The Moral Economies of Sacrifice and Sacrilege in Russian Agrarian Culture

Abstract

This article challenges the empirical usefulness of historical and anthropological approaches (Walter Burkert, René Girard, et al.) when considering sacrifice as a socially acceptable projection of aggression inherent in all human beings. Ideas formulated by Burkert and Girard were later criticised by a number of anthropologists and students of religion. At the same time, however, historical and ethnographic data sometimes reveal particular connections between sacred objects and agents, on the one hand, and images of violence, killing, and the transgression of social norms, on the other. The paper deals with a number of cases from modern Russian agrarian culture revealing certain rules and norms of moral economies that connect concepts of the sacred, violence, and sacrifice in particular ritual and narrative contexts. Legends about substitute sacrifices and the origin of local sacred places, as well as the religious cults of laymen (usually children) who died accidentally before their time, are contextualised in local cosmologies that provided modes for the mutual socialisation of human beings and non- or superhuman agents. Here, the theme of sacrifice is related to resource exchange providing stable, predictable, and reciprocal relations with various otherworldly beings. In this context, the Judeo-Christian ‘sacrifice narratives’ that originated in ancient Mediterranean ritual cultures could only in part be adapted to local religious practices, social structures, and norms.