Sacrifice is the magical prototype of rational exchange for mastering gods

Evidence

In Homer, however, this kind of rationalization can be traced back to the sacrifices. Hecatombs of specific magnitude are requited with the favor of the gods. If barter is the secular form of sacrifice, the latter already appears as the magical pattern of rational exchange, a device of men by which the gods may be mastered: the gods are overthrown by the very system by which they are honored. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 59

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The inversion — that honoring the gods through calibrated sacrifice is actually a technique for mastering them — is a dense, paradigm-shifting claim about the origin of rationality in magic.
• XREF: Anticipates the book’s central thesis that enlightenment inverts back into myth; also resonates with Girard’s sacrificial economy. — connects to: Sacrifice functioned as a negotiated exchange with the gods for protection — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 305; Exchange is sacrifice’s secularized form, not its offshoot — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 770; Sacrifice’s dual function—self-surrender and self-preservation—turns magic into cunning rationality. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 299 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Sacrifice functioned as a negotiated exchange with the gods for protection #corroborates (0.95) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 305
• Exchange is sacrifice’s secularized form, not its offshoot #expands (0.90) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 770
• Sacrifice’s dual function—self-surrender and self-preservation—turns magic into cunning rationality. #expands (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 299
• Sacrifice is the inner condition of value, not merely an obstacle to it #expands (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 231
• Aztec human sacrifice was rooted in repaying the gods’ original self-sacrifice #exemplifies (0.80) — , A Year of World Stories, 10294
• Economic value arises only through sacrifice and exchange #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 245
• The disenchantment of the world removed the limit God placed on human mastery #corroborates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 619