considered a great ball player and who won several cities this way, was eventually sacrificed, because he attempted to go beyond lineage-governing practices, and to create an empire.<ref>{{cite book|last= Palka|first=Joel W. |title= The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica| publisher= Scarecrow Press| year=2010| isbn=978-1-4616-7173-2 | page= 54}}</ref>

[[File:Maya vessel with sacrificial scene DMA 2005-26.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Human sacrificial victim on a Maya vessel, 600–850 CE ''(Dallas Museum of Art)'']]

=====Maya=====
{{Main|Human sacrifice in Maya culture}}
The [[Maya civilisation|Maya]] held the belief that [[cenote]]s or limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and sacrificed human beings and tossed them down the cenote to please the water god [[Chaac]]. The most notable example of this is the "[[Sacred Cenote]]" at [[Chichén Itzá]].<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13/> Extensive excavations have recovered the remains of 42&nbsp;individuals, half of them under twenty years old.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Only in the [[Post-Classic]] era did this practice become as frequent as in central Mexico.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/474227/pre-Columbian-civilizations |title=pre-Columbian civilizations |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=14 June 2023 }}</ref> In the Post-Classic period, the victims and the altar are represented as daubed in a hue now known as [[Maya blue]], obtained from the [[añil]] plant and the clay mineral [[palygorskite]].<ref name="Palygorskite">{{cite journal |author=Arnold, Dean E. |author2=Bohor, Bruce F. |year=1975 |title=Attapulgite and Maya blue: An ancient mine comes to light |journal=Archaeology |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=23–29}} cited in {{Cite journal |author=Haude, Mary Elizabeth |year=1997 |title=Identification and classification of colorants used during Mexico's early colonial period |journal=The Book and Paper Group Annual |volume=16 |issn=0887-8978 |url=http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v16/bp16-05.html}}</ref>

=====Aztecs=====
{{Main|Human sacrifice in Aztec culture}}
[[File:Codex Magliabechiano (141 cropped).jpg|thumb|Aztec heart sacrifices, [[Codex Mendoza]]]]
The [[Aztec]]s were particularly noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale; an offering to [[Huitzilopochtli]] would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. In the 1487 re-consecration of the [[Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan]] some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed<ref>{{cite web |title=The enigma of Aztec sacrifice |publisher=Latinamerican Studies |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/sacrifice.htm |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |title=Science and Anthropology |publisher=Cdis.missouri.edu |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219073727/http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |archive-date=19 December 2010 }}</ref> though numbers are difficult to quantify, as all obtainable Aztec texts were destroyed by Christian missionaries during the period 1528–1548.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx>{{cite book |first=George |last=Holtker |series=Studies in Comparative Religion |title=The Religions of Mexico and Peru |volume=1 |publisher=CTS}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2021|reason=pub. date, publisher full name & place, ISBN / OCLC / or sim.}}</ref> The Aztec, also known as Mexica, periodically sacrificed children as it was believed that the rain god, [[Tlāloc]], required the tears of children.<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13>{{cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Thomas |year=2009 |title=The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400–1900 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=13}}</ref>
[[File:Tzompantli (Templo Mayor) - Ciudad de México.jpg|thumb|An excavated {{lang|nci|[[tzompantli]]}} from the [[Templo Mayor]] in modern-day Mexico City]]
According to [[Ross Hassig]], author of ''Aztec Warfare'', "between 10,000 and 80,400&nbsp;people" were sacrificed in the ceremony. The old reports of numbers sacrificed for special feasts have been described as "unbelievably high" by some authors<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> and that on cautious reckoning, based on reliable evidence, the numbers could not have exceeded at most several hundred per year in Tenochtitlan.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> The real number of sacrificed victims during the 1487 consecration is unknown.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

[[File:Kinderopfer 2.jpg|thumb|left|Aztec burial of a sacrificed child at [[Tlatelolco (archaeological site)|Tlatelolco]]]]
Michael Harner, in his 1997 article ''The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice'', estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th&nbsp;century as high as 250,000&nbsp;per year. [[Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl]], a Mexica descendant and the author of ''[[Codex Ixtlilxochitl]]'', claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. [[Victor Davis Hanson]] argues that an estimate by Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000&nbsp;per annum is more plausible. Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs always tried to intimidate their enemies, it is far more likely that they inflated the official number as a [[propaganda]] tool.<ref>{{citation |last=Duverger |title=op. cit. |pages=174–177}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2021}} "Duverger, (op. cit) 174–177"</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=New chamber confirms culture entrenched in human sacrifice |publisher=Mtintouch.net |url=http://www.mtintouch.net/~nlight/mexican%20pyramid.htm |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206150349/http://www.mtintouch.net/~nlight/mexican%20pyramid.htm |archive-date=6 December 2008 }}</ref>

=====Mississippian Cultures=====
[[File:Mound 72 sacrifice ceremony HRoe 2013.jpg|thumb|Mound 72&nbsp;mass sacrifice of 53&nbsp;young women]]
[[File:Funeral procession of Serpent Pique du Pratz.jpg|thumb|upright|The funeral procession of ''Tattooed Serpent'' in 1725, with retainers waiting to be sacrificed]]

The peoples of what is now the Southeastern United States known as the [[Mississippian culture]] (800 to 1600&nbsp;CE) have been suggested to have practiced human sacrifice, because some artifacts have been interpreted as depicting such acts.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/miss.html |title=Mississippian Civilization |publisher=Texasbeyondhistory.net |date=6 August 2003 |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> [[Mound 72]] at [[Cahokia]] (the largest Mississippian site), located near modern [[St. Louis, Missouri]], was found to have numerous pits filled with mass burials thought to have been retainer sacrifices. One of several similar pit burials had the remains of 53&nbsp;young women who had been strangled and neatly arranged in two layers. Another pit held 39&nbsp;men, women, and children who showed signs of dying a violent death before being unceremoniously dumped into the pit. Several bodies showed signs of not having been fully dead when buried and of having tried to claw their way to the surface. On top of these people another group had been neatly arranged on litters made of cedar poles and cane matting. Another group of four individuals found in the mound were interred on a low platform, with their arms interlocked. They had had their heads and hands removed. The most spectacular burial at the mound is the "[[Birdman burial#Beaded or Birdman burial|Birdman burial]]". This was the burial of a tall man in his 40s, now thought to have been an important early Cahokian ruler. He was buried on an elevated platform covered by a bed of more than 20,000&nbsp;marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a [[falcon]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001augustmound72excavation1.htm |title=Cahokia and the excavation of Mound&nbsp;72 |access-date=21 August 2010}}</ref> with the bird's head appearing beneath and beside the man's head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. Below the birdman was another man, buried facing downward. Surrounding the birdman were several other retainers and groups of elaborate [[grave goods]].<ref name=PAUKETAT2004>{{cite book |author-link=Timothy Pauketat |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |title= Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2004| isbn=0-521-52066-5 |pages=88–93}}</ref><ref name=CMSH72>{{cite web |url=http://cahokiamounds.org/explore/cahokia-mounds/number/72/ |title=Mound&nbsp;72 |publisher=Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site|access-date= 31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623230142/http://cahokiamounds.org/explore/cahokia-mounds/number/72 |archive-date= 23 June 2012}}</ref>

