Reception of the site> magazines> Systems of thought in Black Africa> n°14 Destinies of murderers
n°14 Destinies of murderers
n°14 Destinies of murderers
Michel Cartry and Marcel Detienne (dir).
Marcel Detienne : Oreste's finger (ancient Greece)
Jean-Louis Durand : Death, dead and rest (ancient Greece)
Charles Illouz : Murder, stain and cannibalism in a chefferie mélanésienne maré (Islands Fidelity)
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro : The murderer and his double to Arawete. An example of ritual fusion (Brazil)
Jacques Lizot : Blood and status of the homicides to central Yanomami (Venezuela)
Patrick Menget : Of the usage of trophies in South America. Draught of a comparison between practices nivacle (Paraguay) and mundurucu (Brazil)
Jackie Assayag : Crime was almost perfect. Murders, anger and desire of the Gods in a pantheon of the south of India (Karnataka)
Stéphan Dugast : Murderers, twins and soothsayers. Three variations on the topic of the double (Bassar, Togo)
Danouta Liberski : Blade of the knife and bitter death. Funeral violence, "introduction" and homicide in country kasena (Burkina Faso)
Michel Cartry : The sacrificial debt of the murderer in the basins of Volta according to some stories of administrators-ethnologists
Detienne, Marcel : Oreste's finger " , Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.23-38.
As for the links of the murderer and of his victim, all effort of the city in ancient Greece will be to erase them by instituting the courts of the blood and by asking the question abstracted from forms and degrees of responsibility of the defendant of homicide. It is in the imagination around Oreste between Ve and the VIth century before our epoch that gather the most lively representations linking the victim to her murderer, to her body as much as to her intimate being.
Durand, Jean-Louis « death, dead and rest », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.39-56.
From facts listed by helléniste literature, it is offered to put in perspective, a ritualistic point of view, types of human blood poured on the Greek earth and treatments reserved for bodies covered with blood. This group is re-located in comparison with the legitimacy of the animal sacrifice the system of the city of which would draw its coherence. These treatments consist, in the sacrificial frame of the city, in working out a rest inaccessible to a simple logic of suppression of murder or of offence. After a long detour by the Athenian politico ritual space, this exploration moves towards a space except city therefore except sacrificial field, where is built an original stage for the ritual management of another poured blood : the death given and accepted during warlike clashes. It is a question of knowing how to treat this space of trophy, battlefield. To this end, a picture of vase makes the object of a comment detailed.
Illouz, Charles : « Murder, stain and cannibalism in a chefferie mélanésienne Maré (Islands Fidelity) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.57-76
The poured blood is not, at people of Maré, sign of the warrior killer of enemies. The homicide makes the object of a technology the exclusive specialist of which the «master of wrong " [Acania] " is : any death can be attributed to him. By absorption of excrements then of body putrefied by the leader, the master of the trouble makes available the « bones of body » [Kaze] of leader which will allow to some other master of the trouble to assure the firm of the warriors or simply to kill with hindsight. Irremediably "made dirty " by his deadly practices, this war promoter and provider of human flesh sets up to the leader as his bloody double, to the detriment of the "youngest " [eteshet] who preceded him to see out the cycles of agricultural benefits and to favour peace. This rival institutional game, which defines the chefferie of Maré, recuperates that of conjugal alliances swordings of which reveal the ambiguity of link which joins the leader with his master of the trouble.
Viveiros of Castro, Eduardo : « The murderer and his double to Araweté (Brazil). An example of ritual fusion », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.77-104.
From a study of relations between the murderer and his victim, such as they are conceived and lived at the place of Araweté (a society of language tupi-guarani from medium Xingu to Brazil), some comparative general implementations are offered about subjacent self-defining dynamics in the status of killer, central character of the symbolism of war in Amazon. An examination of symbolic techniques in work in the determination of the "person" of the killer by his victim allows to conclude that Amerindian warlike attack comes as a process of ritual transformation of the Self, marked by the primacy from the point of view of the enemy. By choosing as principle of movement the enlistment of attributes from outside, the Amerindian society is led to define itself according to these same attributes.
