Child Sacrifice Research Articles

The Impact of Religious Practices on Shaping Cultural Habits: The Case of Child Sacrifice among the Pre-Islāmic Arabs from the Qur’ānic Perspective

The Impact of Religious Practices on Shaping Cultural Habits: The Case of Child Sacrifice among the Pre-Islāmic Arabs from the Qur’ānic Perspective

“I drive my happiness when I save a child”: Altruistic passion, purpose, and growth in caring for victims of child sacrifice and trafficking in Uganda.

“I drive my happiness when I save a child”: Altruistic passion, purpose, and growth in caring for victims of child sacrifice and trafficking in Uganda.

Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism by Caroline T. Schroeder

Reviewed by: Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism by Caroline T. Schroeder Arietta Papaconstantinou Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism Caroline T. Schroeder Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xiii + 255. ISBN 9781107156876 When in 2006 Alice-Mary Talbot and I organized a conference on late antique and Byzantine childhood at Dumbarton Oaks, we felt we were venturing into new territory. In the fifteen years following that conference, the field has seen a spectacular rise in interest for all aspects of childhood in the broader late antique and Byzantine world. Caroline Schroeder's book is one of the most sophisticated products of this surge, both in its overall approach to the subject and in its nuanced and balanced discussions. Schroeder tackles a favorite of research on medieval childhood: the uneasy relationship between children and monasteries. This has not yet been studied comprehensively for the eastern Mediterranean, and this book, focused more specifically on late antique Egypt, makes an important first step in that direction. After an introduction defining the concept of "child" as used in the book and discussing the broader issue of how cultural norms can affect the way we study the subject, the first section, "Finding children," surveys a very broad array of sources, from monastic to visual to documentary (Chapter 1: "Documenting the Undocumented: Children in the Earliest Egyptian Monasteries"), and discusses the vocabulary of childhood and its ambiguities (Chapter 2: "The Language of Childhood"). Paradoxically, however, the second chapter undermines the first: the constant uncertainty regarding what exactly is being referred to by the various possible words for "child" does not support the argument that children's presence in monasteries was common and important. Neither does it invalidate it, of course, but the interpretation of most of the texts used is far from univocal. The second section, "Representations," is on much firmer ground, because it discusses literary themes about children. Each of the three chapters is based on a previously published article, and despite being self-standing studies, they combine to offer an excellent analysis of the thought-world of monastic writers and the literary uses to which they put children. Chapter 3, "Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks" (based on a 2009 publication, "Queer Eye for the Ascetic Guy? Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks in Late Antique Egypt" in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 77: 333–47), treats the vexed issue of the sexualization of young boys in male monasteries. The undeniable grim reality underlying monastic literary [End Page 249] obsessions about young boys is difficult to access through texts that primarily express the sexual anxieties of monks. For the monks, they probably functioned similarly to texts about eunuchs or imaginary disguised women in their midst. Chapter 4, "Child sacrifice: from familial renunciation to Jephthah's lost daughter" (originally from 2012, "Child Sacrifice in Egyptian Monastic Culture: From Familial Renunciation to Jephthah's Lost Daughter" in the Journal of Early Christian Studies 20: 269–302), brings together topics as disparate as the killing of children and the renunciation of family affection. Schroeder shows how these hang together in a web of holy hierarchies, where obedience to God—and the line of authority figures representing him—trumps any bond within the biological family. She explores the complex intertextual relations between monastic stories and biblical models and the symbolic power of a practice that went against cultural norms. Biblical models like Jephtah and Abraham undeniably underlie such stories, but sacrificing one's child for a superior cause was also a Homeric theme and certainly familiar to monks with a Greek education. The final chapter in this section, chapter 5: "Monastic Family Values: The Healing of Children" (rooted in a 2011 publication, "Monastic Family Values: The Healing of Children in Late Antique Egypt" in Coptica 10: 21–28), discusses healing in both the literal and the symbolic sense—in other words, both biological and spiritual cures. Schroeder argues that the monastery thus took on the role of the household by providing care and moral education to the children. Although the monks' healing powers were ascribed to faith and asceticism, it seems inmates sometimes had medical expertise...