A ritual sacrifice of retainers and commoners upon the death of an elite personage is also attested in the historical record among the last remaining fully Mississippian culture, the [[Natchez people|Natchez]]. Upon the death of "[[Tattooed Serpent]]" in 1725, the war chief and younger brother of the "Great Sun" or Chief of the Natchez; two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed ''La Glorieuse'' by the French), his first warrior, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs all chose to die and be interred with him, as well as several old women and an infant who was strangled by his parents.<ref name=LAVERE>{{cite book | title= Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb | author= La Vere, David | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LqcUbGAhSuEC&q=death+of+tattooed+serpent&pg=PA120 | publisher= University of Oklahoma Press | date = 2007 |isbn= 978-0-8061-3813-8 |pages= 119–122 }}</ref> Great honor was associated with such a sacrifice, and their kin were held in high esteem.<ref>{{cite thesis | title = Violence, symbols, and the archaeological record: A case study of Cahokia's Mound 72 | author = Koziol, Kathryn M. | url = http://udini.proquest.com/view/violence-symbols-and-the-goid:821569914/ | access-date = 29 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130719125819/http://udini.proquest.com/view/violence-symbols-and-the-goid:821569914/ | archive-date = 19 July 2013 }}</ref> After a funeral procession with the chief's body carried on a litter made of cane matting and cedar poles ended at the temple (which was located on top of a low [[platform mound]]), the retainers, with their faces painted red and drugged with large doses of nicotine, were ritually strangled. Tattooed Serpent was then buried in a trench inside the temple floor and the retainers were buried in other locations atop the mound surrounding the temple. After a few months' time the bodies were dis-interred and their defleshed bones were stored as bundle burials in the temple.<ref name=LAVERE/>

=====Pawnee=====
The [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]] may have occasionally conducted the [[Pawnee mythology|Morning Star Ceremony]], which included the sacrifice of a young girl. Though the ritual continued, the sacrifice was discontinued in the 19th century.<ref>[http://dactyl.som.ohio-state.edu/Densmore/Pawnee/pawnee01.html Pawnee ritual]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

====South America====
[[File:Llullaillaco mummies in Salta city, Argentina.jpg|thumb|"The Maiden", one of the [[Llullaillaco mummies]], Inca human sacrifice, [[Salta province]] ([[Argentina]])]]
[[File:Ceremonial Knife (Tumi).jpg|thumb|left|upright|A "[[Tumi]]", a ceremonial knife used in Andean cultures, often for sacrificial purposes]]
The Incas practiced human sacrifice, especially at great festivals or royal funerals where retainers died to accompany the dead into the next life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woods |first=Michael |title=Conquistadors |page=114 |publisher=[[BBC Worldwide]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-563-55116-X}}</ref> The [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] sacrificed teenagers en masse, as archaeologist Steve Bourget found when he uncovered the bones of 42&nbsp;male adolescents in 1995.<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC>{{cite news |first=Winnie |last=Allingham |date=2 June 2003 |title=The mystery of Inca child sacrifice |publisher=Exn.ca |website=Discovery |department=Science & Technology |url=http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452|access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506113520/http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 |archive-date=6 May 2008 }}</ref>

The study of the images seen in Moche art has enabled researchers to reconstruct the culture's most important ceremonial sequence, which began with ritual combat and culminated in the sacrifice of those defeated in battle. Dressed in fine clothes and adornments, armed warriors faced each other in ritual combat. In this hand-to-hand encounter the aim was to remove the opponent's headdress rather than kill him. The object of the combat was the provision of victims for sacrifice. The vanquished were stripped and bound, after which they were led in procession to the place of sacrifice. The captives are portrayed as strong and sexually potent. In the temple, the priests and priestesses would prepare the victims for sacrifice. The sacrificial methods employed varied, but at least one of the victims would be bled to death. His blood was offered to the principal deities in order to please and placate them.<ref name="Bourget">{{Cite book|author=Bourget, Steve |title=Sex, Death, and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-292-71279-9}}</ref>

The [[Inca]] of Peru also made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000&nbsp;servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca [[Huayna Capac]] in 1527, for example.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Nigel Davies (historian) |first=Nigel |last=Davies |title=Human Sacrifice |year=1981 |pages=261–262}}</ref> A number of mummies of sacrificed children have been recovered in the Inca regions of [[South America]], an ancient practice known as ''[[qhapaq hucha]]''. The Incas performed [[Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures|child sacrifices]] during or after important events,  such as the death of the [[Sapa Inca]] (emperor) or during a [[famine]].<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC/>

=== Africa ===

==== West Africa ====
[[File:Victims for sacrifice-1793.jpg|thumb|Victims for sacrifice – from ''[[Archibald Dalzel|The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa]]'', 1793]]

[[JuJu]] Human sacrifice is still covertly practiced in some parts of West Africa, though it is illegal in all West African countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm|title=The Leopard Society&nbsp;– Africa in the mid 1900s|access-date=3 April 2008|archive-date=23 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123220812/http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://cornellpress.manifoldapp.org/read/0a9c919e-58ef-4dde-affb-26ace8154b3a/section/242b3048-dd27-40ae-8042-e240202a5d8d | title='Chapter 5. Ritual Cannibalism: A Case Study of Socially-Sanctioned Group Violence' in 'Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs' on Cornell University Press Digital Platform }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=|url=https://africanlii.org/article/20210805/uganda-prepares-new-law-%E2%80%98human-sacrifice%E2%80%99-here%E2%80%99s-what-case-%E2%80%98human-sacrifice%E2%80%99-looks |title=Uganda prepares for new law on 'human sacrifice': here's what a case of 'human sacrifice' looks like &#124; African Legal Information Institute |publisher=Africanlii.org |date=3 August 2021 |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15255357 | title=Where child sacrifice is a business | work=BBC News | date=11 October 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/486817-nigerias-huge-market-of-blood-and-human-sacrifice-by-festus-adedayo.html | title=Nigeria's huge market of blood and human sacrifice, by Festus Adedayo – Premium Times Nigeria | date=26 September 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160715064451/https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 | url-status=dead | archive-date=15 July 2016 | title=The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://theworld.org/stories/2011-08-01/liberia-s-elections-ritual-killings-and-cannibalism | title=Liberia's elections, ritual killings and cannibalism }}</ref> The [[Annual customs of Dahomey]] was the most notorious example, but sacrifices were carried out all along the West African coast and further inland. Sacrifices were particularly common after the death of a king or queen, and there are many recorded cases of hundreds or even thousands of slaves being sacrificed at such events. Sacrifices were particularly common in [[Dahomey]], in what is now [[Benin]], and in the small independent states in what is now southern [[Nigeria]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Cardi |first=C. N. |date=1899 |title=Ju-Ju Laws and Customs in the Niger Delta |url=https://ia600708.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/22/items/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.2307%252F2841975.zip&file=10.2307%252F2842576.pdf |journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=29 |pages=51–64 |via=Archive.org }}</ref> According to [[Rudolph Rummel]], "Just consider the Grand Custom in Dahomey: When a ruler died, hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of prisoners would be slain. In one of these ceremonies in 1727, as many as 4,000 were reported killed. In addition, Dahomey had an [[Annual customs of Dahomey|Annual Custom]] during which 500&nbsp;prisoners were sacrificed."<ref>{{cite book |first=R. |last=Rummel |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1j1QdPMockC |title=Death by Government |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=63 |isbn=1-56000-927-6}}</ref>

