Rwandan notions of reciprocity and flow are integral features of Rwandan Cosmology that shape the ways in which Rwandans think of themselves and others and consequently influence the ways in which violence is enacted. Taylor (1999) argues that Rwandan conceptualizations of the body are founded principally on fluid metaphors of flow and blockage. He argues that these metaphors, while not explicitly verbalized, take on what Bourdieu (1990, p. 67) calls a “goes without saying’ quality.” Rwandan actors embody and internalise this knowledge and it forms the structures of thought that influence how the moral person is constructed in Rwanda, and therefore constitutes their way of being and interacting with others. In Rwandan cosmology the body is thought of as an open conduit, the importance of flow is evident in many rituals that are based around the person being able to properly embody, what Taylor (1999, p. 114) describes as “the physical attributes that analogically evoke the capacity to reciprocate.” He claims that this entails “the capacity to ingest and the capacity to excrete, or, in socio-moral terms, the capacity to receive and the capacity to give.” If a person is unable to evoke these capacities, then they are seen as blocked or obstructed beings.
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