The Economics of Animal Sacrifice

AbstractThis chapter examines the economic dimensions of animal sacrifice. The environmental conditions of the ancient Mediterranean meant that the sorts of large domestic animals that were normally sacrificed were valuable resources that most people could not afford to consume very often. There were, however, important variables. The major groups of edible domestic animals (cattle, sheep/goats, and pigs) differed in both the costs and the benefits of their production. There were also differences in the goals of peasant and elite animal production: the former focused on diversification and risk reduction, the latter on the exploitation of resources to maintain social status. In these conditions, animal sacrifice not only demonstrated piety to the gods but also communicated information about economic and social status. Different types of sacrificial victims commanded greater or lesser prestige in inverse correlation with their availability and cost: bovines were more prestigious than smaller species, fully grown adults more than young animals. Animal sacrifice was thus a practice that marked elite status and simultaneously produced a highly desirable consumer good: high-quality meat. For both reasons, it served as an efficient instrument for articulating the unequal social relationship between those with greater and lesser economic resources.