In the [[Ashanti Region]] of modern-day [[Ghana]], human sacrifice was often combined with capital punishment.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Clifford |last=Williams |year=1988 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice or capital punishment? An assessment of the period 1807–1874 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=433–441|doi=10.2307/219449 |jstor=219449 }} – [[Ashanti Empire|Asante]] is also called the [[Ashanti Empire]].</ref>

The ''[[Leopard men]]'' were a West African secret society active into the mid-1900s that practised [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]. It was believed that the ritual cannibalism would strengthen both members of the society and their entire tribe.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Leopard Society – Africa in the mid 1900s |website=Liberia Past and Present |url=http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm |access-date=3 April 2008 |archive-date=23 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123220812/http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm }}</ref> In [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]], the ''Lion men'' committed an estimated 200&nbsp;murders in a single three-month period.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Murder by lion |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867859,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207012239/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867859,00.html |archive-date=7 February 2009}}</ref>

==== Canary Islands ====
It has been reported from Spanish chronicles that the [[Guanches]] (ancient inhabitants of these islands) performed both animal and human sacrifices.<ref name=Academia-6630296>{{cite web |title=Sacrificios entre los Aborígenes canarios |website=academia.edu |id=6630296 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6630296 |last1=Martin |first1=Alfredo Mederos }}</ref>

During the summer solstice in [[Tenerife]] children were sacrificed by being thrown from a cliff into the sea.<ref name=Academia-6630296/> These children were brought from various parts of the island for the purpose of sacrifice. Likewise, when an aboriginal king died his subjects should also assume the sea, along with the embalmers who embalmed the [[Guanche mummies]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In [[Gran Canaria]],  bones of children were found mixed with those of lambs and goat kids and on Tenerife, amphorae have been found with the remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide from those who were thrown off the cliffs.<ref name=Academia-6630296/>

==Prohibition in major religions==
===Greek polytheism===
In Greek polytheism, [[Tantalus]] was said to have been condemned to [[Tartarus]] for eternity for the human sacrifice of his son [[Pelops]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

===Abrahamic religions===
{{Main|Binding of Isaac}}
Many traditions of [[Abrahamic religions]] such as [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] consider that God commanded [[Abraham]] to sacrifice his son to examine obedience of Abraham to His commands. To prove his obedience, Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. However, seeing Abraham's resolve, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead of his son.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

====Judaism====
[[Judaism]] explicitly forbids human sacrifice, regarding it as murder. Jews view the ''[[Binding of Isaac#Jewish views|Akedah]]'' as central to the abolition of human sacrifice.  Some [[Talmud]]ic scholars assert that its replacement is the sacrificial offering of animals at the Temple – using Exodus 13:2–12ff; 22:28ff; 34:19ff; Numeri 3:1ff; 18:15; Deuteronomy 15:19 – others view that as being superseded by the symbolic ''[[Pars pro toto|pars-pro-toto]]'' sacrifice of the covenant of [[circumcision]]. Leviticus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 18:10 specifically outlaw the giving of children to [[Moloch]], making it punishable by stoning; the [[Tanakh]] subsequently denounces human sacrifice as barbaric customs of Moloch worshippers (e.g. Psalms 106:37ff).{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Judges chapter 11 features a [[Biblical judges|Judge]] named [[Jephthah]] vowing that "whatsoever cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet me shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt-offering" in gratitude for God's help with a military battle against the Ammonites.<ref name="Brenner-56">{{cite book |last=Brenner |first=Athalya |author-link=Athalya Brenner |title=Judges: A feminist companion to the Bible |year=1999 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-84127-024-1 |page=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hT2vAwAAQBAJ&q=Josephus}}</ref> Much to Jephthah's dismay, his only daughter greeted him upon his triumphant return. Judges 11:39 states that Jephthah did as he had vowed, but "shies away from explicitly depicting her sacrifice, which leads some ancient and modern interpreters (e.g., [[Radak]]) to suggest that she was not actually killed."<ref name="TJSB-524">{{cite book |last1=Berlin |first1=Adele |last2=Brettler |first2=Marc Zvi |title=Jewish study bible |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=[s.l.] |isbn=978-0-19-997846-5 |page=524 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yErYBAAAQBAJ&q=%22and+he+did+to+her+as+he+had+vowed%22&pg=PT17 |access-date=31 May 2016}}</ref>

According to the [[Mishnah]] he was under no obligation to keep the ill-phrased, illegal vow. According to Rabbi [[Johanan HaSandlar|Jochanan]], in his commentary on the Mishnah, it was Jephthah's obligation to pay the vow in money.<ref name="Brenner-56"/> According to some [[meforshim|commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition]] during the Middle Ages, Jepthah's daughter was not sacrificed, but was forbidden to marry and remained a spinster her entire life.<ref name="Radak-MD">[[David Kimhi|Radak]], [[Book of Judges]] 11:39; ''Metzudas Dovid'' ibid</ref>

