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Chapter Four. Religious Beliefs and Practices |
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oaths and supernatural sanctions as guarantees of peace |
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Such supernatural sanctions mobilized by the swearing of oaths were the only coercive force which could ensure the maintenance of peace between two autonomous communities, for none of the moral rules which regulated so efficiently relations between kinsmen and covillagers extended to the interaction between different villages, and an appeal to a higher power -- in this case Gawang -- was necessary if, after a series of raids and counterraids, a state of peaceful coexistence was to be established. |
