Contents

Preface _ix

1 Culture in a Landscape: Situating Religion 1

Beyond Culture i

Sociobiology? g

A Common World: Reduction and Validation 23

2 Escape and Offerings 34

Finger Sacrifice 34

Biology, Fantasy, and Ritual 40

Castration and Circumcision 47

Scapegoats 51

Life for Life 53

3 The Core of a Tale 56

“Caught up in Tales” 56

The Propp Sequence: The Quest 58

From Biological Programs to Semantic Chains 63

The Shaman’s Tale 67

The Initiation Tale: The Maiden’s Tragedy 69

4 Hierarchy 80

The Awareness of Rank 80

Rituals of Submission 85

The Strategy of Praise 90

Two-Tiered Power 93

The Language of Power: The Envoy 98

5 Guilt and Causality 102

Religious Therapy and the Search for Guilt / ()2

Present Sufferings 108

The Foundation of Cults H3

The Mediators: Risks and Opportunities 1/6

Explanatory Models: Fetters, Wrath, Pollution 118

6 The Reciprocity of Giving 129

Le don in Perspective 129

Giving in Religion 134

Genealogy of Morality? 138

Failing Reciprocity: Religious Criticism 141

Failing Reciprocity: The Facts of Ritual 145

Gift and Sacrifice 149

Aversion and Offerings: From Panic to Stability 152

7 The Validation of Signs: A Cosmos of Sense 156

Accepting Signs: Divination 156

Decision through Signs: The Ordeal 163

Creating Signs: Territory and Body 165

Language Validated: The Oath 169

Conclusion 177

Abbreviations 183

Notes 187

Bibliography 237

Index 249