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Key elaborations of the blood feud cultures include the principle of ''substitution''. Just as one life had to be paid for with another in revenge, so one life could be substituted for another in the payment of the blood debt. Blood feud systems include elaborate rules for negotiation and settlement, although the parties might not be willing to settle. Settlement rules can allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property or [[blood money]].{{ref|feud2}} Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as Viking ''[[Thing (assembly)|thing]]s''.{{ref|thing}} Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive alongside more advanced legal systems or be given recognition by courts (e.g. [[trial by combat]]). One of the more modern refinements of the blood feud is the [[duel]].
===Sacrifice and entertainment===
: ''"All of the people of Gaul are completely devoted to religion, and for this reason those who are greatly affected by diseases and in the dangers of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so using the Druids as administrators to these sacrifices, since it is judged that unless a man's life is given back, the will of the immortal gods cannot be placated."'' ([[Julius Caesar]], ''[[De Bello Gallico]]'', Book VI)
[[Human sacrifice]] is well documented from the earliest times, but what was the rationale? According to Caesar, for the Celts it was ''"pro vita hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur"'' - roughly, "a life for a life". If the gods are displeased with you for a wrongdoing, they demand blood payment and may send a disease to perform the execution. However it is possible to negotiate with the gods and perform a ''substitution'' - somebody else's life will pay the blood debt instead. Similarly, there is a risk when going into battle that one might have some unpaid blood debt with the gods, for which reason the gods might ensure defeat and death. So as a safety precaution it was possible to promise the gods an alternative blood payment - presumably the blood of one's enemies, but again as a substitution for one's own blood. See also: [[Celts and human sacrifice]].
[[Image:Abraham.jpg|thumb|300px|right|"Abraham Sacrificing Isaac" by Laurent de LaHire, 1650]]
In [[Christian theology]] the doctrine of [[substitutionary atonement]] has a similar logic, but extended to a universal scale. The idea of [[substitutionary atonement]] is that humanity (from the dawn of time to the end of time) is sinful and that these [[sins]] or wrongdoings require [[compensation]] or [[atonement]]. The Roman execution of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] is interpreted as a self-sacrifice on behalf of humanity. The key biblical texts indicate the idea of one life for many lives.{{ref|subat}} As regards the substitution, Christian theology draws parallels between the [[crucifixion]] and the story of how [[Abraham]] was permitted to substitute a lamb for his son [[Isaac]] when commanded by God to make a devotional sacrifice (the lamb is understood as symbolizing Christ).{{ref|gen22}} See also: [[atonement]], [[substitutionary atonement]], [[propitiation]], [[sacrifice]].
[[Image:Mendoza_HumanSacrifice.jpg|thumb|150px|left|[[Human sacrifice in Aztec culture|Aztec sacrifice]] ]]
Further examples of human sacrifice include the judicial [[hanging]] that was originally a sacrificial rite to [[Odin]]. Scandinavian religions demanded human sacrifices not only by hanging, but also by drowning the convict in a bog (see [[Kalevala]] which contains a chapter where Väinämöinen sentences the fatherless Son of Marjatta to be drowned in a bog; see also [[bog body]], describing the archaeological finds of human sacrifices across Northern Europe). Some societies, such as the [[Aztec]], used mass executions of prisoners of war as a religious rite. The perceived religious or instructive purpose of execution meant that many of the oldest methods of execution were intentionally brutal.
In many cultures the entertainment value of suffering was valued, as seen in [[Roman Empire|Roman]] executions.
Public executions were the norm until recently, whether atop an [[Aztec]] pyramid or on a [[gallows]] in the town square.
Public executions still occurred in Europe and the United States in the first half of the 20th century and continue to occur in other countries such as [[Iran]] and [[Saudi Arabia]].
Public execution can be justified on the grounds that it is important that justice, expecially for the most heinous crimes, is ''seen'' to be done. An alternative justification is that the deterrent effect is greater if execution is in public. In practice, public executions have often better served the purposes of entertainment.
The practice in some countries of selecting a small group of witnesses, usually including officials and family members of victims, can be seen as a compromise between a public interest in witnessing justice and the avoidance of descending into entertainment.
===State-sponsored justice===
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Such methods of execution continued into the modern era. In [[1757]] in [[France]], [[Robert-François Damiens]] suffered a horrible but customary execution for his attempted [[regicide]] against King [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]]. His hand, holding the weapon used in the regicide attempt, was burnt, and his body was wounded in several places. Then, molten [[lead]] and other hot liquids were poured on the wounds. He was then drawn and quartered, and what remained of his body was burnt at the stake. Inhumane methods of execution and class inequalities were abolished in France during the [[French Revolution]], which imposed the [[guillotine]], seen as a painless and instantaneous method of execution, for all. However, during The Terror, other forms of execution, such as massed cannon fire and mass drownings, were also used.
===Movements towards "humane" execution===
[[Image:DrGuillotin.jpg|thumb|100px|left|Dr. Guillotin]]
In early [[New England]], public executions were a very solemn and sorrowful occasion, sometimes attended by large crowds, who also listened to a gospel message {{ref|cadams1}} and remarks by local preachers {{ref|cadams2}} and politicians. The Connecticut Courant records one such public execution on [[December 1]], [[1803]], saying, "The assembly conducted through the whole in a very orderly and solemn manner, so much so, as to occasion an observing gentleman acquainted with other countries as well as this, to say that such an assembly, so decent and solemn, could not be collected anywhere but in New England." {{ref|cadams3}}
Trends in most of the world have long been to move to less painful, or more "humane", executions. France developed the [[guillotine]] for this reason in the final years of the 18th century while Britain banned drawing and quartering in the early 19th century. "[[Hanging]] by the neck until dead", which causes death by suffocation was replaced by "hanging" where the subject is dropped to dislocate the neck and sever the spinal cord. In the U.S., [[electric chair|electrocution]] and the [[gas chamber]], which were introduced as more humane alternatives to hanging, have been almost entirely superceded by [[lethal injection]], which in turn has been criticised as being too painful. Nevertheless, some countries still employ slow hanging methods, beheading by sword and even [[stoning]], although stoning is rarely employed.
See also: [[cruel and unusual punishment]]
===Abolitionary movements===
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