The 1st-century CE [[Hellenistic Judaism|Jewish-Hellenistic]] historian [[Flavius Josephus]], however, stated that Jephthah "sacrificed his child as a burnt-offering – a sacrifice neither sanctioned by the law nor well-pleasing to God; for he had not by reflection probed what might befall or in what aspect the deed would appear to them that heard of it".<ref name="Brenner-73">{{cite book |last=Brenner |first=Athalya |author-link=Athalya Brenner |title=Judges: a feminist companion to the Bible |year=1999 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-84127-024-1 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hT2vAwAAQBAJ&q=Josephus}}</ref> Latin philosopher [[pseudo-Philo]], late {{nobr|1st century CE,}} wrote that Jephthah burnt his daughter because he could find no sage in Israel who would cancel his vow. In other words, in the opinion of the Latin philosopher, this story of an ill-phrased vow consolidates that human sacrifice is not an order or requirement by [[God in Judaism|God]], but the punishment for those who illegally vowed to sacrifice humans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Women's Bible Commentary |first1=Carol Ann |last1=Newsom |first2=Sharon H. |last2=Ringe |first3=Jacqueline E. |last3=Lapsley |page=133 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=8274 |title=הפולמוס העקיף בנושא העלאת קורבן אדם: בת יפתח (שופטים יא 40–29)}}</ref>

[[File:Ofiara Abrahama1.jpg|thumb|upright|An angel ends the [[Binding of Isaac]] by [[Abraham]] – believed to be a foreshadowing of the ''human sacrifice'' of Christ (''The Offering of Abraham, Genesis 22:1–13'', workshop of [[Rembrandt]], 1636; ''[[Christian art]]'')]]

Allegations accusing [[Jews]] of committing ritual murder – called the "[[blood libel]]" – were widespread during the [[Middle Ages]], often leading to the slaughter of entire Jewish communities.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nathan |first1=D. |author-link=Debbie Nathan |last2=Snedeker |first2=M. |title=Satan's Silence: Ritual abuse and the making of a modern American witch hunt |year=1995 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |isbn=0-87975-809-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/abuseofinnocence00eber/page/31 31] |url=https://archive.org/details/abuseofinnocence00eber |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name=Victor>{{Cite book |title=Satanic Panic: The creation of a contemporary legend |last=Victor |first=J.S. |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company]] |year=1993 |isbn=0-8126-9192-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/satanicpaniccrea00vict/page/n226 207–08]}}</ref> In the 20th&nbsp;century, similar accusations of ritual child killing by non-Christians were made as part of the [[satanic ritual abuse]] [[moral panic]].<ref name="Victor"/>

====Christianity====
Christianity developed the belief that the story of [[binding of Isaac|Isaac's binding]] was a [[foreshadowing]] of the sacrifice of [[Christ]], whose death and resurrection are believed to have enabled the salvation and atonement for man from its sins, including [[original sin]]. There is a tradition that the site of Isaac's binding, [[Moriah]], later became [[Jerusalem]], the city of Jesus's future crucifixion.<ref>{{cite web |title=Voices from the children of Abraham |website=Newman Toronto |url=http://www.newmantoronto.com/040311childrenofabraham2.htm |access-date=17 September 2021 |archive-date=24 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724201446/http://www.newmantoronto.com/040311childrenofabraham2.htm }}</ref> The beliefs of many Christian denominations hinge upon the [[substitutionary atonement]] of the sacrifice of [[God the Son]], which was necessary for salvation in the afterlife. According to Christian teaching, each individual person on earth must participate in, and / or receive the benefits of, this divine human sacrifice for the atonement of their [[Christian views on sin|sins]]. Early Christian sources explicitly described this event as a sacrificial offering, with Christ in the role of both [[priest]] and human sacrifice, although starting with the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], some writers, such as [[John Locke]], have disputed the model of Jesus' death as a propitiatory sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |title= Christian Theology: An Introduction |last=McGrath |first=Alister E. |pages=390–395 |edition= 2nd |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing|Wiley-Blackwell]] |year= 1997 |isbn=0-631-19849-0}} According to [[Alister McGrath]], early sources describing a human sacrifice include the [[New Testament]]'s [[Epistle to the Hebrews]] and writings by [[Augustine of Hippo]] and [[Athanasius of Alexandria]]. Later sources, besides Locke, include [[Thomas Chubb]] and [[Horace Bushnell]].</ref>

Although early Christians in the Roman Empire were accused of being cannibals, ''theophages'' (Greek for "god eaters")<ref>{{cite book |last=Benko |first=Stephen |title=Pagan Rome and the Early Christians |page=70 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-253-20385-6}}</ref> practices such as human sacrifice were abhorrent to them.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Britons |first=Christopher Allen |last=Snyder |page=52 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=0-631-22260-X}}</ref> [[Eastern Orthodox Christian|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Roman Catholic]] Christians believe that this "pure sacrifice" as Christ's self-giving in love is made present in the [[sacrament]] of the [[Eucharist]]. In this tradition, bread and wine becomes the "[[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|real presence]]" (the literal [[Logos-Sarx-Christology|carnal Body]] and Blood of the Risen Christ). Receiving the Eucharist is a central part of the religious life of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.<ref>{{cathEncy |wstitle=Sacrifice of the Mass}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=202&SID=3 |title=Sacrifice of the Mass |publisher=Orthodox Church of America |website=Oca.org |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> Most [[Protestant]] traditions do not share the belief in the real presence but otherwise are varied, for example, they may believe that in the bread and wine, Christ is present only spiritually, not in the sense of a change in substance ([[Methodism]])<ref name="wesley">{{cite wikisource |title=Articles of Religion |wslink=Articles of Religion (Methodist) |at=Article&nbsp;XVIII – Of the Lord's Supper |first=John |last=Wesley |author-link=John Wesley}}</ref> or that the bread and wine of communion are a merely symbolic reminder ([[Baptist]]).<ref name="baptist supper">{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Russell D. |chapter=Baptist view: Christ's presence as memorial |editor1-first=Paul E. (series ed.) |editor1-last=Engle |editor2-first=John H. (gen. ed.) |editor2-last=Armstrong |year=2009 |title=Understanding Four Views on the Lord's Supper |series=Counterpoints: Church Life |publisher=[[Zondervan]] |isbn=978-0-310-54275-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6LkmS_ntYwC&q=Understanding+Four+Views+on+the+Lord%27s+Supper+%28Counterpoints%3A+Church+Life%29&pg=PT27}}</ref>

In medieval Irish Catholic texts, there is mention of the early church in Ireland supposedly containing the practice of burying sacrificial victims underneath churches in order to consecrate them. This may have a relation to pagan Celtic practices of foundation sacrifice. The most notable example of this is the case of [[Odran of Iona]] a companion of [[St Columba]] who (according to legend) volunteered to die and be buried under the church of the monastery of Iona. However, there is no evidence that such things ever happened in reality and contemporary records closer to the time period have no mention of a practice like this.<ref>{{cite book |author=Adomnan of Iona. |title=Life of St Columba |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Sharpe |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1995}}</ref>

