主题：庖丁解字之 头生子的遭遇 -- 丁坎

偶然看一组关于圣经的纪录片，有一集解释亚伯拉罕杀子，受访的英国学者举考古例分析说是古代头生子祭祀的体现，纪录片里还给了考古发现的孩子骸骨（在非洲）的镜头（当时不由地打了一个冷颤）。看完后，想到丁大人这篇文字，于是Google了一下，看到这些文字（估计这文字里说的，丁大人都知道），附在这里，有兴趣的河友不管对“孟”字的解释持何意见，也许可以就古代头生子祭祀做个扩展阅读：

Firstborn of the Creatress extends back to the Sanskrit Hiranyagatbha. Every priesthood wanted its god to be the firstborn of the Creatress, so most Asiatic gods claimed to be. This desired aroused because it was held that her first child would naturally have authority over all others. Since realistically it was even impossible to believe each god was firstborn scholars finally settled upon the term and agreed that it designated that "each god was the firstborn of one of the Great Mother's virgin emanations."....Usually the firstborn, the divine son, was singled out for a special fate. He was a son of a god, who came from the god, and was to be sacrificed and offered back unto that god. Thence, the meanings of both terms or the "firstborn" and first fruits are practically synonymous. From the most archaic times the first fruits of any crop were offered in placation and thankfulness to the god who supposedly gave them.

The firstborn sacrifice was a very ancient tradition among the Egyptians as recorded in The Book of the Dead. ....Some scholars further suggest that the Biblical story of Abraham's wanting to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:9-13) is paralleled to the Boeotian myth of the king's firstborn son Phrixus.........

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纪录片：Mysteries of the Bible--Abraham, One man, One God

下载地址：

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关于考古发现：

The ancient city of Carthage was the capital of the Phoenician empire. Their civilization was advanced culturally and highly educated. But recent archaeological expeditions have revealed its most notable feature - the high incidence of child sacrifice. Archaeological relics have been uncovered, such as the altars on which children were sacrificed and stone markers, which marked the burial place of the remains. Stone carvings on the markers depict children who were sacrificed. Clay jars were used to hold the remains. Entire burial grounds full of these slaughtered children have been uncovered.

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但是如一足兄说，上面这个结论仍旧存有争议，一个专门讨论的网站：

http://phoenicia.org/childsacrifice.html

一本书：King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice

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另外，我觉得几千年人类社会演进，从某种意义上说，是对“人”自身发现的过程，慢慢地神本转为人本，对没受过什么“神”话熏陶的我们来说，会倾向于用现代人的分析方法去看古代的人事，一足兄的成本分析说现代人看来合理，但是如果古人的基本价值观根本与我们不一样的话，我们以为是成本是损失，其以为是神性是福祉的话，可能就出现理解的偏差了。不过话说回来，我们也很难知道古人到底怎么想的。

随手看到搜到的资料，附在大人的贴下，希望大人不要见怪。

头胎如果是儿子，就杀掉祭祀；如果是女儿，就永不出嫁，在家庙中祭祀。我比较倾向于早期应该是献祭成分多一些。

也有可能是死祭。长子夭折率很高的，算命的都知道，如果说你上面曾经还有一个哥哥，多半会得到母亲的点头。看看历代帝王，首子夭亡的也很多，更别说平民了。首子夭亡－－上帝把他带走了－－长子献祭。这相当于别人安慰母亲：你的宝贝太可爱了，所以上帝把他带走了。谁知道亚伯拉罕当真了？！