ABSTRACT
In recent years, however, a post-modernist return to religion has occurred, partly in response to increased awareness that traditional religions hold no monopoly on totalitarianism, reification, hegemony or violence. Some post-modernists look anew to religion, given its power to disrupt totalitarian ideologies through hysterical eruptions or to promote counter-cultural or even transgressive practices. Post-modernists locate the enduring power of religion in deeply rooted strategies that offer mythological or ritual solutions for the management of psychic distress. One of the difficulties with the term sacrifice is its multivalent and slippery usage. The word can refer to the Christian God's sacrifice of His only son to redeem the world, a sacred offering to various deities, as well as the sacrifice of oneself for family, friend or nation. The festival mindset enables participants to displace responsibility for their actions onto a higher power in the name of obedience, and to abdicate their own responsibility.
