

Human sacrifice is typically intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice (sometimes called ritual murder), has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. ( January 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. For example, the Hebrew Bible prohibits murder and human sacrifice to Molech. Most major religions in the modern day condemn the practice. Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices as tantamount to murder. Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare. In the Americas, however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas.

By the Iron Age (1st millennium BCE), with the associated developments in religion (the Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, and came to be looked down upon as barbaric during classical antiquity. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors, and/or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life.
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An excavated tzompantli from the Templo Mayor in modern-day Mexico City Part of a series on
