scholia - University of Otago

30 Scholia ns Vol. 6 ( 1997) 19-33 ISSN I 018-90 17
setting) as it was an act of restitution intended to avert the anger of the forces in
whose power lie the origins of animal life. The feeling which underlies this
primordial motive rests on the empathic sense that what is taken from another
for one's own use must be restored in kind. 32 If appropriate reparation is not
made, the Other becomes angry. The sacrificial act involves a gesture of
renunciation which intends to repair the damage done to the feelings of the
Other. The social principle, then, which applies to relations among humans is
projected onto the relationship with the environment. The ritual offering
satisfies the 'feeling needs' of the community; it eases the guilt of taking
sustenance and nourishment from sources which elude human comprehension,
which are inscrutably Other.
The faculty of invention enters into the equation in this respect, that
cleverness gives the human animal an incalculable advantage over nature and
over other animals. The capacity for invention gives humans the power to take
and control what nature has, and to do so largely at will. The use of this power
evokes strong feelings of guilt and reflexive acts of reparation: the killer needs
assurance that the animal victim gives its life for his benefit willingly; 33 the
hunter needs to believe that the life he takes will not deplete nature's stocks;
the farmer needs to feel confident that the goodwill of the gods will not desert
him. The mao of naive culture worries continually about the disposition of the
gods: Does he have their favour? Has he gone too far or taken too much for
himself? Such feelings constitute an apprehensive awareness of separation
between the human subject and the world of the Other. This experience of
alienation arises from a deep and continual worry about the effects of the
human capacity to invent and control. The feelings associated with the faculty
of invention are fundamentally ambivalent: on the one hand one has a sense of
extraordinary power, on the other hand one feels deep guilt and apprehension
over the effects of this power upon the Other.
In the Cbewa myth cited above this ambivalence is represented by the
image of fire. Fire provides warmth and protection for humans; it is used for
clearing land in the dry season and for cooking, as well as for procuring food,
since hunters wield it to drive game into their nets. But fire can also be a
massively destructive force, and in this capacity fire serves as a symbol of the
disruptive effects of human culture. As a cultural tool, fire and, by extension,
all human inventions introduce divisions and distinctions into an otherwise
32 Cf. M. L. Hoffman, ' Empathy, Guilt and Social Cognition', in W. F. Overton (ed.), The
Relmionship between Social and Cognitive Development (Hillsdale 1983).
33 Burkert [12] 56.