Lizot, Jacques : « Blood and status of the homicides to central Yanomami (Venezuela) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.105-126.
At the Yanomami du Haut-Orénoque (Venezuela), the same unokaimou ritual is applied to the girls with their first rules and to the authors of homicide. One thinks as transformations of both situations which are accompanied by a fragilisation of organism. In both cases, ritual obligations assure at the same time an efficient protection and a transition from a status to other one. The role of the warrior integrates with a vision of the world and with cycles where the blood plays an important role. It also participates in the general political functioning founded on exchange.
Menget, Patrick : « Of the usage of trophies in South America. Draught of a comparison between practices nivacle (Paraguay) and mundurucu (Brazil) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.127-144.
The hunt for the heads of Mundurucu of Brazil is put in parallel with that of Nivacle of Paraguay. The search of these foreign trophies is the own of the warriors who, accepting spiritual risks of preparation and of detention of trophies, accept a privileged status. Development and ritual use of trophy accompany a complex relation between the taker and his victim, characterised by a spiritual conflict between these and the final victory of the taker of trophies. The power so acquired ends with the symbolic death of trophy.
Assayag, Jackie : « Crime was almost perfect. Murders, anger and desire of the Gods in a pantheon of the south of India (Karnataka) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996 pp.145-174.
Elements of the mythological cycle of the goddess Yellamma-Renuka (of the temple of Saundatti in Karnataka, India) certify a bet in intrigue of a series of (almost perfect) crimes which illustrates congruence between sacrificial machinery and narrativité. To have succumbed to the desire of a king playing with her common law wives, the goddess (universal Mother) is repudiated by her husband who inflicts leprosy on him and obliges her in banishment before ordering her son to decapitate her. So the Gods, as the men avoid neither desire nor anger : victims of radical one transformation when the one or other one has them. But these calamitous passions have at home particularly terrible and destructive effects. What illustrates the sacrificial massacre of the « family novel » local which exaggerates connection between desire and anger by launching and by restarting episodes of epic poem.
Dugast, Stéphan : « Murderers, twins and soothsayers. Three variations on the topic of the double (Bassar, Togo) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996 pp.175-210.
To Bassar (Togo), the business of murder raises the same ritual category as those of the twins and soothsayers. This group gets organised around two essential procedures : assimilation and expulsion. The domain of murder distinguishes itself by an appeal favoured to the second by these. Indeed, before benefiting from any prestige, the murderer is first an individual displayed to a next death. The accent is therefore put on the ritual treatment which allows him to avoid this fate, rather than on representations worked out around what would be its new status, after acquisition of additional powers. This expression is not however the possible only one : due to the insertion in a broader ritual context, shape bassar would have been able to introduce quite other physiognomy at the price of a simple transformation, substituting assimilation for expulsion.
Liberski, Danouta : « Blade of the knife and bitter death. Funeral violence, "introduction" and homicide in country kasena (Burkina Faso) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.211-250.
A myth redrawing the origin of the Gods twinned by the homicide, a funeral mime where sons in mourning simulate the murder of an enemy, and finally a ceremony of initiatory type during which young people put in room the body of an enemy, person killed by one of their elder, are, just as much as the ritual treatment reserved for the murderer, instants when is built the speech which holds Kasena towards the murderer. This analysis of a fragment of this speech tries to light the mode on which thinks of the relation of the murderer of his victim in a society one which did not work legal machine out to hire sanctions of criminal type against the homicide.
Cartry, Michel : « The sacrificial debt of the murderer in the societies of the basins of Volta according to some stories of administrators-ethnologists », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.251-304.
On the basis of observations of ground made in the first decades of this century in the regions of the basins of Volta, on the West of Burkina Faso and north of Ghana, H. Labouret and HIGHWAYS. Rattray wrote major texts on the sacrificial dimension of the rituals of repairing among which were the object, in some societies, the persons, the things and the places affected by the stain of the blood of murder. What the author of the article tries to articulate here on different types of sacrifices that it was necessary to perform at the place of Lobi and at Nankanse after some business of homicide (sacrifices « to pick up the blood » driven by the master of the Earth or else sacrifices made by the murderer to an altar of murder) registers in the direct extension of the questions which asked these two administrators-ethnologists.
