Examples Of Human Sacrifice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Human Sacrifice surprisingly occurs more often than one thinks, being practiced throughout many generations and continues to be practiced today. “The Practice of Human Sacrifice” by Dr. Mike Parker-Pearson, looks further into the obscure topic ranging from 5,000 years ago to present. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is set in an agricultural village in Europe where the townsfolk gather every June 26th to sacrifice one person for their crops. It's becoming clearer that almost every society around the world and throughout time has valued or participated in human sacrifice for one reason or another. Agricultural was was important in Europe long ago “Human sacrifice was practiced at least 5,000 years ago among the early agricultural societies of Europe” (Parker-Pearson, 2011), and so people thought sacrifice was a guarantee to receive a plentiful crop. In the short story “The Lottery”, an example of this type of sacrifice was practiced, the slogan “‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’” (Jackson, 1948) was used as a reminder to continue …show more content…
Many service individuals in ancient cultures felt it was their duty to be sacrificed out of respect for their leaders, “human sacrifices were particularly a feature of ancient states whose dead leaders required their courtiers and followers to accompany them into the afterworld” (Parker-Pearson, 2011). Many believed that by sacrificing themselves they would be serving the dead and some religions encourage a person to sacrifice themselves or another for their “god’s” benefit unfortunately many of these sacrifices have been at the cost of innocent lives as shown in the 9/11 terrorist