Sacrifice and Violence: Reflections from an Ethnography in Nepal

Marie Lecomte-Tilouine

doi:10.1017/9781009537476

Violence is at the heart of the sacrifice, despite its denial in the texts. For the participants and observers, it materialises in the exposure of everyone and everything to the 'fountains of blood'. The specificity of this public and holistic violence, orchestrated in Nepal by the highest dignitaries and aimed at the rejuvenation of the cosmic, political and social order, allows us to see sacrifice as the ultimate model of legitimate violence. At the same time, observation reveals its oxymoronic nature through the opposite effect its violence has on its participants. As such, sacrifice is not only the organiser of society, but also the revelator of its internal tensions and fault lines. The book explores the complex aspects of royal ceremonies, their contestation by different groups, and finally the contours of the new legitimacy that sacrifice found during the revolutionary period under its most extreme form of human sacrifice.

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv
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Contents
pp v-vi
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List of map and figures
pp vii-viii
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Note on transliteration
pp ix-x
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Acknowledgements
pp xi-xi
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Map
pp xii-xii
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Introduction
pp 1-22
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1 - A violence that is not violence
pp 23-42
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2 - Theories of sacrifice, with or without violence
pp 43-68
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3 - Sacrificial violence in narrative forms
pp 69-100
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4 - Sacrificial practices and partitions
pp 101-120
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5 - The buffalo sacrifice
pp 121-161
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6 - Contestations of sacrifice: boycott and litigation
pp 162-192
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7 - Self-sacrifice versus sacrifice in the revolutionary struggle
pp 193-235
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Conclusion
pp 236-244
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References
pp 245-255
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Index
pp 256-267
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Sacrifice and Violence

Reflections from an Ethnography in Nepal

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

List of map and figures
pp vii-viii

Note on transliteration
pp ix-x

Acknowledgements
pp xi-xi

Map
pp xii-xii

Introduction
pp 1-22

1 - A violence that is not violence
pp 23-42

2 - Theories of sacrifice, with or without violence
pp 43-68

3 - Sacrificial violence in narrative forms
pp 69-100

4 - Sacrificial practices and partitions
pp 101-120

5 - The buffalo sacrifice
pp 121-161

6 - Contestations of sacrifice: boycott and litigation
pp 162-192

7 - Self-sacrifice versus sacrifice in the revolutionary struggle
pp 193-235

Conclusion
pp 236-244

References
pp 245-255

Index
pp 256-267

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Sacrifice and Violence

Reflections from an Ethnography in Nepal

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