David Peat

Pausing the Cosmos 195into ritualistic forms such as the exchange of elaborate gifts or a symbolicgame. Likewise, within a small society in which the members sitaround a fire or in a meeting hut and discuss and address the varioustensions as they arise, violence and disruptive behavior can be contained.4Without idealizing early and indigenous cultures, it appears thatin the main they were relatively peaceful and offered no major threatto each other or to the surrounding environment. The conclusion Idraw is that, left to themselves, our animal drives and instincts are notthat harmful or destructive, and human reason is quite able to dealwith them. Reasonable people can postpone immediate gratificationin order to reach more important goals. They are driven more by thedesire to help and cooperate than to compete in destructive ways.It is not so much our underlying drives and instincts that are creatingproblems in the world as our higher functions—reason, imagination,memory, and so on. Higher functions enable us to build uppictures in the mind, to engage in fantasies, and to revisit memoriesand clothe them anew. Our higher functions enable us to abstract aspectsof the world and treat them almost as objects or models. Just aswe can build a toy car or train and turn it around in our hand to examineeach aspect, so too we can create an idea, a concept, or an image inour minds and manipulate it like an object. We can also externalize theobjects of our thought, projecting them outward onto others.4The Cassowary Cult of the Pacific Islands is one example whereby rivalry andcompetition became ritualized into the annual giving of Cassowary birds betweengroups. The bird is valuable and so prized that a group must focus all its energiesthroughout the year to obtain these birds, which are then given away as gifts. Theexchange of gifts also establishes a mutual web of obligations, which can cementpotentially rival peoples together.The potlatch of the Pacific Northwest is a further example, in which the head ofa family hosts a great feast and gives away extremely lavish gifts. In part this establishesstatus, in part it can ritualize potentially dangerous rivalry.The Palio (horse race) of Siena originated in medieval times as a competitionbetween the districts or contrade of the city. While it has become something of atourist spectacle, for the Sienese it is very much a living ritual with enormous rivalryoccurring in the days leading up to the race and days of feasting afterwards.