ABSTRACT
Structural nostalgia characterizes the discourse of both the official state and its most lawless citizens. In fact, the idea of a time when state intervention was unnecessary for the conduct of a decent social life provides these two parties with the common ground of their continuing mutual engagement. Two features are crucial to the definition of structural nostalgia. One is its replicability in every succeeding generation. The second feature concerns the object of this rhetorical longing. The most commonly attributed supernatural consequences of perjury include injury to a limb, sudden paralysis making it impossible to leave the church, loss of sight or of an eye, and the destruction of ones family. The practical principles of the oath of innocence are internally consistent. A shepherd will only administer the oath to a rival whose personal courage he has some expectation of respecting.
