The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s4.1

v1.c27.s4.1

While in the view of Sir J. Frazer the essence of early sacrifice is the magic art of perpetuating the life of the herds and of vegetation and even of man, the gift theory of sacrifice has also been declared⁴ to be merely derivative, on the ground that it is really a faded remnant of the sacrifice in which the worshippers eat together of the flesh and blood of the deity, thus renewing and strengthening the bonds between themselves on the one hand and the god on the other. That such a form of sacrifice existed is beyond all doubt attested for the Semites, but not for the Babylonians, and there are traces of it in Greek and in other religions.¹ It is not necessary to insist, as does S. Reinach, that the origin of such an offering is totemistic: it is perfectly possible without any such system at the base to explain it: O. Gruppe² treats this form of sacrifice as the oldest and most primitive of all, the effort to obtain directly and most effectively a share in the divine power felt in the world. But it is one thing to believe in the existence of the sacrifice in this form, and to prove that it is the only type of sacrifice, and unless this can be done the gift form of sacrifice must continue to stand as an independent form. The objection that the gift theory must be later than the communion and sacrament form of sacrifice, because the conception of private property is necessary for the making of gifts, is not worth the consideration which has been sometimes shown to it. It is obvious that, apart from all other considerations, it has from the first been possible to offer to a god material things without any precise conception of ownership having been attained.