Ritual, History and Power

This volume provides a collection of some of Maurice Bloch's most important work, including influential essays on power, hierarchy, death and fertility.

Maurice Bloch (Author)

Acknowledgements, Foreword, 1. The past and the present in the present, 2. Symbols, song, dance and features of articulation: Is religion an extreme form of traditional authority?, 3. The disconnection between power and rank as a process: an outline of the development of kingdoms in central Madagascar, 4. Marriage amongst equals: an analysis of the marriage ceremony of the Merina of Madagascar, 5. From cognition to ideology, 6. Hierarchy and equality in Merina kinship, 7. Descent and sources of contradiction in representations of women and kinship, 8. Almost eating the ancestors, 9. The ritual of the royal bath in Madagascar: the dissolution of death, birth and fertility into authority, Notes, Bibliography, Index