Sacrifice. Which hapless early human culture first dreamed up that concept? Or was it one of those mysterious practices which cropped up all over the inhabited areas of the globe more or less concurrently?
The practice of ritual sacrifice can be traced further back than Roman and Greek civilisations. Ancient cultures of South America, Scandinavia, Britain, the Middle East all show evidence of ritual sacrifice having been part of their way of life. Appeasing or cajoling "the gods" would seem to have been the point of it all. The spilling of blood, whether animal or human, was powerfully symbolic - fresh blood had the mysterious, even magical, ingredient signifying life itself. Blood, then,was the highest offering possible. This idea of blood being a magical entity was carried through also by early practitioners of magick.
Gods who need appeasing or cajoling though? How did that idea arise? Perhaps due to the rigours of climate: droughts when water became hard to find, hurricanes, gales, floods, scorching heat, deep snow, heavy frosts all could interfere with primitive routines and the need to find food and shelter. For some reason the early human brain decided that all their various travails must be the doings of some unseen hand, belonging to some unseen being - who had better be appeased and cajoled if life were to continue in their neck of the woods.
That was all once upon a time stuff - in the 20th/21st century:
"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made........" (Paul Simon)
