Sacrificial System Research Articles

Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia: Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation

Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia: Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation. By Dena Freeman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. x, 180; 3 maps, 6 figures, 10 b/w photographs. $55.00. In this rich historical/ethnographic account of life in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia-an area on which little anthropological work has been done-Dena Freeman poses the following ethnographic puzzle: In a society that practices both sacrificial and initiatory rituals, the former have remained relatively stable over the last hundred years, while the latter have undergone radical transformation (p. 1). The author seeks to explain why the two systems have evolved in such different ways. In so doing, she considers how the effect of political and economic integration of people in the newer parts of the Ethiopian state has sparked systemic and individualistic actions that have worked together to generate variation and change in politico-ritual forms. Gamo make animal and other food sacrifices to spirits who are believed to protect and guarantee the of the earth and its inhabitants. Failure to feed spirits can result in crop failure, sickness and conflicts (p. 66). Sacrifices are made by senior members of the community on behalf of their juniors. Thus, senior members are seen to be caretakers of the entire community, for it is only through their actions that the wellbeing of the community is ensured. Seniors accede to their roles through primogeniture as they assume the roles of household, segment, lineage, or clan head. In the initiatory system, individuals become halak'as for a given period of time, and in that role are said to herd the entire community (p. 84). Unlike the sacrificial system, men originally obtained their position as halak'as by sponsoring huge feasts for the community. Whereas in the nineteenth century (before the area was incorporated into the Ethiopian state), halak'as had more political power and actually passed laws, dealt with litigation, and made decisions about whether or not to go to war (p. 86), in more recent times their functions have shifted so that they are less involved in direct political leadership. However, their role in protecting the welfare of the community is maintained by observing prohibitions on their personal behavior; these prohibitions vary one community to another, but are generally associated with distancing the individual (and thus the community) from death and weakness and to associate him with success and fertility (p. 85). During the Derg regime (1974-1991), initiation of halak'as was prohibited as a potential threat to government control. However, Freeman finds that while one of her study sites, Doko Gembela, obeyed the edict and virtually stopped initiating halak'as, another site, Doko Masho continued its initiation practices. Freeman explains the different fate of initiation in the two communities by tracing the political and economic developments over the last two hundred years that have resulted in the splitting of what was a single Doko community into two separate communities with different dynamics. As they integrated with the Ethiopian state and with market forces, more men became traders and weavers in both communities, although at different rates. …

Torah and Anti-Torah: Isaiah 2:2-4 and 1:10-26

AbstractThe utopian vision of Isaiah 2:1-4 is a new beginning of the book, intimately related to and absolutely distinct from the first beginning in ch. 1. The two beginnings represent the two voices of the book, whose irreconcilability is its major structural problem. At the centre of the Edenic vision of Zion is a female subject and language, Torah, in whose maternal embrace all nations renounce their phallic rivalries. Torah, however, is paired with a male subject, the word of YHWH, and with the divine authority that judges the peoples. The Torah of 2:3 may be compared to the female figures of ch. 1, and to the condemnatory Torah addressed to the people in 1:10. The Torah of 2:3 is presumably equivalent to the Torah in 1:10, and adumbrates the message of that chapter. It is that to which the sons fail to listen in 1:2, and which is addressed to heaven and earth at the beginning of the book. At the same time it is an anti-Torah, since that which is rejected is conventional Torah, the sacrificial and festive system. The maternal space of Zion, which is also that of divine alimentation, has become a scene of disgust, which may be associated with Kristeva's conception of abjection. The climax of these images for Zion is the prostitute in 1:21, which exemplifies marginality. For the heterological critic, however, the prostitute is the paradigmatic marginal figure against whose exploitation the prophet protests. The figure of the prostitute is transformed into that of the widow and hence the pristine daughter of Zion and the bride of God.

