The Current State of Hunter-Gatherer Studies

EAG: At 64 nobody makes me swear any oaths. Well, I did swear an oath at this college. I did actually cause change in the King's ritual, because the tradition was up to then that when you swore an oath as a newly elected fellow of King's you knelt before the provost whilst he took your hands in his. And before the ceremony I was dining out on this-"I never thought I'd kneel to a linguistic philosopher"-and this reached Bernard Williams, and he said-I don't know what words he used, but he said, more or less-"I'm damned if I'm going to have this man poking fun at me," and so kneeling was ruled out. And I tried to insist on kneeling. I said, "I'm entitled to continue a ritual," and he said, more or less, "You've lost out; I'm provost, and I'm saying you're not going to kneel, and that's it." So I wasn't allowed to kneel, and since me the kneeling by new fellows of King's to the provost has been abolished.