Through examining cases in Africa and Indonesia , the author notes that “Sacri-fice” covers a very wide range of alleged causes , aims and consequences , and it is the process of making offerings to deities or spirits that generates this diversity .The concept covers a field of possibilities which can be elaborated almost indefinitely , but only within the understanding of a distinction between humanity and divinity , however variable its cultural expression .Despite be-ing essentialized in Abrahamic theodicy , notions of sacrifice subsume the contentious concept of belief in studying religiosity .Sacrifice, along with prayer, can therefore be used instead of belief to provide the entry point into how humanity reaches out to something beyond itself .