==== Islam ====
Islam considers human sacrifice to be repugnant to the faith. It is also described as a common practice in pre-Islamic civilization, from Greece to Arabia{{qref|6|137|s=y|b=y}}.{{npsn|date=July 2024|reason=This is the Quran, a primary source.}} The binding of [[Ismaeel|Prophet Ismaeel]] story is interpreted as Allah showing the superiority of [[Qurban (Islamic ritual sacrifice)|animal sacrifices]] over human sacrifices.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Kitab Al-Adahi (Book of Sacrifices) |url=https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/hadith/muslim/022_smt.html#:~:text=The%20opening%20verse%20%22For%20every,has%20never%20given%20it%20sanction. |website=International Islamic University Malaysia}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024|reason=This is Sahih Muslim book 22, a Hadith, i.e. a primary source.}}

===Indian religions===
{{Main|Ahimsa}}
Many [[Indian religions]], including [[Buddhism]], [[Jainism]] and some sects{{Which|date=March 2025}} of [[Hinduism]], embrace the teaching of ''[[ahimsa]]'' (non-violence) which imposes [[vegetarianism]] and outlaws animal as well as human sacrifice.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
====Buddhism====
In the case of Buddhism, both ''bhikkhus'' (monks) and ''bhikkhunis'' (nuns) were forbidden to take life in any form as part of the [[Vinaya|monastic code]], while non-violence was promoted among laity through encouragement of the [[Five Precepts]]. Across the Buddhist world both meat and alcohol are strongly discouraged as offerings to a Buddhist altar, with the former being synonymous with sacrifice, and the latter a violation of the Five Precepts.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In their effort to discredit [[Tibetan Buddhism]], the [[People's Republic of China]] as well as [[Kuomintang|Chinese nationalist]]s in the [[Republic of China]] make frequent and emphatic references to the historical practice of [[human sacrifice in Tibet]], portraying the [[People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet (1950–1951)|1950 People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet]] as an act of humanitarian intervention.
According to Chinese sources, in the year 1948, 21&nbsp;individuals were murdered by state sacrificial priests from [[Lhasa]] as part of a ritual of enemy destruction, because their organs were required as magical ingredients.<ref>{{cite book |title = The Making of Modern Tibet |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CNHKBgAAQBAJ |publisher = Routledge |year= 2015 |isbn = 978-1-317-45583-7 |first = A. Tom |last = Grunfeld |page = 29}}</ref>
The ''Tibetan Revolutions Museum'' established by the Chinese in Lhasa has numerous morbid ritual objects on display to illustrate these claims.<ref>{{cite book|last=Epstein |first=Israel |title=Tibet Transformed |publisher=New World Press |location=Beijing |date=1983 |page=138}}</ref>

====Hinduism====
In many sects of [[Hinduism]], based on the principle of ''ahimsa'', any human or animal sacrifice is forbidden.<ref>{{cite book |last=Walli |first=Koshelya |title=The Conception of Ahimsa in Indian Thought |publisher=Varanasi |year=1974 |pages=113–145}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Ahiṃsā: Non-violence in Indian tradition |author=Tähtinen |pages=2–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Death and Dying |page=12 |first1=Glennys |last1=Howarth |first2=Oliver |last2=Leaman}}</ref> In the 19th and 20th&nbsp;centuries, prominent figures of Indian spirituality such as [[Swami Vivekananda]],<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Swami Vivekananda]] |title=Religious Vegetarianism |editor1=Walters, K.S. |editor1-link=Kerry S. Walters |editor2=Portmess, Lisa |location=Albany |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2001 |pages=50–52}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} [[Ramana Maharshi]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beasyouare.info/beasyouare.html |first=Ramana |last=Maharishi |author-link=Ramana Maharshi |title=Be as you are |publisher=Beasyouare.info |access-date=25 May 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419081500/http://www.beasyouare.info/beasyouare.html |archive-date=19 April 2010 }}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} [[Swami Sivananda]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Swami Sivananda |date=11 December 2005 |title=Bliss Divine |pages=3–8 |publisher=Dlshq.org |url=http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/ahimsa.htm |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} and [[A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami]].<ref>{{cite book |first=A.C. |last=Bhaktivedanta |author-link=A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami |title=Religious Vegetarianism |pages=56–60}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} have emphasized the importance of ahimsa.

==Modern cases==
{{See also|Satanic ritual abuse}}

=== The Americas ===

==== Brazil ====
In the city of [[Altamira, Pará|Altamira]], State of [[Pará]], several children were raped, with their genitalia mutilated for what appear to be ritual purposes, and then stabbed to death, [[Altamira child emasculations|between 1989 and 1993]].<ref>{{cite book |first=María Isabel |last=Carrasco Cara Chards |title=The UFO cult that murdered 19&nbsp;boys because they thought they were evil |date=27 April 2017 |url=http://culturacolectiva.com/superior-universal-alignment-ufo-cult-murders/ |access-date=16 June 2017}}</ref> It is believed that the boys' sexual organs were used in rites of [[black magic]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Rocha |first=Jan |date=5 September 2003 |title=Brazil occult sex killer jailed |website=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3084532.stm |access-date=16 June 2017}}</ref>

==== Chile ====
In the coastal village Collileufu, native [[Mapuche|Lafkenches]] carried out a ritual human sacrifice in the days following the [[1960 Valdivia earthquake]]. Collileufu, located in the [[Budi Lake]] area, south of [[Puerto Saavedra]], was highly isolated in 1960. The Mapuche spoke primarily [[Mapudungun]]. The community had gathered in Cerro La Mesa, while the lowlands were struck by successive [[tsunami]]s. Juana Namuncura Añen,<ref name=mapuinfo/><ref name=australrios/> a local [[Machi (Shaman)|machi]], demanded the sacrifice of the grandson of Juan Painecur, a neighbor, in order to calm the earth and the ocean.<ref name=austral>{{cite web |title=El cristo mapuche se perdió en el mar |date=23 May 2010 |website=[[El Diario Austral de Valdivia]] |url=http://www.australdelosrios.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20100523/pags/20100523104628.html?s=www.australdelosrios.cl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707005843/http://www.australdelosrios.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20100523/pags/20100523104628.html?s=www.australdelosrios.cl |archive-date=7 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-link=Patrick Tierney (journalist) |last=Tierney |first=Patrick |title=The highest altar: Unveiling the mystery of human sacrifice |year=1989 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-013974-7}}</ref> The victim was 5&nbsp;year-old José Luis Painecur, ''called'' an "orphan" (''huacho'') because his mother had gone to Santiago, for employment as a [[domestic worker]], and left her son under the care of her father.<ref name=austral/>