Children First, a Debate on the Restrictions to Tackle COVID-19

Sometimes, when a public health disaster strikes, mandatory freedom-limiting restrictions must be enforced in order to save lives. During the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the customary and necessary exchange of ideas in academia drastically changed in most countries, and the absence of debate on the restrictions enforced became evident. Now that the pandemic seems to be drawing to an end, the aim of this article is to spark clinical and public debate on the ethical issues concerning pediatric COVID-19 mandates in an attempt to analyze what happened. With theoretical reflection, and not empirical inquiry, we address the mitigation measures which proved detrimental to children despite being beneficial to other segments of the population. We focus on three key points: (i) the sacrifice of fundamental children's rights for the greater good, (ii) the feasibility of cost-benefit analyses to make public health decisions and restrictions which affect children, and (iii) to analyze the impediments to allowing children's voices to be heard concerning their medical treatment.

Cunning Distortions: Folk Christianity and Witchcraft Allegations in Early Mormon History

Cunning Distortions: Folk Christianity and Witchcraft Allegations in Early Mormon History

Freedom of Speech and Democracy

In recent years ‘freedom of speech’ has been hotly contested, at times weaponised in political debates. Policies of ‘no-platforming’ and at times strong reactions, even protests, against certain speech have led some to worry about what they call ‘cancel culture’. In addition to the explicit fight over freedom of speech seen, for example, in current feminist debates, the last 18 months have seen a rise in the popularity and presence of conspiracy theories, including theories about Covid vaccinations and the Covid pandemic. Mixed in with the so-called ‘anti-vaxxers’ are a medley of conspiracy theorists ranging from climate change deniers, supporters of ‘ethnic replacement conspiracy theories’ through to the astonishingly long-lived, antisemitic myths about child sacrifice and world domination. The spread of such conspiracy theories is problematic if they directly or indirectly cause harm. Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories are harmful if they facilitate the spread of a deadly disease, or if they spread misinformation and thereby vilify (marginalised) individuals or groups and undermine the trust necessary for peaceful coexistence and cooperation in democratic societies.
 However – while concern about such harms is important – freedom of speech is often regarded as such a basic right that any infringement has been considered harmful in itself. 
 In this article I will look at two examples that pose challenges to freedom of speech and analyse them with reference to what I take to be the most plausible account of the grounds and scope of freedom of speech, a democratic defence of freedom of speech. Seeing freedom of speech as primarily grounded in democracy has important implications in situations when speech can be seen as harmful in a relevant sense and in consideration of what we can or should do about harmful speech. In the end I will suggest a possible way of weighing up value and dangers with respect to the cases and also in a broader sense.

“We wait to be true people, Christians”: An Idolatry Confession in Zapotec

Context This article presents a translation and analysis of the only extant formal confession of human sacrifice written in an Indigenous language in the colonial Americas. An analysis of this document, written in Northern Zapotec by the town officials of Yalalag in 1704, provides numerous insights about how a community deployed traditional rhetoric to seek mercy from their civil magistrate, and to provide a justification for committing acts of idolatry and child sacrifice. Rather than aligning with the canonical middle ground (nepantla), often used as a yardstick, this confession eloquently and incisively places Northern Zapotec society in tentative terrain point in terms of their knowledge of Christianity, and depicts Christianization as a long-term process, which confessants boldly tied to latent forms of negotiation.

Sociological Aspects in Siti Nurbaya's Novel by Marah Rusli

There is a close relationship between literature and life because the social function of literature is how it involves itself in people's lives. The purpose of this research is to find out the sociology of literature, which examines it through three contexts, first, the social context of the author; second, literature as a mirror of society; third, the social function of literature in the novel Siti Nurbaya by Marah Rusli. The method in this research uses descriptive qualitative. In this case, the writer first describes the social context of Marah Rusli's novel Siti Nurbaya, then analyzes the content of the novel and then looks at the relationship between the problems in the novel, and then adjusts it to socio-cultural conditions. The results of the analysis show that Siti Nurbaya's novel, in terms of the author's social context, that in Siti Nurbaya's novel, is based on the bad experience of the author, Marah Rusli. Siti Nurbaya's novel reflects the many problems of society in Siti Nurbaya's era, such as polygamy, pride in nobility, customs in Padang, child sacrifices for their parents, and so on. Meanwhile, there is a social function of literature in the novel, which includes rebellion, literary works as entertainment, and entertainingly teaching something.

