Questions	Celtic	Chinese	Pre-Columbian Andean	Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican	Sumerian
WHAT was sacrificed?	Humans and animals	Humans, food and wine, personal freedom	Animals and humans	Animals and humans	Animals and humans
WHEN did sacrifices take place?	Up until Christianity	1523 BCE to 223 CE	3rd millennium BCE to 1532 CE	3rd millennium BCE to 1521 CE	3rd to 4th millennium BCE
WHERE did the sacrifices take place?	Ritual sites, ritual shafts, and places considered sacred: (bogs, lakes, rivers, forests)	On ceremonial land;Tombs	Mountains and temples	Sacred landscapes or Sacred ceremonial sites	In tomb chambers
HOW were the sacrifices done?	Several methods	Several methods	Early unknown, later children were buried alive	Human sacrifices involved bloodletting and tearing hearts out	Animals were killed and burned, humans were willingly poisoned
WHO conducted the sacrifices?	Druids or Celtic Worshippers	The King; Priests	Priests	Priests or Emperor	Humans just drank the poison prepared for them
WHY did the sacrifices take place?	Placate the gods; For benefit of the community	Ancestor worship	Honor nature gods; Appease and vitalize gods and community	Reciprocity with gods; Appease and vitalize gods and community	Out of a sense of duty to their god-king

The common element to all these cultures that practiced sacrifices were that sacrifices were closely linked with important social beliefs, most of them religious. Another commonality is that these ancient cultures practiced human sacrifice, although the ritual of the sacrifice may differ from culture to culture. For example, Sumerians sacrificed humans out of duty to their gods, by poisoning their victims, Sumerians who went to their sacrifice willingly. The Aztecs (Mesoamerica, Pre-Columbian) on the other hand, believed that the deities they worshipped needed feeding from humans and had a reciprocity pact with their gods; their victims were prisoners who unwillingly gave their hearts and lives to the Aztec cult.

In most modern civilized cultures human sacrifice is now considered a freak cult. However, many of us still sacrifice our lives by working long hours to give ourselves or our children better opportunities for the future. We also sacrifice our lives willingly for greed. Who doesn't know, in Silicon Valley where we live, someone who hasn't worked for months around the clock for a dot com IPO, in hope of gaining an incredible fortune? Is the sacrifice worth it?
 
 

 [ What will be the sacrifices of the future? ]
 
 
 

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