Political and Demographic-Ecological Determinants of Institutionalised Human Sacrifice

Abstract

This paper assesses causes of institutionalised human sacrifice through analyses of cross-cultural data sets, extending previous cross-cultural research that found significant ecological predictors of human sacrifice in population pressure and environmental circumscription measures. Societies with human sacrifice have intensive agriculture, fixed residence and high population density. However, human sacrifice is not significantly correlated with these, nor many other ecological measures (agricultural potential, protein, total food, food storage adequacy, and famine risk). It was found, however, that human sacrifice is significantly and independently predicted by population pressure and an overall measure of war for land and resources. This paper reports additional analyses of correlates of institutionalised human sacrifice in political variables, particularly geopolitical dynamics and intra- and inter-group relations. Multiple linear regression shows human sacrifice has independently significant correlation with: highest levels of political organization based on alliance or confederacies, chief executive of group selected by a ruling family, internal war for resources, and population stress. Binary logistic analyses found alliance/confederacies as the highest form of political integration and internal war for resources remained significant predictors in the model. These findings are interpreted as supporting arguments that human sacrifice is motivated by ecological factors and plays a role in political activity in inter-group intimidation through power displays. These findings are related to patterns of political action involving network versus corporate strategies and contrast of a terroristic-volunteristic dimension of implementation of political strategy.