Blood Power: Mimetic Rivalry and Patrilineal Descent of Sacrificial Ritual :: Myth

Blood Power: Mimetic Rivalry and Patrilineal Descent of Sacrificial Ritual PERFORMANCE NOTES This piece includes three movements. Each movement depicts a mythic or ritual relationship between women’s blood and sacrifice. I have adapted each of these myths/rituals in some of my own words to create a narrative. In the first story, the sacrifice is not explicit, but has become a part of the ritual that reenacts the myth. The bloodletting that comprises the ritual reenactment does not result in death, but functions as a rite of passage for young boys and functions as a cathartic experience for communities of men, much as a ritual sacrifice is said to bond a community. [1] The ritual reenactment of this creation myth involves men making incisions on their arms and penises to simulate menstruation. The synchronicity of this action is key and is depicted not only in the group aspect of the ritual but in the process of shaking their bodies to spread blood on their own and others adjoining limbs. The rite of passage involves adult men entering the women’s area, where many generations of women are tending the children and working, snatching the young boys from their mother’s arms and taking them to the men’s camp, where they are covered in their own blood and that of other, elder men as well as red ochre only to be returned to their mother’s gaze, but not to their custody. This ritual takes place not only as a rite of passage, but also as a catalyst for group solidarity, before a hunt, or to bring the rains. [2] Movement I : A tale of the Wawilak Sisters and the Rainbow Snake This Aboriginal Australian creation myth is found predominantly in the northern and western regions of the country. There are many variations of this myth. The version you are about to read comes from Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture, by Chris Knight [3] . The Wawilak Sisters and the Rainbow Snake At the beginning of time, two sisters were traveling across the landscape giving names to the features of a previously unnamed world. One carried a child; the other was pregnant. They had both committed incest in their own country, the country of the Wawilak.