Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a
religious ritual. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various
cultures throughout history. Victims were typically
ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease
gods,
spirits or the deceased, for example as a
propitiatory offering, or as a retainer sacrifice when the King's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some
tribal societies are
cannibalism and
headhunting. By the
Iron Age, with the associated developments in religion (the
Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout the
Old World, and came to be looked down upon as
barbaric in pre-modern times (
Classical Antiquity). In the
New World, however, human sacrifice continued to be widespread to varying degrees until the
European colonization of the Americas.