12-2-2010

"Vengeance, moreover, cannot be claimed until the verdict of one's private oracle has been confirmed by the secret poison oracle of the local prince, for Zande society is an aristocracy in which the ruling class makes all final decisions. If the logic of these oracles, deaths, and acts of vengeance were analyzed publicly, Evans-Pritchard notes, it would reduce itself to an absurdity, because every new death would have to be attributed to yet another act of witchcraft in an endless circle.

Pals, Daniel. "Eight Theories of Religion." New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

In this passage, Pals discusses how Evans-Pritchard's study of the Zande led him to discover their ritual for handling accusations of death and witchcraft, which goes through a series of 1) Personal oracles, and then 2) aristocratic oracles, which have the final say. Evans-Pritchard argues that this is done to prevent logical absurdities from occurring. However, one must wonder if, perhaps, there is a touch of Marx's theories underlying this: that religion can become another facet of power and social structures.