祭祀:概念的阐释

一、字面上的陷阱 “sacrifice”一直以来就具有一种字面上的迷惑性，这个源自拉丁语的词汇在英语中可以表达非常广泛的意义。拉丁语中“sacrifice”一词最早是指“使某些东西变得神圣”，

Sacrifice: Elaboration on a Concept

Through examining cases in Africa and Indonesia, the author notes that ＂Sacrifice＂ covers a very wide range of alleged causes, aims and consequences, and it is the process of making offerings to deities or spirits that generates this diversity. The concept covers a field of possibilities which can be elaborated almost indefinitely, but only within the understanding of a distinction between humanity and divinity, however variable its cultural expression. Despite being essentialized in Abrahamic theodicy, notions of sacrifice subsume the contentious concept of belief in studying religiosity. Sacrifice, along with prayer, can therefore be used instead of belief to provide the entry point into how humanity reaches out to something beyond itself.