New book examines meanings of sacrifice

Monday, June 29, 2009 – Ann Claycombe

Kathryn McClymond, associate professor and chair of Religious Studies at Georgia State, has received the Georgia Author of the Year award in the program’s creative nonfiction essay division.

McClymond won for her 2008 book, “Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice.” The book is a comparative study of Jewish and Vedic – or ancient Hindu – rituals and practices.

“When we think about sacrifice, we tend to think of animals, of violence, of blood,” McClymond said. “What I like about these traditions is that they’re totally different.” Judaism, for example, has a long tradition of sacrificing grain, while in Vedic practice grains and liquids are the primary kind of sacrifice.”

McClymond argues that in fact animal sacrifice is just one type among many, and that death is not at the center of the concept, traditionally speaking. In fact, she sees sharing and apportionment as the most important aspect.

Meat, grains and liquids, incense and other sacrificial items are not destroyed, but shared with the divine presences to whom they are offered – and often with the community.

“You create multiple portions out of what used to be one,” McClymond said. When religious traditions move away from animal sacrifice, as Judaism did, apportionment and sharing become even more central, she said.

McClymond hopes her book helps scholars think about sacrifice and the language of sacrifice more broadly. Sacrifice is very much part of American consciousness right now, she pointed out, partly because of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers offer their hard work and risk their lives, their families make do without them for a time and risk losing them. They are sharing themselves, in other words, with the nation.

“Sacrifice continues to have moral authority,” she said, “and that’s because it’s more complicated than we sometimes think.”