The Other Side of Sacrifice: Introduction

While contemporary philosophers have been content to declare the logical possibilities of sacrifice exhausted, to have finally ‘sacrificed sacrifice,’ for many people around the world the notion of sacrifice – whether religious, secular, or somewhere in between – remains absolutely central to their understanding of themselves, their relations with others, and their place in the world. From religion to economics, and from politics to the environment, sacrificial tropes frequently emerge as key means of mediating and propagating various forms of power, moral discourse, and cultural identity. This paper lays out reasons for retaining sacrifice as an analytical concept within anthropology, and argues for the importance of a renewed focus on the ‘other side of sacrifice’, as a means of understanding better how sacrifice emerges beyond ritual and enters into the full gamut of social life.     

Multiplicity in palm uses by the Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador

An ethnobotanical study of the palms used by the Huaorani in the Yasuní National Park and Huaorani Ethnic Reserve in Amazonian Ecuador was carried out. In this inventory, 37 palm species were found; all were used by the Huaoranis. One hundred and ninety-one different uses were recorded in eight ethnobotanical categories. Most species (64.9%) were used for house construction and human food. More than half of the species were used for domestic utensils (59.4%) and hunting and fishing implements (54%). A comparison is made between these data and past studies for the other six indigenous communities from Amazonian Ecuador. This paper shows the highest diversity of useful palm species and the highest number of different uses ever recorded for an indigenous group in Amazonian Ecuador. The data combine quantitative and qualitative approaches.  © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2004, 144 , 149–159.