Research Catalog

Title

Blood sacrifice and the nation : totem rituals and the American flag / Carolyn Marvin and David W. Ingle.

Author

Marvin, Carolyn.

Publication

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Ingle, David W.

Description

xv, 398 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

This book argues that American patriotism is a civil religion of blood sacrifice, which periodically kills its children to keep the group together. The flag is the sacred object of this religion; its sacrificial imperative is a secret which the group keeps from itself to survive. Expanding Durkheim's theory of the totem taboo as the organizing principle of enduring groups, Carolyn Marvin and David Ingle uncover the system of sacrifice and regeneration which constitutes American nationalism, show why historical instances of these rituals succeed or fail in unifying the nation, and explain how mass media are essential to the process.

Series Statement

Cambridge cultural social studies

Uniform Title

Cambridge cultural social studies.

Subject

• Flags > Social aspects > United States
• Political culture > United States
• Nationalism > United States
• Totemism > United States
• Sacrifice > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 383-389) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

That old flag magic -- Theorizing the flagbody -- The totem myth -- Death touchers and border crossers -- Strategic tinkering: totem memory and succession -- Refreshing the borders -- Dismemberment and reconstruction -- Fresh blood, public meat -- One size fits all -- Appendix 1. The flag in life: representational politics of the stars and stripes -- Appendix 2. Representative coding categories.

ISBN

• 0521623456
• 0521626099 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^97025640^

OCLC

• 37310700
• SCSB-9907303

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library