Blood and order: Symbolic functions of blood in the history of human communities

Abstract

The article analyzes issues related to the concept “blood” and its transformation throughout the history of human society, i. e., its civilizational development. The article shows the symbolic role of blood in the establishment of social order at various stages of socio-cultural development. The evidence is diverse and spans the time period from the primitive communal system to the present. In particular, the article discusses the custom of blood feud. A special attention is given to how this custom was counteracted by the European civilization through cultural and civilizational processes. The evidence is also taken from ancient Greek history (the assertion of the supremacy of law within the polis) and the medieval West. The article discusses references to the concept “blood” in various religious and social rituals (initiations, wedding rituals, etc.) and highlights the main stages of the symbolic understanding of blood in history (blood as a carrier of the soul, the so-called “society of blood”, racial theory). The article explores the symbolic meaning of blood in punitive practices of the European Middle Ages and the era of absolutism. In particular, it focuses on the transition from the “society of blood” (M. Foucault) to modern Western society. The regularity of the bloody terror of the Great French Revolution in this process is shown. The article also refers to the “blood myths” of the 19th-20th centuries associated with the ideology of racism. This ideology, albeit in a transformed form, continues to play its role in the modern world. Primarily, this is related to Anglo-Saxon claims about their “exclusivity”. This makes the discussion raised in the paper relevant.