“A milestone, not only in the field of classics but in the wider field of the history of religion It will find a place alongside the works of Jane Ellen Harrison. Homo Necans has 99 ratings and 5 reviews. David said: What is it about animal sacrifice that makes otherwise staid European scholars and experts on go ap. Burkert, Walter: Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. University of California Press, , pbk. pp.

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Westin Journal of Hellenic Studiesremarked that the book was “an exceptional intellectual experience”. His studies wed philology and history with methods drawn from anthropology and resemble the work of Jonathan Z.

But it was a difficult book to read. We can uomo hope that primitivism and violence will not be released unbridled. Sign In or Create an Account.

Sara rated it liked it Jan 14, Maybe these gentlemen ought to speak for themselves. For many of these myths, only sketchy details have come down to us, but by comparing them with similar archetypes, Burkert gives the reader a better idea of what might have been behind the stories.

It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in himo, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Pelayo rated it really liked it Jul 09, Excellent research on Greek sacrifice.

James rated it it was amazing Dec 13, Sign In Forgot password? Jul 24, David rated it liked it. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Okay that’s homl it crudely. Retrieved from ” https: Especially when it comes to domestic animals – since game is almost never sacrificed, anywhere – the problem, really, is you have to raise them, take care of them, tend to their needs – and then kill them.

Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth

Purchase Subscription prices and ordering Short-term Access To purchase ohmo term access, please sign in to your Oxford Academic account above. Thus, the animal hunted by ancient man automatically acquired aspects of an equal, as if it were of one of the hunter’s relations.

He draws some evidence from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Bible, but focuses primarily on ancient Greece, his area of expertise. The thesis is an extension of the hunting hypothesiswhich states that hunting as a means of obtaining nefans was a dominant influence on human evolution and cultural development as opposed to gathering vegetation or scavenging.

Alan rated it it was amazing Jan 13, This page was last edited on 15 Juneat John rated it it was amazing May 15, Who knew Germans were so sensitive? Refresh and try again. He is the leading active scholar of the religion of early and classical Greece.

Homo Necans by Walter Burkert – Paperback – University of California Press

Article PDF first page preview. Burkert’s core thesis is that homp paleolithic man became a hunterin spite of hmoo generally omnivorous orientation of the great apeslack of a predator instinct was made up for by turning patterns of intra-species aggression against the prey: As the idealistic tradition deteriorates, however, secret societies, ecstatic behavior, love of violence and death spring up all the more wildly and destructively amid seemingly rational orders’ Ritual cannot be produced artificially, much less its transcendent orientation, which is no longer shrouded in superstition and secrets.

Burkert gives particular attention to psychological causation and the biological roots of human behavior as revealed by the science of ethology.

In a first attempt at applying ethology to religious history[1] Burkert confronts the power and effect of tradition in uncovering traces of ancient hunting rituals so motivated in historical animal sacrifice and human sacrifice by his thesis unified as deriving from the same fundamental principle in specific historical Greek rituals with relevance to human religious behaviour in general.

Don’t have an account? Account Options Sign in. Gomo the same time, it has relegated death to the fringes of existence and though Excellent research on Greek sacrifice. In the end, societal forms in which man’s archaic psyche will be granted its rights will presumably assert themselves.

This question is examined in Walter Burkert’s famous study. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Rethinking the Origins of American Environmentalism.

Jan 08, Mac rated it really liked it. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Homo Necansplease sign up. Amanda rated it it was amazing Apr 13, Sign in via your Institution Sign in. Homo Necans was conceived in the s; it controversially introduced functionalismhomp the lines of Jane Ellen Harrison ‘s Themisto a German audience, and employed a form of structuralism in interpreting complexes of ritual and festival, to apply some findings of ethology for the first time to mythology.

His most recent work has been devoted to examining the influence of the ancient Near East on archaic Greek civilization. Jan 14, Alford Wayman rated it really liked it. Stefan Reyes rated it it was amazing Dec 05, But it is hard to foresee how the individual, egocentric intelligence can be subordinated to the collective need in order to make possible the continuance of mankind over hoo breach between the generations.

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Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth by Walter Burkert

Read, highlight, and take notes, across web, tablet, and phone. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Luis rated it it was amazing Jul 26, Berkert has some excellent explanations, and though this book may seem outdated, his theories on the topic may shed some light on both Jewish and Necan views concerning guilt, aggression, sacrifice, and redemption.