Human Sacrifice and Ritual Suicide
This section lists deaths from the systematic practice of human sacrifice or suicide. For notable individual episodes, see Human sacrifice and mass suicide.
| Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Description | Group | Location | From | To | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7005300000000000000300,000 | 70061500000000000001,500,000 | Human sacrifice in Aztec culture | Aztecs | Mexico | 14th century | 1521 | Up to 250,000 sacrificed yearly |
| 700413000000000000013,000 | 700413000000000000013,000 | Human sacrifice | Shang dynasty | China | BC1300 | BC1050 | Last 250 years of rule |
| 70037941000000000007,941 | 70037941000000000007,941 | Ritual suicides | Sati | Bengal, India | 1815 | 1828 | |
| 70033912000000000003,912 | 70033912000000000003,912 | Kamikaze suicide pilots, see note | Imperial Japanese air forces | Pacific theatre | 1944 | 1945 | |
| 7002913000000000000913 | 7002913000000000000913 | Jonestown murder-suicide | Followers of The Peoples Temple cult | Jonestown | November 18, 1978 | November 19, 1978 | The event was the largest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Wars And Anthropogenic Disasters By Death Toll
Famous quotes containing the words human, sacrifice, ritual and/or suicide:
“Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.”
—Jean Rostand (1894–1977)
“The distractions, the exhaustions, the savage noises, the demands of town life, are, for me, mortal enemies to thought, to sleep, and to study; its extremes of squalor and of splendor do not stimulate, but sadden me; certain phases of its society I profoundly value, but would sacrifice them to the heaven of country quiet, if I had to choose between.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“We have long forgotten the ritual by which the house of our life was erected. But when it is under assault and enemy bombs are already taking their toll, what enervated, perverse antiquities do they not lay bare in the foundations.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“There is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession.”
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852)