An Eye for an Eye
Hopeless believers, when afflicted by a disease affecting a specific body part, would donate votive offerings to their gods.
The artefacts, sculptural representations of the ailed body part, are rendered in various materials, according to the social status and the financial means of the client.
The offerings are gifted to plead for a miraculous healing or as a token of gratitude for the grace received.
In either case, a symbolic economical exchange takes place.
An asymmetric transaction policy fuelled by blackmail and fear, set by an omnipotent authority that is willing to concede salvation on the condition of unconditioned worship and total submission, expressed in the form of gifts and sacrifices.
The threat of punishment as a coercive force.
The worshipped authority will have what it demands. Either in flesh or in stone.
Power politics at its best.
