Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient HawaiiValeri presents an overview of Hawaiian religious culture, in which hierarchies of social beings and their actions are mirrored by the cosmological hierarchy of the gods. As the sacrifice is performed, the worshipper is incorporated into the god of his class. Thus he draws on divine power to sustain the social order of which his action is a part, and in which his own place is determined by the degree of his resemblance to his god. The key to Hawaiian society—and a central focus for Valeri—is the complex and encompassing sacrificial ritual that is the responsibility of the king, for it displays in concrete actions all the concepts of pre-Western Hawaiian society. By interpreting and understanding this ritual cycle, Valeri contends, we can interpret all of Hawaiian religious culture. |
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Contents
Summary of Hawaiian Theology | 3 |
The Elements of Sacrifice | 37 |
Gods and Humans | 84 |
The Hierarchy of Sacrifices | 109 |
Sacrifice and Kingship | 130 |
The Hierarchy of Temples | 172 |
The Sacrifice of the Hawaiian King | 189 |
Common terms and phrases
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References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii A Chicago original paperback |
| Author | Valerio Valeri |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press, 1985 |
| ISBN | 0226845605, 9780226845609 |
| Length | 446 pages |
| Subjects | › › Religion / Christian Rituals & Practice / General Religion / Comparative Religion Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social Social Science / General |
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