AZ: Child-sacrifice

[ECOLING at aol.com]

Richard Haly:

You may know that human sacrifice has been discussed extensively
on this and other lists, and keeps coming up again and again.

It did occur.

But it is usually sensationalized in our cultures,
usually as a way of making money in the media,
or of making ourselves feel how "superior" we are,
of course neglecting the fact that in our own cultures
it has occurred too, and if one uses a suitably general
definition, not circularly designed to apply only to certain
"manners" of sacrifice, still does
(i.e. for symbolic or ritual value,
not for eating because of nutritional needs).

That means it is distorted, and its role in the society
overemphasized.
That is much of what "sensationalized" means.

I would always discourage any relative newcomer,
and any child,  from dealing with this issue at all,
until they have GREAT maturity,
stability, presence of mind, ability to detect hidden assumptions
and motivations behind how things are presented,
and behind what is chosen to be presented
and what is chosen to be omitted, etc. etc.

In short, enormous sophistication.

Otherwise, it ends up doing harm both to the modern
people descended from the ancient people studied,
and to the psyche of the student looking at the concept.

Sincerely yours,
Lloyd Anderson