Maimonides and the Rise and Fall of the Sabians: Explaining Mosaic Laws and the Limits of Scholarship

The Koran mentions Sabi'un three times (II 6-2, V 69, XXII 17). Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabi'un-whoever believes in Allah and Last Day and does what is right-shall be rewarded by their Lord; they have nothing to fear or to regret. This language is repeated in second citation. The third appearance is slightly different: As for true believers, Jews, Sabi'un, Christians, Magians, and pagans, Allah will judge them on Day of Resurrection. He bears witness to all things.1 Early Islamic commentators often disagreed on identity of Sabi'un, and confusion continued throughout medieval Islamic period.2 The term Sabi 'un was applied by some early Koranic commentators to survivors of an ancient Jewish-Christian sect, Elchasites in southern Iraq.3 One minority group of ethnic Arab pagans with a hellenized elite in Harran, in Arabia, also took Koranic name Sabian in third/ninth century to claim status of a people of book and therefore avoid persecution. It is this group that some later Muslims identified as Sabi'.4 The scholarly consensus now suggests that term Sabian refers to some kind of Gnostic identity that can encompass the disciples of Judeo-Christian baptizing sects ... and, on other, Harranian astrolators, last representatives of decadent Greco-Roman paganism.5 The mysterious Sabians would play a key role in attempts by early modern European scholars to understand origins of Mosaic legislation. It was through Maimonides, great twelfth-century Jewish scholar, that Sabians were transmitted to Christian scholars. By seventeenth century, Sabians of Maimonides's Guide for Perplexed had become a fixture in how scholars understood or at least debated history of origins of Mosaic law. Increasingly perceived as a diffuse paganism rather than a specific ethnic identity or subsumed by more tangible reality of Egypt, Sabianism drifted to margins of scholarship by end of Enlightenment. During nineteenth century Sabians became superfluous to scholarly efforts to understand origins of Israelite monotheism. This study is an attempt to understand growth of enthusiasm for Sabians by early modern scholars and then its precipitous decline. In a large degree it was nature of evidence itself regarding Sabians that shaped and ultimately undermined survival of Sabians in European thinking. Still, both Christian and Jewish scholars well into twentieth century lived with ghosts of Sabians as they sought to explain otherwise mysterious Mosaic commandments. In Guide Maimonides argued that sacrificial system legislated by Moses was an example of God's mercy. It would have been impossible for Israelites to abandon suddenly style of idolatrous worship learned in Egypt, and so Moses crafted sacrificial system gradually to replace false gods with true God. Maimonides still needed to explain particular details and reasons for sacrifices and other ritual laws.6 To that end he claimed to have read various texts, particularly so-called Nabataen Agriculture, which purported to describe Abraham's education among and flight from Sabians as well as a summary of practices of Sabians.7 (The Sabians had made one brief appearance before Maimonides's discussion in Guide; tenth-- century Karaite Jew, Qirqisani, declared in his Kitab al anwar, the modern Christian philosophers assert that laws of Torah were given to Children of Israel only because of God's wrath; and that they [Israel] have chosen these laws for themselves only on account of their resemblance to laws of Sabians, which was due to fact that they became accustomed to ways of Egyptians during their sojourn with them, these ways being akin to ways of Sabians. …

Equilibrium and the Sacred Compass: The Structure of Leviticus

Abstract Despite the highly organized features of Leviticus, interpreters have found it difficult to identify a cohesive structure to the book. One possible explanation may be that we have been deterred by presuppositions. We have generally seen the sacrificial system in terms of providing a means to care for the sin and impurity of the people. An alternative approach, however, focuses on the need to preserve and maintain sacred space. This paper builds on this concept and explores the ways that such an adjustment in our thinking suggests a new understanding of the structure and focus of Leviticus.

Atonement in the Book of Leviticus

Within the world of Israel's sacrificial system, atonement brought about the restoration of right relations between God and Israel through the cleansing of the sanctuary and between human beings through restitution. Despite its many complexities, the work of atonement had a distinctly pastoral function.

Photosensitized charge separation using water-insoluble polymer-bound ruthenium(II) complex films

Water-insoluble ruthenium(II) complex-containing polymer films, in which bis(2,2′-bipyridine) complexes are coordinated with the imidazolyl residues on partially quaternized poly(1-vinylimidazole) (RuQPIm), have been prepared and characterized by spectroscopic and thermal measurements. The photosensitized charge separation in the sacrificial system, consisting of RuQPIm film, 1,1′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium (MV2+) or 1,1′-dioctyl-4,4′-bipyridinium (C8V2+) dications, and triethanolamine (TEOA) has been investigated in aqueous solution. Here, RuQPIm film, MV2+ and C8V2+, and TEOA act as a solid polymer photosensitizer, electron acceptors, and a sacrificial donor, respectively. The formation of viologen radical (MV+ or C8V+) was observed on light irradiation (λ > 440 nm) of the aqueous solution. With MV2+ as an acceptor, the rate of MV+ formation decreased with increasing degree of quaternization. This suggested that the rate was controlled by at least three factors: (1) electrostatic repulsion, (2) π–π interaction between the heteroaromatic moieties of polymer and MV2+ and (3) steric hindrance of the alkyl side chain. On the other hand, the rate of C8V+ formation was large, and dependence of the rate on the degree of quaternization differed significantly from that of the MV2+ system. This indicated that the C8V2+ species had a further interaction in addition to the three described above, e.g. a hydrophobic interaction between alkyl chains in the C8V2+ and the polymer. Further, the results obtained from the photosensitized charge separation in aqueous solution containing 1 M NaCl and in CH3CN–H2O suggested that the surface morphology of the polymer film was also a very important factor.