Medea Re-Imagined: A Wounded Call to Justice

This article discusses the theatrical re-imagining of Euripides’ Medea by Peter McGarry. In McGarry’s play, Medea is punished for her crime and sentenced to suffer the torment and consequences of her murder by repeatedly performing on stage her tragedy throughout time and space. McGarry’s Medea places a spotlight on an enduring facet of human experience, namely, the problem of injustice in its many aspects, comparing Medea’s “just cause” for revenge and killing her children with the wars that modern societies wage in the name of justice, vengeance, or even Gods, which always involve the sacrifice of children and young people to the greater good.

Hackers of the heart: digital sorcery and virtual intimacy in Côte d'Ivoire

AbstractThis is an ethnography of internet scams in Abidjan through which I attempt to develop a theory of digital sorcery. Thebrouteursof Côte d'Ivoire impersonate Europeans in social media profiles and seduce others into falling in love with them. After months of flirtatious messaging and photo exchanges, disaster strikes their avatar and they ask for an emergency wire transfer from their digital lover. While millions of euros of income are sent to Abidjan every year, thebrouteurssay they can no longer succeed without the use of occult forces, and they turn to marabouts for assistance. During my fieldwork in 2015, rumours circulated thatbrouteurwealth depended on the blood sacrifice of children for its success. As Ivoirians increasingly employ smartphones and social media in their daily life, the anxieties concerning the illusions and manipulations of the virtual world become enmeshed with those of the occult second world. I suggest that the overlap between hacker technology, con artistry and occult power outlined in Ivoirian urban rumour suggests a model for rethinking the space of virtuality in the global economy as a form of magical semiosis, one that can be every bit as vitality draining as witchcraft itself.

Poder y niñez en la región andina en la perspectiva de fuentes coloniales (siglos XVI-XVII)

For the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th there is little information on Andean childhood. The image of childhood is mainly linked with Castilianization and evangelization measures. Children were considered in a double sense, on the one hand as a victim of sin as well as of devil rituals, e.g. the sacrifice of children, on the other hand as a potential factor for changing cultural habits to be loyal to the Spanish monarchy. Between these two aspects, there is information on Andean childhood that was less important for colonial policy, but very meaningful for the survival of the vernacular social group. In those years of social and political transition and transformation, different aspects of precolonial times adapted to new trends. Others were the latent substrate. Based on information from vocabularies and chronicles of this epoch, I explore in this paper this substrate about children, its characteristics, relations and functions that coexist with the official norm.

Findings from a preliminary review of child sacrifice cases in Kyampisi Uganda

ABSTRACT The authors reported on a review of child sacrifice cases in Kyampisi, Uganda. A constant comparative review method was used to examine a small convenient sample of cases. Analysis included using memo writing and low-inference coding to capture primary themes with input from an FBI behavioral analyst and a follow-up interview with the executive director of Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM). The authors identified broad categories informed by input from the FBI behavioral analyst. The categories included child and family demographics, crime details, offender demographics, and recovery efforts. The research uncovered Child sacrifice is real and needs to be stopped. Emerging patterns in the cases were apparent. Child sacrifice should be considered different from random criminal acts. Efforts to seek justice were time consuming and the outcomes were usually discouraging. Child sacrifice practices should be considered different from random criminal acts. Multi-systemic efforts are the only possible way of reducing the number of child sacrifice cases in the region.

