How have Cold War tensions in the 1950s built up to the point that the US and the USSR are going to be at a standoff over Cuba/the spread of Communism?

Explanation:

It made both the US and the Soviet Union to be sober and it convinced the Soviets to increase their investment in an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. from Soviet territory. All because of the fear of the installed missiles by the US which was later withdrawn. It was more like a Nuclear arm race which is capable of destroying the entire country if discarded.

it depends on which society you are referring to. many civilization performed rituals so the gods would with their growing season but the most well known is that of the aztecs. they would make sacrifices, usually animals, but sometimes humans as well.