Medium effects on the photophysical properties of porphyrazine‐metal(II) complexes in micellar solutions

AbstractThe solubility of different phthalocyanine and porphyrazine metal(II) complexes 1–6 is described in cationic, neutral and anionic surfactants under various conditions. Optimal conditions were evaluated and photophysical properties of the dyes were measured. Various possibilities which have a direct effect on the aggregation phenomena were tested and dimerization constants and extinction coefficients are derived for the optimal monomer conditions. Each study was carried out in cationic, neutral and anionic micelles. With light‐scattering experiments micellar shapes were measured and compared with theoretical models. Triplet‐absorption spectra of the porphyrazine 2–4 were recorded and showed similar maxima to phthalocyanine 1. In steady‐state experiments photoinduced electron transfer reactions of 1, 2, 5 and 6 were investigated for several electron acceptors and hydrogen was evolved from 1, 3, 5 and 6 in a four‐component sacrificial system in order to check the photocatalytic properties of hydrophobic porphyrazines dissolved in surfactants.

Effectiveness of cathodic protection of UNS N04400 heat exchanger tubes for sea water service

Abstract A detailed laboratory study was performed to assess the use of carbon steel sacrificial anodes to galvanically protect UNS N04400 nickel alloy heat exchanger tubes in sea water applications. Several parameters were investigated: the potential-time relationship of uncoupled and coupled steel-N04400, the current-time relationship of the coupled alloys, the effect of a two sacrificial anode system, the effect of water path length, and the effect of new and used N04400 alloy tubes. Data analysis indicated that the application of sacrificial cathodic protection to N04400 heat exchanger tubes in sea water applications will prevent pitting corrosion and thus prolong tube service life.

The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks (review)