José Luis Painecur had his arms and legs removed by Juan Pañán{{Who|date=June 2020}} and Juan José Painecur (the victim's grandfather), and was stuck into the sand of the beach like a stake. The waters of the [[Pacific Ocean]] then carried the body out to sea. The authorities only learned about the sacrifice after a boy in the commune of [[Nueva Imperial]] denounced to local leaders the theft of two horses; these were allegedly eaten during the sacrifice ritual.<ref name=austral/> The two men were charged with the crime and confessed, but later recanted. They were released after two years. A judge ruled that those involved in these events had "acted without free will, driven by an irresistible natural force of ancestral tradition."<ref name=mapuinfo>{{cite web |title=El Niño Inmolado |last=Zúñiga |first=Arturo |date=15 August 2001 |website=Mapuche |language=es |url=http://www.mapuche.info/news02/merc010815.html |access-date=18 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=australrios>{{cite web |title=El Cristo mapuche se perdió en el mar |last1=Carrillo |first1=Daniel |last2=Obreque |first2=Rodrigo |date=23 May 2010 |website=Diario Austral |language=es |url=http://www.australdelosrios.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20100523/pags/20100523104628.html |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110416073208/http://australdelosrios.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20100523/pags/20100523104628.html |archive-date=16 April 2011}}</ref> The story was mentioned in a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine article, although with meagre detail.<ref>{{cite news |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |title=Chile: Asking for Calm |date=4 July 1960 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869529,00.html |access-date=8 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317104741/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C869529%2C00.html |archive-date=17 March 2010 }}</ref>

==== Mexico ====

During the 1980s, a case of serial murders that involved human sacrifices rituals occurred in [[Tamaulipas]], Mexico. The drug dealer and cult leader [[Adolfo Constanzo]]  orchestrated several executions during rituals that included the victims' dismemberment.<ref>{{cite web |title=Adolfo Constanzo |date=2 April 2014 |website=Biography.com |publisher=A&E Television Network |url=https://www.biography.com/people/adolfo-constanzo-408870 |access-date=1 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171002115520/https://www.biography.com/people/adolfo-constanzo-408870 |archive-date=2 October 2017}}</ref>

Between 2009 and 2010, in [[Sonora]], Mexico, a [[serial killer]] named [[Silvia Meraz]] committed three murders in sacrifice rituals. With the help of her family, she beheaded two boys (both relatives) and one woman in front of an altar dedicated to [[Santa Muerte]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Children 'sacrificed' to Mexico's cult of 'Saint Death' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/9177633/Children-sacrificed-to-Mexicos-cult-of-Saint-Death.html |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |location=London |date=31 March 2012 |access-date=1 October 2017 }}</ref>

==== Panama ====
The "New Light Of God" sect in the town of El Terrón, [[Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca]], [[Panama]], believed they had a mandate from God to sacrifice members of their community who failed to repent to their satisfaction. In 2020, 5&nbsp;children, their pregnant mother, and a neighbor were killed and decapitated at the sect's church building, with 14&nbsp;other wounded victims being rescued. Victims were hacked with machetes, beaten with Bibles and cudgels, and burned with embers. A goat was ritually sacrificed at the scene as well. The cult's beliefs were a [[syncretism|syncretic]] blend of Pentecostalism with indigenous beliefs and some [[New Age]] ideas including emphasis on the [[third eye]]. A leader of the Ngäbe-Buglé region labeled the sect "satanic" and demanded its eradication.<ref name="Panama">{{cite web |title=Panama man pulled 2&nbsp;children from clutches of killer cult |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-01-17/panama-man-pulled-2-children-from-clutches-of-killer-cult}}</ref>

===Asia===

====India====
Several incidents of human sacrifice have been reported in India since independence. In 1996, a nine-year-old boy was sacrificed by [[Jharkhand]]-native Sushil Murmu as an offering to goddess [[Kali]]. Murmu was sentenced to death by the court but later got commuted to life imprisonment by the president of India.<ref>{{Cite web |agency=TNN|date=21 February 2012 |title=President commutes Jharkhand resident's death penalty to life {{!}} India News – Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/president-commutes-jharkhand-residents-death-penalty-to-life/articleshow/11969620.cms |access-date=8 January 2023 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sushil Murmu vs State Of Jharkhand on 12 December, 2003 |url=https://indiankanoon.org/doc/350207/}}</ref> According to the ''[[Hindustan Times]]'', there was an incident of human sacrifice in western [[Uttar Pradesh]] in 2003.{{efn|
"After a rash of similar killings in the area – according to an unofficial tally in the English language-language ''[[Hindustan Times]]'', there have been 25&nbsp;human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh in the last 6&nbsp;months alone – police have cracked down against tantriks, jailing four and forcing scores of others to close their businesses and pull their ads from newspapers and television stations. The killings and the stern official response have focused renewed attention on tantrism, an amalgam of mysticism practices that grew out of Hinduism.<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Lancaster |date=29 November 2003 |title=In India, case links mysticism, murder |newspaper=[[Washington Post]]}}</ref>}} Police in [[Khurja]] reported "dozens of sacrifices" in the period of half a year in 2006, by followers of [[Kali]], the goddess of death and time.<ref>{{cite news |first=Dan |last=McDougall |date=5 March 2006 |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |place=Khurja, India |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1723910,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Banyan |date=22 August 2013 |type=blog |title=Atheism in India: He's not the son of God |website=Economist.com |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2013/08/atheism-india |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Dan |last=McDougall |date=5 March 2006 |place=Khurja, India |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess: 'Holy men' blamed for inciting dozens of deaths |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Human sacrifice? Beheaded body found near Kali temple in Birbhum |date=16 April 2010 |newspaper=[[Indian Express]] |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/human-sacrifice--beheaded-body-found-near-kali-temple-in-birbhum/607102/ |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Perry |first=Alex |date=22 July 2002 |title=Killing for 'mother' Kali |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,322673,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114120849/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,322673,00.html |archive-date=14 November 2007 |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref> In 2010, a two-year-old boy was murdered in [[Chhattisgarh]] in a Tantric human sacrifice.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=21 February 2020 |title=Human Sacrifice, Sentencing and the Death Penalty |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/8/commentary/human-sacrifice-sentencing-and-death-penalty.html |language=en |volume=55 |issue=8}}</ref>