Summaries n°14 Detienne, Marcel : Oreste's finger " , Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.23-38.
"Orestes’ finger"
With look to the bounds linking murderer and victim, all efforts in the ancient Greek City-state were directed at instituting " blood tribunals " and raising the abstract question of the forms and degrees of responsibility of the person accused of homicide. Between the fifth and sixth centuries BC, cognitive the most vivid representations linking the victim to his murderer - to his body well ace ace his inner being - brought together in the stories surrounding Orestes.
Durand, Jean-Louis : « Death, dead and rest », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.39-56.
"Death, the dead and the remainder"
They the basis of facts cited in Hellenistic literature, have ritualistic of view simple percentage adopted to examine types the of human blood shed to one Greek soil and the treatment of the bodies. This jeu simple percentage placed in relation with the legitimacy of animal sacrifice from which the City-state' s system derived its coherence. In the City-state' s sacrificial system, these ritual treatments consisted in working out has remainder that could not be accessed by have simple logic of law enforcement and punishment. After has debate long of the Athenian political and religious territory, this exploration scene was constructed for ritually managing other moves toward has space outside the City-state, hence outside the field of sacrifice, where original year portrays of bloodshed, namely : the death given and received during warfare. To understand how the battlefield, this space of trophies picture, simple percentage ritually treated, the of has vase simple percentage discussed in length.
Illouz, Charles : « Murder, stain and cannibalism in a chefferie mélanésienne Maré (Islands Fidelity) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.57-76.
"Murder, impurity and cannibalism in the Melanesian chiefdom of Maré (Loyalty Islands)"
Among the inhabitants of Maré, bloodshed simple percentage not the sign of the warrior. Homicide simple percentage subjected to has technology under the exclusive control of the "master of ills" [Acania]. Through his absorption of the excrements and then the putrefied corpse of the chief, he makes the " bones of the corpse " [Kaze] of the chief available for any other master of ills to employ to vouchsafe warrior undertakings and, more simply, to kill from afar. Irreparably " unpure ", the master of ills, who promotes warfare and obtains has supply of human flesh, takes place alongside the chief ace his murdering double. This simple percentage done to the detriment of the " last born " [Eteshet] who had precedence for conducting the agricultural cycle and promoting peace. This institutional competition, which underlies the chiefdom, conjugal overlaps alliances.
Viveiros of Castro, Eduardo : « The murderer and his double to Araweté (Brazil). An example of ritual fusion », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.77-104.
"The murderer and his doubles among the Arawete : Example Year of ritual fusion (Brazil)"
They the basis of have study of the relations between murderer and victim, ace imagined and experienced among the Arawete (has society speaking the dynamics of identity underlying the status of killer has Tupi-Guarani language and living-room midway up the Xingu River in Brazil), has few comparative generalisations are proposed end, has key character in the symbolism of warfare in Amazonia. By examining the symbolic procedures the victim conclusion employs to identify the killer' s " Person ", the can be drawn that aggression in warfare among the Indians re-seem has process for ritually transforming the Self, has process marked by the primacy of the enemy' s of view. By choosing ace its principle of movement the enlistment of exogenous attributes, Indian society simple percentage led to define itself by these attributes.
Lizot, Jacques : « Blood and status of the homicides to central Yanomami (Venezuela) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.105-126.
"Blood and the status of homicide among the central Yanomami (Venezuela)"
Among the Yanomami living-room along the upper Orinoco River in Venezuela, unokaimou rituals are observed both for chorus girls menstruating for the first times and for persons having committed homicide. These two situations of changes are thought to involve bodily frailty. In both huts, ritual obligations bring real protection and ensure the transition from one status to another. The warrior' s role fits into has cycles world-view and into wherein blood plays has role major. It also enters into polytic, which functions one the basis of exexchange rates.
Menget, Patrick : « Of the usage of trophies in South America. Draught of a comparison between practices nivacle (Paraguay) and mundurucu (Brazil) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.127-144.