SALVAGE AND RESCUE ARCHAEOLOGY INSIDE ANCIENT TULA: RECENT DISCOVERIES AND REVELATIONS

AbstractThis article presents the results of seven archaeological salvage and rescue projects that resulted in new information on settlement at Tula, Hidalgo that includes materials and evidence of activities rarely or never before encountered at Tula. Several localities exhibited evidence of craft activities that included the production of basalt megaliths, human and animal figurines, and the processing of human skulls. One locality was the scene of elaborate ritual involving the mass sacrifice of children, and another was the scene of elaborate ritual destruction and offerings involving some of the most sumptuous objects yet found at Tula. One of the most remarkable aspects of the wealth of information and material culture obtained was that these were salvage and rescue operations undertaken with limited time and resources in localities determined by factors in which previous archaeological knowledge played no guiding role. These investigations indicate that despite the extensive damage suffered by Tula outside the protected area, much of the old city still remains for researchers for the immediate future.

Battered Women Syndrome: A Headache for Medicine and Law

In many respects, the term battered women syndrome is an unfortunate nomenclature used in relation to a woman’s prolonged and repeated exposure to domestic violence (often involves sexual humiliation). Unlike a single traumatic event, prolonged and/or repeated exposure to trauma may result in the development of a complex trauma syndrome (Zepinic, 2017). Many battered women report total physical and psychological dominance by the abuser and many being coerced into immoral and humiliating sexual practices. Most of the victims of domestic terror involve the sacrifice of children—the battered woman will report that, in relationship with the abuse, she did not care about herself but has been concerned about her children. In the courtroom, there is often evidence that the perpetrator also abused children even threatening the woman that he is going to kill them if she reports to anyone violence and torture, or if a battered woman attempts to leave the abuser. The battered woman is also a victim of a microcosm of the bias within the principles of the criminal law in general and criminal defences in particular. Domestic violence is not a new phenomenon; however, the battered woman is often in spot-lite because she managed to kill her abuser before he killed her. In addition, to induce fear, the abuser seeks to destroy the trauma victim’s sense of self, identity, and autonomy. On the other hand, due to the psychological and physical dominance, domestic captivity, fear of more abusive trauma, and fear for the children’s safety, the battered woman very rarely asks for any help or therapy due to developed trauma symptoms, often accompanied by physical injuries.

This is supposed to happen here: American gun culture and the rhetoric of child sacrifice

Recent years have seen the god Molech invoked within American gun control discourse as an accusation implying indifference to the loss of children in mass shootings. The historical record on child sacrifice mirrors the use of the accusation today; regardless of whether sacrifices to Molech or Cronos actually occurred, the accusation motivated ostracization. This article examines the record of child sacrifice and situates it within a reading of American gun culture and follows recent scholarship suggesting American gun culture is designed to delegate to persons, white men in particular, the ability to liquidate themselves, their families, and people of color. Finally, this article concludes by examining the gun as a fetish for enjoyment and by framing the gun psychoanalytically as a conversion symptom aiming to produce a “return of the repressed” in another’s body, namely, the corpse of a child which ensures more guns and more corpses will follow.

Child Trafficking in Uganda

Children are trafficked within Uganda for purposes of sexual exploitation; labor exploitation in the agricultural, fishing, mining, hospitality, and domestic service sectors; and in some cases illegal organ harvesting; child sacrifice and conscription into armed militias. Child trafficking in Uganda is mostly internal, with children being trafficked from the poorer rural and underserved communities to larger cities such as Kampala for exploitation. The Policy Brief will map out Uganda’s anti-child trafficking mechanism, presenting Uganda’s existing legal and policy anti-trafficking frameworks. It further examines the implementation level of developed standards, highlighting good and weak practice.

Evil Society in Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The One Who Walk Away from Omelas”

This research analyzes the evil society portrayed in Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” The analysis focuses on how the citizens of Omelas commit such an inhuman act in the name of the city’s prosperity, thus, comes the term evil society. This research is descriptive and qualitative in nature. The data are taken from the description of the confined child and the people of Omelas. To elaborate on the portrayal of evil society within the story, the researchers employ Staub’s (1999) concept of evil actions. The concept details the definition of evil and its roots. The findings show that the evil society in the short story is identified by the evil acts that the society commits: the child sacrifice, the citizen’s ignorance, and the abiding laws.

