Danse Macabre Eid al-Adha has passed, bringing with it no less than ten days of holiday (and alas, a week of extra school as well). Of course, most of us are aware of the history and significance of this holiday, and it is not my intention to write about it. However, the concept of sacrifice is not unique to us. Many ancient cultures practiced ritual sacrifice of both humans and animals, for various (and often peculiar) reasons, and I wish to speak of those customs. Of course, I am a mere layman in speaking about those things. Those more learned than me in cultures of ancient civilizations should feel free to correct me should my knowledge prove lacking!
While Aztecs were by no means the only culture to practice human sacrifice, they nonetheless provide a vivid example of it. Their sacrifices were seen as necessary for the well-being of the world. Many of us take the sun rising everyday for granted, but Aztecs decided to take matters into their own hands, attempting to safeguard our star's daily course in the sky via ritual sacrifice. Their deities were also to be nourished and appeased with sacrifices of both humans and all manner of animals (including jaguars, frogs, hummingbirds, dragonfly larvae, butterflies... ) Aztec society was so heavily involved in those rituals that even in war the soldiers prioritized capturing enemy soldiers instead of killing them (and thus wasting lives that could be used in more productive efforts such as fuelling the sun, which all parties agreed was of utmost importance.)
This practice may seem inhuman to us, we who see life as something sacred (or something to be protected, at the very least). But the Aztecs believed the universe was sustained through sacrifice of both deities and humans. Every 52 years, a grand festival was held and everyone waited in worry to see if the Earth would be destroyed (forget 2012, this is the real threat here). Human sacrifices were made to appease deities, and if everything went right, the sun would rise once again. If something didn't go as planned, well, we wouldn't be here and neither would the Earth-or so thought the Aztecs.
Another interesting sacrifice is one carried out by the Ainu people, natives of Japan. Bears were sacred animals in Ainu belief, so each year, every Ainu village attempted to capture a bear cub. The village would feed and take care of this bear for a year, after which it would be skewered to death with arrows and eaten in a festival. The intention behind this rite was to allow the cub to rise to the heavens and tell the bear deity how well humans have treated it. I haven't a clue why the ursine deity would appreciate its cubs being shot to death, but at least it beats sacrificing people to delay the end of the world.
Let us be grateful that the only sacrifice we'll see is in commemoration. And let us hope the sun doesn't suddenly come to a halt tomorrow, demanding fresh blood from us humans!
BY ALPER ÖZKAN (MBG/III)
d_ozkan@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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