"One the usage of trophies in South America : In comparison between Nivacle (Paraguay) and Mundurucu (Brazil) practices"
Headhunting among the Nivacle (Paraguay) simple percentage placed in parallel with that among the Mundurucu (Brazil). The search for these trophies simple percentage the task of warriors who, accepting the spiritual risks involved in preparing and keeping such trophies, are granted privileged has status. The ritual employs of these trophies involves has complex relationship between the headhunter and his victim, has relationship characterised by has spiritual conflict ending in the final victory of the trophy-holder. The thus acquired power ends with the trophy' s symbolic death.
Assayag, Jackie : « Crime was almost perfect. Murders, anger and desire of the Gods in a pantheon of the south of India (Karnataka) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996 pp.145-174.
"The nearly perfect crime : Murders, anger and desire among the gods in has southern Indian pantheon (Karnataka)"
Elements from the mythological cycle end the goddess Yellamma-Renuka (from the Saundatti temple in Karnataka, India) present involving has contact that illustrates the congruence sacrifices and "Narrativity" has series of nearly perfect crimes. Because this "universal Mother" yielded to has king' s desire, her husband repudiated her and inflicted leprosy one her. He forced her into exiles before ordering his his to behead her. Like human beings, the gods do not escape from desire and anger, and are radically altered when one of these feelings takes hold of them. These disastrous passions wreak terrifying effects one them, ace evidenced by the sacrificial local " Hecatomb " in the " family novel ", which dramatizes the connection between desire and anger by launching and relaunching episodes from the epic.
Dugast, Stéphan : « Murderers, twins and soothsayers. Three variations on the topic of the double (Bassar, Togo) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14 1996 pp.175-210.
"Murderers, twins and diviners. One Three variations the theme of the double among the Bassar (Togo)"
Among the Bassar (Togo), murder huts fall in the same ritual category ace those of twins and diviners. This jeu of rituals simple percentage organised around two BASIC ritual procedures : assimilation and expulsion. Murder primarily involves recourse to expulsion. Before obtaining any prestige from his action, the murderer simple percentage a year individual exposed to has sudden death. Emphasis ugly simple percentage they the ritual treatment for escaping this fate, rather than one the ideas surrounding the new status obtained after acquiring additional powers. This simple percentage not the only conceivable shape : by placing the Bassar puts in has broader ritual context, it could copes has totally different form were has simple transformation performed so ace to replaces expulsion with assimilation.
Liberski, Danouta : « Blade of the knife and bitter death. Funeral violence, "introduction" and homicide in country kasena (Burkina Faso) », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.211-250.
"The knife-blade and bitter death. Funeral violence, 'introduction ' and homicide among the Kasena (Burkina Faso)"
In myth end the origin of the twin gods of homicide, has mime funeral where the his in mourning feigns to murder a year enemy and initiatory a year fate of ceremony wherein young people shoot arrows into the corpse of a year enemy whom their elders have slain, all these - like the ritual treatment of has murderer - are instants when the Kasena discourse end murderers simple percentage constructed. This analysis of has fragment simple percentage conceived in of this discourse sheds light one how the relation between murderer and victim has society that has not built any legal structures for carrying out penal sanctions in murder huts.
Cartry, Michel : « The sacrificial debt of the murderer in the societies of the basins of Volta according to some stories of administrators-ethnologists », Systems of thought in Black Africa (Paris), 14, 1996, pp.251-304.
"The murderer' s sacrificial debt in societies in the Volta Basin : Following up one the accounts left by colonial officials-ethnologists"
Observations in the Volta Basin (in western Burkina Faso and northern Ghana) during the first decades of the 20th century, H are the basis of field. Labouret and HIGHWAYS. Certain Rattray left major texts end the sacrificial dimension of the reparation rituals that, in societies, focussed they the persons, things and places stained by bloodshed. What, herein, simple percentage linked to the different types of sacrifices that, among the Lobi and Nankanse, certain were to be performed following huts of homicide (sacrifices for " collecting the blood " conducted by the earth priests sacrifices and performed by the murderer at has special altar) directly follows from the questions raised by these two officials-ethnologists.
In the same rubric :