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 100 cases of human sacrifices have been reported in India between 2014 and 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 October 2022 |title=Interactive {{!}} Human sacrifices in India over the years |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/national/interactive-human-sacrifices-in-india-over-the-years-1154106.html |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Deccan Herald |language=en}}</ref> In 2015, during the Granite scam investigations of [[Tamil Nadu]], there were reports of possible human sacrifices in the [[Madurai]] area to pacify goddess [[Shakti|Shakthi]] for getting power to develop the illegal [[granite]] business. Bones and skulls were retrieved from the alleged sites in presence of the special judicial officer appointed by the [[Madras High Court|high court of Madras]].<ref>{{Cite news |first=Arun |last=Janardhanan |title=After human sacrifice complaint, skeletal remains found in quarry, police call granite baron today |date=17 September 2019 |newspaper=[[The Indian Express]] |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/after-human-sacrifice-complaint-skeletal-remains-found-in-quarry-police-call-granite-baron-today/ |access-date=7 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Tamil Nadu to probe Madurai 'human sacrifice' |date=16 September 2015 |newspaper=[[The Times of India]] |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tamil-Nadu-to-probe-Madurai-human-sacrifice/articleshow/48979765.cms |access-date=7 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Human sacrifice: Skeletal remains unearthed in Madurai |date=14 September 2015 |newspaper=[[India Today]] |url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/human-sacrifice-skeletal-remains-unearthed-in-madurai/1/472968.html |access-date=7 March 2019}}</ref>

Between June and October 2022, two women were killed and reportedly cannibalised as part of a [[Elanthoor human sacrifice case|human sacrifice in Elanthoor]] in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 October 2022 |title=Body parts chopped, cooked, eaten: Human sacrifice ritual stuns Kerala |website=indiatoday.in |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/crime/story/kerala-human-sacrifice-ritual-chilling-details-main-accused-kochi-police-statement-2284372-2022-10-12}}</ref> In October 2022, a six-year-old boy was killed in Delhi by two men to please a deity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 October 2022 |title=Six-year-old killed by two men in south Delhi to 'appease deity' |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/sixyearold-killed-by-two-men-in-south-delhi-to-appease-deity-101664735109987.html |access-date=8 January 2023 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref> In 2023, five men were arrested for the killing and decapitation of a woman with a machete in 2019, as part of a religious rite to mark the anniversary of the ringleader's brother's death, after visiting a Hindu temple in [[Guwahati]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Five arrested over human sacrifice at Indian temple |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/indian-police-arrest-five-men-accused-of-human-sacrifice |work=The Guardian |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=5 April 2023}}</ref>

===Africa===
{{Further|Medicine murder|Child sacrifice in Uganda}}

Human sacrifice is no longer legal in any country, and such cases are prosecuted. As of 2020 however, there is still black market demand for child abduction in countries such as Kenya for purposes which include human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news |last=Murimi |first=Peter |title=The baby stealers |website=[[BBC News]] |date=14 November 2020 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54892564 |access-date=22 November 2020}}</ref>

In January&nbsp;2008, [[Milton Blahyi]] of [[Liberia]] confessed to being part of human sacrifices which "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat." He fought against [[Charles Taylor (Liberia)|Charles Taylor]]'s militia.<ref>{{cite news |last=Paye |first=Jonathan |title=I ate children's hearts, ex-rebel says |website=[[BBC News]] |date=22 January 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7200101.stm |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref>

In 2019, an [[Anti-balaka]] leader in [[Satema]] in [[Central African Republic]] killed a 14-year-old girl in ritualistic way to increase profit from mines.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en%2FS%2F2019%2F930 |type=Letter |date=6 December 2019 |author=Romain Esmenjaud |author2=Mélanie De Groof |author3=Ilyas Oussedik |author4=Anna Osborne |author5=Émile Rwagasana |title=Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic extended pursuant to Security Council resolution 2454 (2019) |page=153 |access-date=14 April 2021 |archive-date=17 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717060959/https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en%2FS%2F2019%2F930 }}</ref>

On 22 March 2014, a group of motorcycle taxi drivers discovered the [[Ibadan forest of horror]], a dilapidated building believed to have been used for human trafficking and ritual sacrifice located in Soka forest in [[Ibadan]], [[Oyo State]], [[Nigeria]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26721112|title=Nigerian 'House of Horror' riot in Ibadan|work=BBC News|date=24 March 2014 |access-date=3 June 2015}}</ref>

==Ritual murder==
{{See also|Satanic ritual abuse}}
Ritual killings perpetrated by individuals or small groups within a society that denounces them as simple murder are difficult to classify as either "human sacrifice" or mere pathological homicide because they lack the societal integration of [[sacrifice]] proper.{{Citation needed|date=October 2019}}

The Satanic groups [[Order of Nine Angles]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.o9a.org/wp-content/uploads/praxis-and-theory-of-the-o9a.pdf |access-date=21 September 2015|page=9 |title=Praxis and Theory of the Order of Nine Angles |website=Order of Nine Angles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924053923/http://www.o9a.org/wp-content/uploads/praxis-and-theory-of-the-o9a.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Satanism Drama Is Tearing Apart the Murderous Neo-NaziGroup | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/satanism-drama-is-tearing-apart-the-murderous-neo-nazi-group-atomwaffen | first=Kelly | last=Weill | work=[[The Daily Beast]] | date=22 March 2018 | access-date=26 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524073531/https://www.thedailybeast.com/satanism-drama-is-tearing-apart-the-murderous-neo-nazi-group-atomwaffen | archive-date=24 May 2020 | url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Temple of the Black Light]] promote human sacrifice. During the [[Satanic Panic]] some conspiracy theorists falsely claimed there were more than a million human sacrifices in the United States.<ref name="Medway 2001 p. 323">{{cite book | last=Medway | first=G. | title=Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism | publisher=NYU Press | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-8147-5645-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1ETCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA323 | access-date=16 July 2023 | page=323}}</ref>

==Non-lethal "sacrifice"==
In India there is a festival (Seega Maramma) where a person is chosen as a "sacrifice", and is believed by participants to die during the ritual, although they actually remain alive and are "raised" from the dead at the end after a period of lying still. Thus, this does not have the same legal implications as a true human sacrifice although participants consider it to be one.<ref name="livingsacrifice">{{cite web|title= Festival celebrates human sacrifice, rebirth|date=11 May 2022 |url=https://www.thehansindia.com/karnataka/festival-celebrates-human-sacrifice-rebirth-742011}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Acéphale]]
* [[Animal sacrifice]]
* [[Blood atonement]]
* [[Capital punishment]]
* [[Child sacrifice]]
* [[Curse of Tippecanoe]]
* [[Gehenna]]
* ''[[Homo Necans]]''
* [[Honor killing]]
* [[Honor suicide]]
* [[Immurement]]
* [[Junshi]]
* [[Margaret Murray]] – ''The Divine King in England''
* [[Order of Nine Angles]]
* [[Pharmakos]]
* ''[[The Golden Bough]]''
* [[Purushamedha]]