Reviewed by: The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks Paul Corby Finney Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant . The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks. Trans. by Paula Wissing. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Pp. vii + 276pp. This is an informative and mostly well-executed volume of essays. There are ten separate entries: M. Detienne, "Culinary Practices and the Spirit of Sacrifice;" J.-P. Vernant, "At Man's Table: Hesiods Foundation Myth of Sacrifice;" J.-L. Durand, "Greek Animals: Toward a Topology of Edible Bodies;" and "Ritual as Instrumentality;" M. Detienne, "The Violence of Wellborn Ladies: Women in the Thesmophoria;" [End Page 224] M. Detienne and J. Svenbro, "The Feast of Wolves, or the Impossible City;" J.-P. Vernant, "Food in the Countries of the Sun;" F. Hartog, "Self-Cooking Beef and the Drinks of Ares;" S. Georgourdi, "Sanctified Slaughter in Modern Greece: The 'Kourbánia' of the Saints;" and, finally, J. Svenbro, "A Bibliography of Greek Sacrifice." The last item (pp. 204-17) is admittedly a valuable part of the whole, but it would have meant a great deal more to non-specialists if it had been annotated. The book has forty-seven pages of endnotes, a good subject index, four photographic plates (mediocre to poor in quality) and nineteen plates illustrating line drawings (competently executed by F. Lassarrague). The plates show aspects of Greek sacrifice based on the evidence of ceramic iconography. The translation is mostly successful, although in her rendering of the French, Wissing occasionally gives unidiomatic solutions. She also invents English words, e.g., (on p. 3) "incarceral" space. This should have been "place of confinement, imprisonment or detention;" "incarceral" n'existe pas. The nine analytical essays (originally published in 1979 in Paris) cover the full range of subject matter: diet, politics, religion, social order and the relationship between myth and cult. The approach of all the authors is anthropological and sociological—there is some unwelcome structuralist jargon and some useful functionalist analysis (especially conspicuous in Durand's excellent second essay). With the exception of Georgourdi, who is concerned with modern (i.e., Christian) subject matter, all these writers presume that there is a relationship and continuity between Greek myth and Greek cult. This presumption is, of course, a major crux; interested readers should also look at the intelligent and sobering caveat of Dirk Obbink, "Dionysus Poured Out: Ancient and Modern Theories of Sacrifice and Cultural Formation" (in Masks of Dionysus, ed. T. H. Carpenter and C. A. Faraone [Ithaca, 1993] 65-86). If it is true (as I believe it is) that blood sacrifice constitutes an important part of the world into which Christianity was born, then it follows that this volume could and should be read with profit by persons interested in Patristics and early church history. Animal sacrifice was a hallmark of Greek civilization in the first millennium B.C.E. It was one of the main cultural lynchpins securing the axles that permitted Greek culture to roll forward (only by tiny increments at first) from Helladic obscurity to Classical and Hellenistic radiance. The Greek sacrificial system was complex. It involved the husbandry of animals, their consecration, and even their grant of consent to be sacrificed (typically identified by shaking or a nod of the victim's head), libations, first fruits (often hair or a piece of the ear), the securing of fire, the slitting of the victim's throat and the blood letting, the skinning and preparation of the victim, the roasting and boiling of the victim, the distribution of the viscera and other body parts (e.g., mēria μηρια: thigh bones in their fat) to the gods and to the various human participants (according to their station). The realia of sacrifice included the precinct, the temple, the sacred image (or images), the altar, the knife, the cauldron, the skewer (for roasting splagkhna [σπλάγχνα], and the spit. All of these features were integral and essential. One of the most visible [End Page 225] boundaries separating Greeks from barbarians (Scythians, for example, as discussed by Hartog) was sacrificial cult. By Greek standards (pace Herodotus), Scythian cult was inferior because it lacked the full complement of Hellenic sacrificial signs. For example, as nomads...

Text and Concept in Leviticus 1:1-9: A Case in Exegetical Method (review)

Hebrew Sludies 35 (1994) 169 Reviews available MSS as catalogued by the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.... Finally all known published editions of BMM have been consulted" (p. 95). There follows an exhaustive description and evaluation of both manuscripts and printed editions-as well as manuscripts excluded from the critical apparatus-that should be the envy of scholars desirous of editing rabbinic texts in the future. The very important chap. 6 is a veritable textbook in the important areas of "Text Criticism and Stemmatic Analysis." However, to appreciate this chapter's numerous insights fully, one has to study it in its entirety. The critical edition of BMM is provided with a rather comprehensive apparatus , which would be quite bewildering had not the editor provided us with both "Explanation of Transcription and Apparatus" and "Critical Symbols and Sigla." The translation is remarkable in its precision and clarity , and often serves as a commentary to the text. The "Note on Translation and Transliteration" is very helpful. The volume concludes with three valuable Appendices-a) Genizah Transcriptions and Plates thereto, b) MS Paris Addenda, c) Biblical Citations in BMM-and, last but not least, an extensive Bibliography. The above description of this work shows its vast contribution to rabbinic scholarship in general and textual criticism in particular. Although the present writer questions a few statements, overall Dr. Kirschner has produced an exemplary work in rabbinic textual criticism and is to be thanked and admired for his great effort. Pinchas Doron Queens College Flushing, NY JJ367 TEXT AND CONCEPT IN LEVITICUS 1:1-9: A CASE IN EXEGETICAL METHOD. By Rolf P. Knierim. Forschungen zum AIten Testament 2. Pp. vi + 124. Tiibingen: Mohr, 1992. DM 78.00. I admit being surprised when I received a monograph limited to the first nine verses of Leviticus. But my surprise grew to utter amazement when, on reading it, I realized that it contained no excursuses on the background of the sacrificial system in general and on the tOiah sacrifice in particular, but was Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 170 Reviews devoted exclusively to the exegesis of just nine verses. I record my conclusion herewith: It is an important work. It teaches, to put it bluntly, how to read a text. Having written a commentary on Leviticus where I tried to do the same (it's nearly 1200 pages long), I now wish I could do these nine verses over again so that I might add some of Knierim's fmely honed insights . The reader will encounter some difficulties because of his Germanized English and overblown paragraphs. But reading it will prove eminently rewarding. In many ways, it can and should be used as a model for the exegesis of every biblical text. As an example, I choose to cite his brief discussion of "Indirect signals" (pp. 82-85), where he uncovers the movement that surges through this ostensibly static prescription on the procedure for sacrificing an ox. As he points out, there is a narrowing movement in procedure from the general sacrificial system, to the stages which the 'olah shares with the other sacrifices , to those which focus on the 'olah and finally to those that involve an ox. There is a complementary territorial narrowing: from the profane world inwards through the sacred sphere of the sanctuary-its entrance, place of slaughter, and altar. Finally, there is an upward movement within the sanctuary (itself a high place)-its court (the place of slaughter), the base of the altar (where the blood is drained), the altar hearth which must be ascended by steps or a ramp, on ('al) which there is a fire, on ('al) which there are wood-pieces, upon ('al) which the animal sections are placed (vv. 7b-8), and from which the animal, transformed into smoke, rises straight upward to God (v. 9). Hardened, stereotypic phrases have turned to molten lava! If for a moment one only concedes that the result is limited to an esthetic experience , note the theological implications. The structure of the sanctuary as well as the corresponding movement of the sacrificial procedure is upward. This stands in contrast to the worship of chthonic...

