A well-known scenery for Christians and others who know of the Christian religion: Crucifixion was a severe punishment, and two of these men, hanging on a cross, were considered sinners, i.e. thieves and robbers, who (more or less) deserved to be punished by death. The execution of them had nothing to do with a sacrifice to a god or anyone else which means that it had no special symbolic value as it was nothing but society getting rid of them. Actually, that also was the purpose of the execution of the third man, but he was neither a thief nor a robber. He was executed as another kind of criminal, actually a sort of social rebel who had set out to turn society upside-down by changing many of the ideologies it was run by. However, the death sentence of him is double- or triple-layered as his execution on the cross not only was a punishment by those in power, but something much more. As the presumed son of "God", i.e. Yahweh, he is not only a victim being murdered for his ideas by his superiors, no, he is a godly sacrifice no less. Someone who has been chosen by the ultimate figure of power in society: "God". Most often that is seen as a great honor to the individual who is sacrificed although his/her death in itself may be squalid and cruel.
In many, if not all, religions one meets the concept of "sacrifices" to the deity. Normally, that means that some hapless human or animal is killed to honor god, but not by their own choice. As to Jesus, hanging there on the cross, he is not only sacrificed by his presumed godly father, but he also plays along by allowing himself to be killed as a sacrifice. Something which in a way renders his death meaningless as he chooses to die with a belief in his resurrection. One might say that all of this drama is a weird sort of playacting to the gallery.
"La Doncella" from Llullaillaco didn't die to honor Yahweh, whom neither she nor her Inka countrymen had ever as much as heard of, but sacrificed she was at the age of 15 sometime around 1500. Hopefully, she either knew and accepted her fate or she had absolutely no idea of what was in store for her and the two other children that followed her on that fateful journey up on the mountaintop. She was extremely well-preserved and still has an aura of her inborn personality: This is a person who lost her life at a very young age because she was chosen by someone else who sacrificed her in the hope that the gods (whom I don't know) would endow her family and countrymen with the luck they may have felt that they had lost or needed to secure.
To me the main point of a sacrifice is who found someone - human or animal - and decided that his/her death would bring him- or herself luck or happiness as it would please his/her gods. I understand a self-inflicted sacrifice because then you yourself chose to give you as a gift to the god you believe in. However, it totally escapes me how the same effect in a supposed act of "pleasing god" is secured by killing someone else and call it a "sacrifice" because the one who is killed didn't chose that kind of death: In that case there is no sacrifice, but only a murder. Even though it was considered a great honor to die as a sacrifice to the gods and these children were surrounded by rich gifts in form of gold, shell and
silver statues, textiles and pottery that doesn't bring them back to life so that they themselves may - or may not - chose to sacrifice themselves, e.g. in some brave act that might save their society.
That becomes very obvious when we take a closer look at another one of the three children of Llullaillaco, i.e. "El Nino". The eldest of them, the 15 year old "La Doncella", was heavily drugged and seems to have died in her drug induced sleep which after all is a merciful death, but not so with "El Nino". He was an approximately four year old boy who must have fought desperately to save his life as he was severely injured. Several of his ribs were broken and his hip was dislocated. As to the cause of his death he seems to have been strangled by the clothes he was wearing.
This poor child was tied up which in my opinion is an indication that his untimely death was an assault which he did not participate in willingly. One shouldn't let oneself be deluded by the holy term "sacrifice" no matter whom does the killing to honor what god. The legend of Jesus makes him out to have chosen to let himself get sacrificed as part of his teachings, but - as I said - his death is meaningless as he is supposed to get resurrected.
Wikipedia
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