Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice

3 Vegetal Offerings as Sacrifice

c h a p t e r t h r e e Vegetal O√erings as Sacrifice When theorizing about sacrifice, scholars automatically think animal victims . Vegetal o√erings are, if anything, merely an afterthought. The dominant theorists—Hubert, Mauss, Burkert, and Girard—virtually ignore vegetal sacrifice in their work, literally reducing vegetal o√erings to footnotes .∞ Consequently, the manipulation of vegetal substances (grain cakes, porridges, rice balls, and the like) has played a very small role in theorizing about sacrifice. However, vegetal oblations appear prominently in the ritual literature of many sacrificial traditions, including the Vedic and Jewish traditions, and it is important to emphasize that these vegetal o√erings are not just substitutes for animal o√erings but act as distinct o√erings in their own right. Yet vegetal o√erings have received very little attention within ritual studies, routinely taking a back seat to animal o√erings. Rather than attempting to review the full range of vegetal o√erings that appear in Vedic and Jewish sacrificial rites (an impossible task), this chapter focuses on several key principal vegetal rites with an eye toward discerning the contributions that vegetal o√erings make to sacrificial activity. As many people are aware, vegetal-based o√erings are often used as sub- 66 Beyond Sacred Violence stitutes for animal o√erings. For example, it is widely known that in the Jewish tradition, Leviticus 5:11 allows a poor man to o√er grain when he cannot a√ord birds for the sin o√ering: ‘‘But if you cannot a√ord two turtledoves or two pigeons, you shall bring one-tenth of an ephah of choice flour as a sin-o√ering, as your o√ering for the sin that you committed .’’≤ It is less commonly known that grain o√erings were substituted for animal o√erings in a relatively recent performance of the Vedic agnicayana sacrifice in Kerala: ‘‘[T]he animals would be represented by cakes made of a paste of rice flour (af ta)’’ folded into a banana leaf.≥ Clearly, vegetal o√erings can substitute for animal o√erings. In addition, vegetal o√erings frequently accompany animal o√erings. For example, the original Pentecost sacrifice was supposed to include two loaves of bread along with several animal o√erings (Lev. 23:17–20); the first-fruits festival required a one-year-old lamb for the whole burnt o√ering , accompanied by a grain o√ering made with ‘‘two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil’’ (Lev. 23:13). Similarly, the various Vedic paśubandha (animal) and soma (soma juice) sacrifices all involve multiple grain-based o√erings. Clearly, vegetal o√erings permeate both sacrificial systems. Most important for our purposes, however, vegetal-based o√erings often serve as the principal o√ering in both Vedic and Jewish sacrificial rites. In this role they are the focus of the ritual activity, not simply substitutes for a preferred animal victim. Throughout this chapter, we will focus on vegetal substances that function in this capacity, as principal o√erings. First, we shall see that vegetal o√erings, typically grain cakes prepared in various ways, serve as principal o√erings in the Vedic and Jewish sacrificial systems just as frequently as animal o√erings do. Having observed that vegetal o√erings are an integral part of Vedic and Jewish sacrifice, we will examine how these o√erings resemble and di√er from animal sacrifice. Although vegetal o√erings are manipulated in many of the same ways that animal o√erings are, there are some significant variations . The most obvious variation is that the sacrificial procedures (selection , association, identification, killing, heating, apportionment, and consumption ) usually occur in a di√erent order in vegetal sacrifice than in animal sacrifice. This di√erence is significant because changes in sequence a√ect how the procedures relate to one another in each rite. More important , we will see that killing (though it does occur in some vegetal rites) is not the focal point of vegetal sacrifice. Rather, apportionment—the divi- Vegetal O√erings as Sacrifice 67 sion and distribution of the o√ering—is. The changes in sequence and the ritual significance of apportionment both deserve further attention in general sacrificial theorizing. Vegetal O√erings within the Vedic Tradition...