Polyquinoline-supported ruthenium complex for the photochemical reduction of water

The polymer (O[C 9 H 4 N(Ph)]-(C 5 H 3 N)O) n was coordinated to a ruthenium center to form a tris(bopyridyl)ruthenium complex. The dissolved polymer and a corresponding model complex both sensitized the photoreduction of methylviologen in a sacrificial system. The polymer was then examined for its suitability as a photosensitizing membrane in a water photolysis cell

Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion

This volume explores the organizational principles of the ancient Indian sacrificial system, and the role Vedic religion plays in later orthodox Hinduism. The author argues that Vedic conceptions of the cosmos, the nature of the human being, visions of the afterlife, and representations of ritual theory and practice can all be understood in similar terms. Illuminating such general issues as the definition of religion, the nature and purpose of ritual, the dynamics of sacrifice and substitution, and the process of change and continuity in traditions, this book serves as a guide to a complex ancient religion and its legacy.

The Struggle Over Religious Reform in Nineteenth-Century Vienna

In 1871, the board of the Jewish community of Vienna attempted to reform Sabbath and holiday services in the two synagogues under its official jurisdiction. Following the guidelines established by the Leipzig Synod in 1869, the board decided to remove from the liturgy all prayers that called for a return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and for the restitution of the ancient sacrificial system of worship. In addition, Vienna's Jewish leaders announced that the introduction of an organ, the symbol of the Reform movement, was a good idea. The board never implemented these radical reforms. An enormous protest from Vienna's Orthodox community, as well as from numerous individuals who professed no particular commitment to religious Orthodoxy but who preferred to pray in the traditional manner, forced the leaders of the community to back down from these ideological reforms and to implement only a few, relatively minor “modifications” in the services in the temples. Viennese Jews rejected the ideological changes which were gaining in popularity in German Jewish communities in the last third of the nineteenth century.

Evaluation of Aluminum-Sprayed Coatings for Corrosion Protection of Offshore Structures

Selection of an optimal corrosion protection method for offshore structural high-strength steel was necessary to avoid potential fatigue and hydrogen embrittlement problems. A study to evaluate the corrosion protection provided by sacrificial anodes and flame-sprayed aluminum coatings was undertaken. Reliability, availability, and influence on fracture and fatigue properties were the main factors considered in the study. The results illustrated that a properly applied flame-sprayed aluminum (FSA) coating represents the most viable scheme for providing long-life corrosion protection and improved corrosion fatigue and cracking resistance.

Le spectacle de l'exécution dans la France d'Ancien Régime

« Rappelons-nous », suggère Lucien Febvre, dans un de ses articles consacrés aux alliances et appuis de l'histoire auprès de la psychologie, « tel récit de ce temps, le coupable agenouillé, les yeux bandés, la tête sur le billot… Déjà l'homme rouge brandit sa redoutable épée nue. Et brusquement des cris, un cavalier à fond de course qui envahit la place en brandissant un parchemin, Grâce,grâce… ». Temps fort de l'expression des émotions, le spectacle de l'exécution met en jeu, dans chaque individu, des sentiments instinctifs aussi puissants qu'ils peuvent être changeants : haine, colère, mépris, peur, compassion, admiration. Exprimés et renforcés par des comportements collectifs, ces sentiments individuels reposent sur un climat affectif ou un climat de sensibilité parfois propre à un petit groupe, mais aussi capable de déferler sur le grand nombre comme une épidémie mentale. Champ du combat des idées et des volontés politiques, ce climat d'une époque ou d'une génération, qui s'exprime dans le discours dominant ou dans les changements institutionnels, implique à la fois une certaine nouveauté, mais aussi la prise en compte des comportements acquis de longue date.

