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"Explores sacrificial practices across a range of contexts from prehistory to the present. The term 'sacrifice' belies what is a complex and varied transhistorical and transcultural phenomenon. Bringing together scholars from such diverse fields as anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy, literature, and theology, Diversity of Sacrifice explores sacrificial practices across a range of contexts from prehistory to the present. Incorporating theory, material culture, and textual evidence, the volume seeks to consider new and divergent data related to contexts of sacrifice that can help broaden our field of vision while raising new questions. The essays contributed here move beyond reductive and simple explanations to explore complex areas of social interaction. Sacrifice plays a key role in the overlapping sacred and secular spheres for a number of societies in the past and present. How religious beliefs and practices can be integral parts of life on individual and community levels is of fundamental importance to understanding the past and present. In addition to aiding scholarly research, Diversity of Sacrifice enables students to explore this rich theme across Europe and the Mediterranean with clear discussions of theory and data"--From publisher's website.

Sacrifice --- Social archaeology --- Archaeology and religion --- Material culture --- Social interaction --- History

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Religious change is at its core a material as much as a spiritual process. Beliefs related to intangible spirits, ghosts, or gods were enacted through material relationships between people, places, and objects. The archaeology of mission sites from Tanna and Erromango islands, southern Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides), offer an informative case study for understanding the material dimensions of religious change. One of the primary ways that cultural difference was thrown into relief in the Presbyterian New Hebrides missions was in the realm of objects. Christian Protestant missionaries believed that religious conversion had to be accompanied by changes in the material conditions of everyday life. Results of field archaeology and museum research on Tanna and Erromango, southern Vanuatu, show that the process of material transformation was not unidirectional. Just as Melanesian people changed religious beliefs and integrated some imported objects into everyday life, missionaries integrated local elements into their daily lives. Attempts to produce ‘civilised Christian natives’, or to change some elements of native life relating purely to ‘religion’ but not others, resulted instead in a proliferation of ‘hybrid’ forms. This is visible in the continuity of a variety of traditional practices subsumed under the umbrella term ‘kastom’ through to the present alongside Christianity. Melanesians didn’t become Christian, Christianity became Melanesian. The material basis of religious change was integral to this process.

Archaeology and religion. --- Archaeology --- Religion and archaeology --- Religious aspects --- Religion --- Archaeology and religion --- Christian antiquities --- Tanna Island (Vanuatu) --- Eromanga (Vanuatu) --- Church history --- Antiquities, Christian --- Antiquities, Ecclesiastical --- Archaeology, Christian --- Christian archaeology --- Church antiquities --- Ecclesiastical antiquities --- Monumental theology --- Antiquities --- Byzantine antiquities --- Erromanga (Vanuatu) --- Erromango (Vanuatu) --- Aipere Island (Vanuatu) --- Ipari Island (Vanuatu) --- vanuatu --- archaelogy --- religion --- Erromango --- James Thomas Flexner --- Melanesians --- Missionary --- New Hebrides --- Tanna Island --- Terra Australis --- archaeology