{{div col end}}

== Footnotes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|25em|refs=

<ref name=Brunaux-2001-03--04-gallic-blood>
{{cite magazine
 |first=Jean-Louis |last=Brunaux
 |date=March–April 2001
 |title=Gallic blood rites
 |magazine=Archaeology
 |volume=54 |pages=54–57
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Brunaux-1990-11-08--11-sanct-celtqs>
{{cite conference
 |first=Jean-Louis |last=Brunaux
 |date=8–11 November 1990
 |title=Les sanctuaires celtiques et leurs rapports avec le monde mediterranéean
 |conference=Actes de colloque de organisés par la Direction des Antiquités de Picardie et l'UMR 126 du [[French National Centre for Scientific Research|CNRS]]
 |place=St-Riquier, FR
 |publication-place=Paris
 |publisher=Éditions Errance
 |publication-date=1991
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Brunaux-2000-mort-guerrier>
{{cite book
 |first=Jean-Louis |last=Brunaux
 |year=2000
 |section=La mort du guerrier celte. Essai d'histoire des mentalités
 |title=Rites et espaces en pays celte et méditerranéen
 |series=Étude comparée à partir du sanctuaire d'Acy-Romance, Ardennes, France
 |publisher=École française de Rome
}}
</ref>

}}

== Sources ==
{{Refbegin}}
''' Books'''
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Carrasco |title=City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization |publisher=Moughton Mifflin |year=2000 |isbn=0-8070-4643-4}}
* {{cite book |first=Inga |last=Clendinnen |author-link=Inga Clendinnen |title=Aztecs: An Interpretation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-521-48585-2}}
* {{cite book |first1=Clemency |last1=Coggins |first2=Orrin C. III |last2=Shane |title=Cenote of Sacrifices |year=1984 |publisher=The university of Texas Press |isbn=0-292-71097-6}}
* {{cite book |first=René |last=Girard |author-link=René Girard |title=Violence and the Sacred |translator-first=P. |translator-last=Gregory |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-8264-7718-6}}
* {{cite book |first=René |last=Girard |title=I See Satan Fall Like Lightning |translator-first=James G. |translator-last=Williams |publisher=Orbis Books |year=2001 |isbn=1-57075-319-9}}
* {{cite book |first=Miranda |last=Aldhouse-Green |author-link=Miranda Aldhouse-Green |title=Dying for the Gods |publisher=Trafalgar Square |year=2001 |isbn=0-7524-1940-4}}
* {{cite book |first=Dennis D. |last=Hughes |title=Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece |year=1991 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-03483-3}}
* {{cite book |first=Derek |last=Hughes |title=Culture and Sacrifice: Ritual death in literature and opera |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86733-7}}
* {{cite book |first=Ronald |last=Hutton |author-link=Ronald Hutton |title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |year=1991 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0-631-18946-7}}
* {{cite book |first=Larry |last=Kahaner |title=Cults That Kill |publisher=Warner Books |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-446-35637-4}}
* {{cite book |first=Valerio |last=Valeri |title=Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii |year=1985 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-84559-1}}
*{{cite book |first=Adolf E. |last=Jensen |author-link=Adolf E. Jensen |title=Myth and Cult among Primitive Peoples |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1963}}

''' Journal articles'''
* {{cite journal |first=Michael |last=Winkelman |title=Aztec human sacrifice: Cross-cultural assessments of the ecological hypothesis |journal=Ethnology |volume=37 |issue=3 |date=Summer 1998 |pages=285–298|doi=10.2307/3774017 |jstor=3774017 }}
* {{cite journal |first=R.H. |last=Sales |title=Human sacrifice in Biblical thought |journal=Journal of Bible and Religion |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=April 1957 |pages=112–117}}
* {{cite journal |first1=Brian K. |last1=Smith |first2=Wendy |last2=Doniger |title=Sacrifice and substitution: Ritual mystification and mythical demystification |journal=Numen |volume=36 |issue=2 |date=December 1989 |pages=189–224|doi=10.1163/156852789X00045 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Brian K. |last=Smith |title=Capital punishment and human sacrifice |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |year=2000 |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=3–26|doi=10.1093/jaarel/68.1.3 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Robin |last=Law |title=Human sacrifice in pre-Colonial west Africa |journal=African Affairs |volume=84 |issue=334 |date=Jan 1985 |pages=53–87|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097676 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Th. P. |last=van Baaren |title=Theoretical Speculations on Sacrifice |journal=Numen |volume=11 |page=1 |date=January 1964 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Gunnar |last=Heinsohn |title=The rise of blood sacrifice and priest kingship in Mesopotamia: A cosmic decree? |journal=Religion |volume=22 |year=1992 |issue=2 |pages=109–134 |doi=10.1016/0048-721X(92)90054-8}} {{cite web |title=The rise of blood sacrifice and priest kingship in Mesopotamia: A cosmic decree |url=http://www.kronia.com/library/journals/sacrfice.txt |access-date=12 December 2006 |archive-date=5 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605073359/http://www.kronia.com/library/journals/sacrfice.txt }}
* {{cite journal |first=J. |last=Rives |title=Human Sacrifice among Pagans and Christians |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=85 |year=1995 |pages=65–85|doi=10.1017/S0075435800074761 }}
* {{cite journal |first=Clifford |last=Williams |year=1988 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice or capital punishment? An assessment of the period 1807–1874 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=433–441|doi=10.2307/219449 |jstor=219449 }} – [[Ashanti Empire|Asante]] is also called the [[Ashanti Empire]].
* {{cite journal |first=Jonathan |last=Sheehan |title=The Altars of the Idols: Religion, Sacrifice, and the Early Modern Polity |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=67 |issue=4 |year=2006 |pages=649–674|doi=10.1353/jhi.2006.0040 |s2cid=159538645 }}<br/>{{cite journal |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_ideas/v067/67.4sheehan02.html |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |title=The Altars of the Idols: Religion, Sacrifice, and the Early Modern Polity |year=2006 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2006.0040 |s2cid=159538645 |access-date=25 May 2010 |last1=Sheehan |first1=Jonathan |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=649–674 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal |first=Harco |last=Willems |title=Crime, cult, and capital punishment (Mo'alla Inscription&nbsp;8) |journal=The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology |volume=76 |year=1990 |pages=27–54}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite web |first=D.L. |last=Ashliman |author-link=D.L. Ashliman |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/sacrifice.html |title=Human sacrifice in legends and myths}}
* {{cite news |first=Claire |last=Lee |date=20 March 2012 |url=http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20120320001054 |title=National Museum to showcase Silla relics |newspaper=[[The Korea Herald]] }} –Well ceremony in [[Silla]].
* {{cite web |url=https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23751 |series=Collection |title=Human Sacrifice |publisher=[[University of Michigan Museum of Art]]}}
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Ritual Murder |volume=23 |page=373 |short=1}}

{{Death}}
{{Superstitions}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Sacrifice}}
[[Category:Human sacrifice| ]]
[[Category:Sacrifice| Sacrifice, human]]
[[Category:Religion and death]]
[[Category:Crimes involving Satanism or the occult]]
[[Category:Killings by type]]