The Emergence of Human Consciousness in a Religious Context

Abstract

This chapter discusses the role of sacrifice and sacrificial rituals in the development of human consciousness, both in terms of self-awareness and of moral outlook. The articulation of a theory of the evolution of consciousness from an archeological reading of the sacrificial matrix would help to chart a cluster of behavioral structures and cognitive elements which may have contributed to the development of proto-consciousness and conscience. This would include the attention-grabbing and strong emotional response elicited by ritual sacrifice; the cognitive and mnemonic reinforcements provided by repetition and ritualization; the employment of ecstatic practices and transcendental experiences; the emergence of symbolism and the “mythical” mind; the capacity to subvert kin affiliation and the emergence of codes of practice (morality) which overrun solidarity and personal attachments; and the later crystallization of mechanisms for “sacrificial creations of subjectivity” in the form of highly codified “rites of passage.”