Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-318) and indexes

Part I: Introduction -- Part II: Sacrificed wife/sacrificer's wife: the myth of Manu's cups -- Part III: The wife in ritual -- A. The wife and other ritual actors -- B. Situating the wife in ritual -- C. Sexuality and fertility-symbolic representations -- D. Sexuality and fertility-the asvnamedha -- E. Sexuality and fertility-"negative" representations -- F. Hospitality and exchange relations: the soma sacrifice -- Part IV: The anxieties of hospitality -- A. Introduction-oghavati and ahalya -- B. Hospitality and hostly perils -- C. Manu's cups revisited I: the cow, the wife and the power of the guest -- D. Manu's cups revisited II: the vocabulary of hospitality -- E. Exploited guests and reluctant receivers -- Part V: Women and marriage -- A. Marriage and exchange -- B. Marriage by capture -- C. Maidenly self-determination -- Part IV: Finale