The symbolic mechanisms of sacred kingship: Rediscovering Frazer

Frazer was right to claim that kings in Africa were ritually put to death, sometimes as scapegoats for natural disasters (though the correct description of these personages is 'sacred' not 'divine'). Following Frazer's logic, this article views sacred kingship from a new perspective. The king's body is a 'body-fetish', a repository of extraordinary magico-religious power bestowed on him in his installation ritual. This ceremony makes the king a being apart (sometimes even a sacred monster), who articulates the natural and cultural orders. This ritual function is the foundation of the political function of royalty. The symbolic complex surrounding sacred kingship is the kernel of the State, but it appears already in small societies without centralized power. Under its various guises, sacred kingship is thus a phenomenon of great historical importance.