Prey Into Hunter: The Politics Of Religious Experience (lewis Henry Morgan Lectures)

Maurice Bloch has for many years been developing an original and influential theory of ritual. In this book he synthesises a radical theory of religion. Rituals in a great many societies deny the transience of life and of human institutions. Bloch argues that they enact this denial by symbolically sacrificing the participants themselves, so allowing them to participate in the immortality of a transcendent entity. Such sacrifices are achieved through acts of symbolic violence, ranging from bodily mutilations to the killing of animals. The theme is developed with reference to rituals of many types, from a variety of ethnographic sources, and Bloch shows that even exogamous marriage rituals can be reinterpreted in the light of this thesis. He concludes by considering the indirect relation of symbolic and ritual violence to political violence. Prey into hunter THE LEWIS HENRY MORGAN LECTURES 1984 presented at The University of Rochester Rochester, New York Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture Series Fred Eggan: The American Indian: Perspectives for the Study of Social Change Ward H. Goodenough: Description and Comparison in Cultural Anthropology Robert J. Smith: Japanese Society: Tradition, Self, and the Social Order Sally Falk Moore: Social Facts and Fabrications: "Customary Law" on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980 Nancy Munn: The Fame of Gawa: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Mussim (Papua New Guinea) Society Lawrence Rosen: The Anthropology of Justice: Law as Culture in Islamic Society Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah: Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality Prey into hunter The politics of religious experience MAURICE BLOCH The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE NEW YORK PORT CHESTER MELBOURNE SYDNEY Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1992 First published 1992 British Library cataloguing in publication data Bloch, Maurice Prey into hunter: the politics of religious experience. (The Lewis Henry Morgan lectures) 1. Rituals I. Title 306.4 Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Bloch, Maurice Prey into hunter: the politics of religious experience / Maurice Bloch p. cm. - (The Lewis Henry Morgan lectures; 1987) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 41154 8. - ISBN 0 521 42312 0 (pbk) 1. Violence - Religious aspects. 2. Sacrifice. 3. Experience (Religion) 4. Religion and civilization. I. Title. II. Series. BL570.B53 1992 291.3'4-dc20 91-11357 CIP ISBN 0 521 41154 8 hardback ISBN 0 521 42312 0 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2004 Contents Foreword by Alfred Harris Acknowledgements page xi xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Initiation 8 3 Sacrifice 24 4 Cosmogony and the state 46 5 Marriage 65 6 Millenarianism 85 7 Myth 99 Notes References Index 106 110 114 Foreword In 1987, Professor Bloch delivered the Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures at the University of Rochester on 17, 19, 24 and 29 February. His general title was then, as it is now, Prey into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience, with the individual lectures entitled 'Initiation: the containment of strength', 'Sacrifice: the aggressive death', 'Marriage: being swallowed and swallowing', 'Myth and millen