>>17023583the question isn't
>why they did they do it?the question is
>why was it successful?you don't understand humans through their rationalisations - humans are full of bs.
how common was human sacrifice culture? for how long? who did it? in the long term would it survive by itself? could it be detrimental? was this a widespread ancient integral part of culture in the area? is a lot of stories about how common it was just bs history?
think of things such as
>widespread culture of tribes sacrificing people>they sacrifice weak/older peopleokay so this culture maybe spread and out-competed those who didn't because they culled the weak and so they were better off at surviving the winter, it made them tougher losing the other weak in the winter etc.
>widespread culture of tribes sacrificing people>they sacrifice the strongest man/most beautiful womanthis maybe was a strong culture because it made people feel more equal or something? it made people ready to give up the best things? maybe the other way around that most people resented them and it was a neurotic collective thing of blaming someone
>culture of sacrficing to gods to make gods happy>better thing you sacrifice the happier the god isso self-fulfilling prophecy of that people feel more positive that they believe it's true and luck is on their side and so they're more productive
but generally it's pretty bad for humans as humans are more orientated around pro-social things whihc make them value human life, such as funeral ceremonies and respect for the dead and caring for the weak and not eating people etc
>empire sacrifices people>they take slaves and sacrifice them to the godsso you get the self-fulfilling prophecy thing but also this for an empire is just a demonstration of power, making the local people fear your power etc
