Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“The originary event involves an exchange between center and periphery. This is an asymmetrical exchange, recognition and obedience from the periphery and existence, protection, even creation, from the center. This exchange is materialized in ritual, as a portion of the meal that the center has provided for us and enabled us to share, is returned to the center. This ritual involves a broader set of relationships and obligations between the being at the center and the community, extending throughout the world of animals, plants, celestial bodies, rivers and mountains, etc. Genealogies and modes of kinship are first of organized around these obligations, and hence around ritual. Language would be infused from the beginning with the vocabulary and syntax drawn from these relationships, as dramas enacted at the periphery enrich the scene at the center, which becomes, even prior to its usurpation by the Big Man, a council of governance. There could be no way of speaking about how and why things happen, how and why people do things, who we all are, without wrapping it up in these meta-worlds populated by meta-persons.”

— Adam Katz, The Scene is the Same · Jul 03, 2023 · Bouvard Substack