Patrick Harvey

The Tokens of Esteem: an Essay in Ritual Inhumanity Patrick Harvey

The Tokens of Esteem is a book about ritual violence in primitive cultures. Human sacrifice, headhunting, cannibalism, live burial and the use of human organs as decorations were not simple expressions of savage lust. Rather they were the attempts of early man to deal with the sociological and psychological problems of integration, cultural development and the imminent possibility of death. These rites satisfied a need among primitive ethnics that allowed their societies to find cohesion and thereby proceed toward cultural, religious and intellectual growth. Although these events and practices have had their parallels in the modern world we have always considered them to be unacceptable. Such rites have no place in modern society except among the most twisted and perverse characters. In ancient and prehistoric times, however, they were accepted as quite ordinary and beneficial to society and to mankind in general. Their practice had something of a holistic and integrating effect upon ancient peoples. The ritual, however inhumane, brought the members of the tribe or clan together, gave them a collection of ceremonies with which to define the operation of their cultures and helped them to deal with the nature of impermanence in the world about them. The rites among primitives were a simple mechanism to make sense out of a world that was much harsher and unforgiving that that of our own. We all have our rituals. They exist in our houses of worship, work, and leisure and in our private lives. Without ritual we could not long survive as a culture. This was equally true for primitive peoples many of whom found a certain comfort in these practices. This was a comfort that allowed them to continue and to develop their lives and civilizations