Maurice Bloch's Prey Into Hunter

The importance of initiation for anthropologist seems to be based on the fact that it could be said to be something universal, we all have gone through some sort of initiation at some point in our lives. Usually, these are of religious or social character, like baptism or joining a society. Moreover, initiation is thought to be used as a kind of differentiator, the moment between a ‘before and an ‘after’. For example, for some cultures one is considered as a social person after birth, however, for many other cultures this is not fully achieved unless one goes through certain ritual practices. Therefore, initiation rituals are important since they are related to all cultures and are a fundamental part of the process of transitioning from one stage of life to another.

In his book, Prey into Hunter, Maurice Bloch states his …show more content…
It starts when people from the village emerge from the forest wearing masks made of bird feathers. This is a representation of the spirits of their ancestors. They start to chase the children while shouting them violently to then lead them to a platform were pigs are usually butchered, symbolically emulating a pig hunt were the children are treated as the prey and the ‘spirits’ are the hunters (Bloch, 1992, pp. 8-9). After this, the children are taken to a hut were they are not allowed to do acitvities such as speaking, looking out or eating. During this stage, they experience the revelation of a secret knowledge that they did not have before, and are told that they have become spirits of the death. At the final stage, the initiates return to the village completely transformed (Bloch, 1992, pp. 9-10). Bloch’s conclusion about this is that the children have experienced a transformation from prey into hunter, and he argues that this symbolism of transformation is seem in many other types of rituals such as funerals or sacrifices and that violence has an important role in