Catalytic Efficiency of Hydrated RuO2for the Photooxidation of Water in a Sacrificial System

Abstract Rate constants for the photochemical reduction of Ru(bpy) 3+ 3, O2 evolution, and CO2+ production were measured in the photochemical sacrificial system CO(NH3) 5Cl2+/Ru(bpy) 2+ 3/H2O. The experiments were performed in HSO- 4/SO2- 4 or CH3COOH/CH3COO- media at various pH's in the range 0.8-5.8. The catalytic efficiency results of RuO2 “hydrated form” for the oxidation of water by Ru(bpy)3+ 3 are rather low (maximum value, 34% in HSO+ 4 /SO2+ 4 at pH = 2.15) and are dependent on the medium. The large decrease of the efficiency at pH > 5 is mainly due to the parallel catalytic action of Co2+. N2 and, probably, derivatives of bipyridine are produced (besides O2) by the catalyzed oxidative action of Ru(bpy) 3+ 3.

Sacrificial Worship in Ibibio Traditional Religion

This essay is a brief study in the sacrificial system of the Ibibio people of Nigeria. It involves a description of the different sacrificial types offered by the Ibibio and a theoretical reflection on their religious significance. Attempt is also made to explicate in footnotes some ritual symbols as a full treatment of this aspect is not possible within the space limitation. I. BACKGROUND The Ibibio, the sixth largest people in Nigeria, number about three million people spread over ten clans in the South Eastern part of the country. They dwell mainly in villages with farming, trading and fishing as the principal occupations. Their society is structured around a patrilineal system of descent with significant matrifocal elements. The household (ufok), which today is giving way to the elementary family as the basic social unit, consists of a man as the head, his wife or wives, his unmarried children and married sons with their wives and children. All owe allegiance to the household head and occupy the same homestead (otung) which may comprise up to four buildings. A number of households acknowledging a common unbroken agnatic line of descent constitute the lineage (ekpuk) which is considered a permanent unit comprising not only living but also dead members who are thought still to influence the course of events within it. There may be up to seven ekpuk in an average-size village, and the village, which may number 1000-5000 inhabitants, is a politically autonomous unit headed by the chief (obong idung). To assist in governing the people, there are in every village a council of elders and cultic associations which are religious in character and to which all, both men and women belong. A group of villages make up the clan each of which has a dialect, a uniform custom and a clan head. Neither the clan nor the people is

The Process of Covenant

Articulation of reality is accomplished through metaphor that can be widely understood and applied. However, since any rich metaphor is likely to spin off or be related to similar and cognate ideas, the central or original meaning of that metaphor may be confused as it is applied over time and space. One difficulty in distinguishing covenant from other types of agreements, such as contract, is due to the variety of its applications. In 1979, Lewis Hyde described relationships that can help to differentiate covenant and contract.' He speaks of commodity and gift. An exchange of commodities involves alienation of property, objectivity and the establishment of boundaries (i.e., limits of value). An exchange of gifts brings people together, creating community, for the very purpose of transcending boundaries and value. Contract defines and establishes boundaries; its very legal content and language is an attempt to achieve objectivity. In theological terms, the act of giving a gift is an act of grace. While the receiver is expected to reciprocate, it is in the sense of gift-giving or graciousness rather than paying someone off. Perhaps lack of graciousness is the source of prophetic criticism of the sacrificial system: instead of coming closer to God, the people use sacrifices to buy off the divine as if God's gifts of life were marketable commodities. The act of covenant, reciprocal as its demands may seem, is essentially an exchange of gifts to bring people together in community. Studied in the context of history, covenants are examined to retrieve and reconstruct events. Covenant forms and institutions are regarded as historical reflections that help to explain the lives of previous generations. Now that the contribution of covenant to political thought is beginning to unfold, some students of politics have come to appreciate the influence of covenant thought, especially as a stimulis and model for the establishment of new political relationships and arrangements.2