Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-349) and index.
Contents:
14. The Further Evolution of War in the Twentieth Century. 2. Sacred Meat -- 3. The True Mark of the Beast -- 4. The First Blood Sacrifice -- 5. The Rebellion Against the Beast -- 6. When the Predator Had a Woman's Face -- 7. "A Rough Male Sport" -- 8. Fearful Symmetries -- 9. The Warrior Elite -- 10. The Sacralization of War -- 11. Guns and the Democratization of Glory -- 12. An Imagined Bestiary -- 13. Three Cases of War Worship -- 14. The Further Evolution of War in the Twentieth Century.
Summary:
"What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued in paperback, Blood Rites takes readers on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place -- not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed to reenact their terrifying experiences of predation by stronger carnivores. Brilliant in conception and rich in scope, Blood Rites is a monumental work that continues to transform our understanding of the greatest single threat to human life."--Amazon.com.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.