Rituals, territories and powers in the Sino-Indian margins

International audienceTaking Paul Mus’s idea of a “cadastral religion” as part of the socio-religious organisationof the “Asian base” further, we propose approaching rituals linked to the territorialprosperity of groups living on the margins of state power in the Chinese and Indian worldsin a comparative way. These rituals are organised around the recurring schema of a forceof place, both natural and wild, which was pacified by a founding ancestor who, along withhis descendants, became the sacrificers representing the entire community—a schemathe details and variations of which we have analysed. By legitimising the occupation of aspace by one group and promoting its fertility, these rituals are where many interlockingstakes are crystallised. These involve the sources of subsistence and the legitimacy tooccupy a territory and also membership and power-play forms, both within the group andin its relations with its neighbours and the umbrella power centres