The Prophets

The Prophets Christopher T. Begg and Thomas Hieke ________ 819. [Prophetic Books] Elena Di Pede, L’alleanza nei profeti (Studi Biblici 89; Bologna: EDB, 2019). Pp. 74. Paper €9. ISBN 978-88-10-41041-7. The French original of this little volume on the theme of covenant in the Prophets appeared in 2015. For an abstract of that original, see OTA 39 (2016) #1253.—C.T.B. 820. [Prophetic Books] Jesper Høgenhaven, Frederik Poulsen, and Cian Power (eds.), Images of Exile in the Prophetic Literature: Copenhagen Conference Proceedings [End Page 263] 7–10 May 2017 (FAT 2.103; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Pp. vi + 289. Paper €84. ISBN 978-3-16-155749-1. This volume consists of a total of 15 papers that were delivered on the occasion cited in its sub-title concerning exilic imagery in the prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in particular. In their introduction to the topic, the editors provide brief summaries of the component essays. Those essays are grouped in three parts: (1) Isaiah (4 essays); (2) Jeremiah and Ezekiel (7 essays); and (3) Various Themes (4 essays). The essays do not come with individual bibliographies and there is no general bibliography for the collection as a whole. The volume closes with a list of contributors and indexes of Scripture and modern authors. For abstracts of the essays, see ##154, 178, 579, 581, 590, 595, 599, 621, 622, 625, 631, 632, 640, 659.—C.T.B. 821. [Prophecy] Martti Nissinen (with contributions by C. L. Seow, Robert K. Rinter, and H. Craig Melchert), Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East (2nd ed.; Writings from the Ancient World 41; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019). Pp. xxviii + 343. Paper $39.93. ISBN 978-1-62837-228-1. The first edition of this compendium of ANE texts featuring words of prophets and/or mentions of such figures in transliteration and translation along with accompanying bibliographies and annotations appeared in 2003. It was abstracted in OTA 27 (2004) #1504. For this new edition, N. has added, under the appropriate categories of material (e.g., Mari Letters) into which the work is divided, an additional 34 texts that have been published in the meantime for a current total of 142 texts. The numeration of the texts in the 1st edition has been retained, with the additional texts being numbered, e.g., 58a, 58b, etc.—C.T.B. 822. [Jeremiah 25–52] Hermann-Josef Stipp, Jeremia 25–52 (HAT I/12,2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019). Pp. ix + 832. Paper €69. ISBN 978-3-16-156632-5. Encountering this hefty volume on the second half of the Book of Jeremiah, one would naturally assume that the companion volume on the book’s first half has already appeared. However, as S. notes in his preface, he opted to write the commentary’s first volume after the second, since the former will contain the introduction to the entire book and so requires him to have worked out his views on Jeremiah 25–52 before writing it. The present volume accordingly opens with a relatively brief introduction focused on the text and formation-history of Jeremiah 25–52 itself. There follows S.’s detailed commentary on the 14 longer or shorter units (several of which are further divided by him into sub-units) into which he divides up Jeremiah 25–52. For each unit and sub-unit, S. uses some variation of a four-part format: (annotated) translation of MT of the given unit (in his translation of the passage, S. breaks down the individual verses into their component clauses according to the system of W. Richter, designating these with the sigla a, b, c, etc.), sectional bibliography, discussion of the unit’s formation-history and structure, and “explanation” (Erklärung) where he provides a detailed, verse-by-verse exegesis of the unit. Interspersed throughout S.’s presentation, one finds reproductions of ANE iconography as well as a series of excursuses concerning, e.g., the living conditions of the Judean exiles, child sacrifice, Moloch, and Tophet.—C.T.B. [End Page...

Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity by Maria E. Doerfler

Reviewed by: Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity by Maria E. Doerfler Oana Maria Cojocaru Maria E. Doerfler Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity Oakland, CA: California University Press, 2020 Pp. 416. $ 29.95. The book focuses on how late antique people responded to the challenging issue of childhood mortality which was part and parcel of the everyday life of Christian communities. Parents who asked themselves why their children suffered and died so young or how they were to cope with this tragic event may have found their answers in liturgical narratives composed by various Christian authors of the fourth to the sixth centuries, in both the Latin West and the Greek and Syriac East. The overarching argument of Doerfler is that these narratives, crafted around a few well-known biblical characters who experienced tragic losses themselves, were intended to provide psychological, moral, and theological support to bereaved parents. After outlining in the Introduction the scope and structure of her study, in Chapter One Doerfler situates children’s deaths in their socio-historical and ritual contexts by discussing the burial practices and commemoration of departed children. Mindful of the meagerness of archaeological data concerning children’s funerary practices, the author skillfully combines material and textual evidence that give some insight into a range of practices surrounding the death, burial, and commemoration of children, which vary according to the geographical location, financial means, and family preferences. Chapter Two focuses on the liturgical narratives inspired by Genesis 4, which records the killing of Abel by Cain, an occasion for exegetes to portray Eve and Adam as epitomes of parental bereavement, and to teach their audience how to grieve their own dead children. Eve is featured as particularly shaken by Cain’s fratricide: she has not only lost Abel, but also Cain who was punished to wander the world. Doerfler argues that Eve’s suffering envisioned especially by the Syriac writers acted as a mirror through which bereaved parents could internalize their [End Page 665] experience of losing their dear children. One consolation for their loss was the idea preached in the patristic literature, according to which, the departed children would enjoy their afterlife in paradise. Chapter Three deals with the Akedah (Genesis 22)—another biblical story that inspired Christian exegetes to explore the theme of childhood mortality within the context of parental submission to the divine will and the sacrifice of children to God. Abraham’s composure when fulfilling the divine command to kill his own son provided the opportunity for late antique writers to envision various scenarios of what Sarah might have said or done when finding about her husband’s intention to sacrifice Isaac. She becomes “a compensatory figure” (96), “a vital voice for parental grief, lament, and recrimination in aspects of the late ancient exegetical tradition” (99). Chapter Four deals with the intertextual connection of the Akedah with two other biblical narratives that present parents sacrificing their children: Jephthah’s killing of his only daughter (Judges 11), and the mother of the Maccabean martyrs (2 Maccabees 7). In stark contrast with Abraham, whose stoic attitude and readiness to fulfill God’s command to kill his own child was praised by various homilists and commentators, Jephthah aroused heavy criticism for his emotional display at the prospect of killing his own daughter. Against this adverse view of Jephthah’s manifestation of grief, Jacob of Serugh saw him as “a model of balancing grief with duty” (116), “a fundamental human—but not, for that reason, a less admirable—response to moral conflict and especially bereavement” (117). If Jephthah’s character diverges from the masculine ideal of how grief should be expressed, the Maccabean mother, who completes the triad of biblical parents who sacrificed their children, represents the manly woman who displays resilience in the face of her sons’ deaths, a role model for family relationships and spiritual formation of children, as well as “an exemplar of both old and ‘new’ motherhood, of triumphant stoicism, and deep parental attachment and suffering” (142). Chapter Five examines how the story of Job was deployed by homilists and commentators for different strategic...

Flesh and Blood

Abstract Fears and stories about an underground religion devoted to Satan, which demands and carries out child sacrifice, appeared in the United States in the late twentieth century and became the subject of media reports supported by some mental health professionals. Looking at these modern fantasies leads us back to ancient stories which in some cases believers consider the height of religious devotion. Horrifying ideas about human sacrifice, child sacrifice, and the offering to the gods of a beloved only son by his father appear repeatedly in Western traditions, starting with the Greeks and the Hebrews. This publication focuses on rituals of violence tied to religion, both imagined and real. The main question of this work is the meaning of blood and ritual killing in the history of religion. The publication examines the encounter with the idea of child sacrifice in the context of human hopes for salvation.