ABSTRACT
This chapter considers ritual violence as a source of moral and ethical disquiet on the part of its practitioners. Violence in any form is, of course, startling to behold; but when it is imbued with religious necessity it becomes for many Westerners, whose experience with ritual violence is limited to sublimations such as the Holy Eucharist, an object of extreme and exotic fascination. Moreover, just as positive sentiment is an ambient quality of nuclear-family relationships, so the aggressive component of the ritual sphere diffuses beyond moments of overt violence. The complicity of fathers in acts of violence, extortion, and deception against their sons is sufficient to induce feelings of guilt and embarrassment over the prospect of the latter discovering that the true state of affairs is a betrayal of filial trust and sentiment. In Ilahita, ritual violence evokes a problem in Arapesh ethics.
