Eva Figes does not pad out her slender book [Tragedy and Social Evolution] with extensive quotations, but this is because she only gives brief references to back up her own statements, some of which are quite astounding. (p. 20)

It must be conceded that the book is easy reading. Ms Figes writes fluently and in the earlier part, where she is reflecting upon some studies she has made in anthropology, particularly in the work of two writers on tribes of cannibals, she makes remarks which are worth considering. She draws attention, for instance, to the undoubted fact that what is called 'the moral order' in a society is really a network of beliefs and superstitions, images and associations: she suggests that the powers and functions of the god or gods in traditionally religious cultures have been taken over, in modern times, by police forces and the other apparatus of...