Foreword by Alfred Harris

Summary

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 millennium: the uncertainties of continuity’. Revision, expansion and rearrangement of the originals have resulted in the present version – an intriguing study that offers readers ample intellectual fare.

Unlike his earlier work on the Merina, dealt with in From Blessing to Violence, Professor Bloch is not here concerned with an historical examination of the examples he considers, although he pursues some of the more general ideas adumbrated in From Blessing to Violence. His present study is aimed at establishing ‘the irreducible core of the ritual process’ and the factors determining it. Part of that core is what he terms ‘rebounding violence’. A major feature of this book is the elaboration of this concept, by examination of the ways in which it is manifested in a wide range of rituals.

Professor Bloch distinguishes this work from much that he has done earlier, since he is not here primarily concerned with history. He also makes clear the differences between his concepts and conclusions and those of many earlier anthropologists working on the same or closely related problems. This is a generalising comparative study, quite clearly intended to challenge much widely accepted work. The possibilities implied by Professor Bloch's presentation are very considerable indeed, and it is obvious that he has in mind not only anthropological work, but historical work as well.