Native American Sacrifice Essay

Sacrifice
Originating from the Latin word sacrificium, “ which is a combination of the words sacer, meaning something set apart from the secular or profane for the use of supernatural powers, and facere, meaning [‘to make’].” (Faherty) The earliest anyone has proposed the term sacrifice to be used is 1871 as a noun, relating to using sacrifices in religious ceremonies: “Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, a British anthropologist, proposed his theory that sacrifice was originally a gift to the gods to secure their favour or to minimize their hostility.” (Faherty) Another theory of how the word came about, again religiously related, Faherty also suggests William Robertson Smith’s ideology “that the original motive of sacrifice was an effort toward communion among the members of a group, on the one hand, and between them and their god, on the other.” During religious ceremonies when the term sacrifice was being used during this time period, people would present a “holy” human or animal to their god(s) in hope in return of relief from any issues or complications in their life or just a better situation in life in general. Native Americans used to do similar forms of sacrifice in different forms, including dancing, to the different gods of
nature, such as the “sun god” and “rain god”. While the earliest definition of the term sacrifice relates to religion, throughout the years the term has molded into a less violent definition, however, people still hold the meaning close to their heart.
For some, the term means to risk everything in hope for a better future; parents often do this for their children. Parents are sometimes required to go to extreme measures to make sure their child has food, clothes, and shelter. For other individuals, the term means something a bit more intense, such as our soldiers fighting in wars; some of them lose a limb or two but others make the ultimate sacrifice for their country and give their life. In today’s society, there are different shades of the word and how intense one wishes to make
it. According to Merriam-Webster, sacrifice means, “the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone; an act of killing a person or animal in a religious ceremony as an offering to please a god; a person or animal that is killed in a sacrifice,” which ties into the earliest of meanings up to today’s various meanings. While Dictionary.com has similar meanings to Websters’ definition, Dictioary.com words it a little different: “the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage; the person, animal, or thing so offered; the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim; the thing so surrendered or devoted; a loss incurred in selling something below its value.” Therefore, regardless of which definition of sacrifice an individual is referring to, they all have the same basic meaning: you must risk one or more things in hope for a better future for yourself, family, or country.