Anthropology – The Buffalo Sacrifice

The spirits (of the water, of the fire, of the forest…) govern the life of the mountaineers and preside over sickness, death, harvests ; so it is important to conciliate them by means of propitiatory sacrifices whose victims are most of the time buffaloes .
Tied to a pole the day before the sacrifice, the unfortunate buffalo waits all night while the village celebrates the event drinking ; at sunrise, after invoking the spirits, they cut the hocks of the animal then its heart is pierced with a blade (if they dont have the right weapon, the skull of the buffalo will be smashed with a bludgeon.) It will then be eaten by the gleeful villagers.