I have been thinking about the sacred and the mystical in Bataille and the connections he makes to sexuality and the erotic. Why the sacred? Is this his pathway into the moral concerns that I noted in an earlier post.

Since I am susceptible to economic explanations of the dynamics of social life, I am wary of Bataille's emphasis on the sacred. So I decided to explore this new terrain--Bataille the anthropologist----a bit. Trevor can pick it up and develop various pathways through this territory, if he so desires.

From what I can make out Bataille's entry into the sacred is through Nietzsche's idea of human beings being shaped by ethical regulation, constraints and codes as a way of making sense of the raw terrifying chaos of life. For Bataille this moral regulation takes the form of the prohibition of murder, burial rites, incest taboo etc. What is prohibited is the excess of violence associated with death and sexuality; so this excess is tamed by festivals and religious sacrifices. These are the normative or ethical foundations of social life.

Why do these norms, prohibitions and codes have such obligatory force? According to Bataille these norms etc are not derived from preserving the system of labour in the market economy, as economists sometimes suggest. Rather, these norms owe their binding force----they say what is forbidden--- to the authority of the sacred, which is connected to, and constrains, the irruptive forces of terror and desire.