什麼是神聖親緣

一種宗教－政治概念，視統治者為神靈之化身、顯靈、調解者或代表。在某些沒有文字的社會，成員認為他們的統治者或首領承繼著社群本身的神奇力量。統治者可能會出於惡意或善意而行使這個力量，但他通常是負責影響天氣和土地的生產力，以確保生存所需的豐收。在其他社會中，特別是古代中國、中東、南美等社會，統治者被認為跟某個神明有關，或本身就是神；在日本、祕魯（印加﹝Incas﹞）、美索不達米亞（Mesopotamia）以及希臘羅馬世界，統治者被看作是某個神的兒子。上述兩類例子裡，統治者保護社群免於敵人侵擾，照料他的子民並賜給他們溫飽。神聖親緣的第三種形式存在於歐洲，其中統治者是某個神明的調解者或執行代表。在這種形式裡，具有神聖性的主要是代表親緣的機構，而非單一一個統治者。

divine kingship

Religio-political concept that views a ruler as an incarnation, manifestation, mediator, or agent of the sacred. In some nonliterate societies, members view their rulers or chiefs as inheritors of the community's own magical power. The ruler may exercise this power either malevolently or benevolently, but is usually responsible for influencing the weather and the land's fertility to ensure the harvest necessary for survival. In other societies, particularly those of ancient China, the Middle East, and South America, the ruler was identified with a particular god or as a god himself; in Japan, Peru (Incas), Mesopotamia, and the Greco-Roman world, the ruler was regarded as the son of a god. In both these cases, the ruler protected the community from enemies and generally fed and cared for his flock. A third form of divine kingship, one practiced in Europe, is that of the ruler as mediator or executive agent of a god. In this form it is the institution of kingship, more than an individual ruler, that bears the mark of the sacred.