It is the task of the observer, I have suggested, to come up with a theory. Remember, of course, that this is an introduction to sociological method: not a book on theory itself. Our method here will therefore be necessarily inductive. That is, it will have to be developed from observations and insights, from assumptions and analyses rather than from a body of theory itself from which we might derive some working explanations about the crisis in the Herodian succession and its implications for Jewish Christian origins.

Let us begin with assumptions. In discussing recent collections of essays by social anthropologists I tried to describe two dilemmas that result in a double-bind within certain patrilineal traditional societies. On the one hand, these societies must gain access to the sources of life: women, children, the fields, ancestral spirits, and the vitality that is passed from one generation to the next. On the other hand, however, to lay hold of these sources of life is to recognize that one must eventually give them up. To gain life, then, it is necessary to offer sacrifices. That is the first dilemma. The second dilemma is like the first: its inverse, as it were. To ward off the threat of death, either directly or indirectly, traditional societies have sought to impose rules and rites for purification. That is, to keep at a safe distance from disruptive influences that might disturb a society's continuity and ability to reproduce itself, a society seeks to impose rules for purity.