a continuing state of conflict between two groups within a society (typically kinship groups) characterized by violence, usually killings and counterkillings. It exists in many nonliterate communities in which there is an absence of law or a breakdown of legal procedures and in which attempts to redress a grievance in a way that is acceptable to both parties have failed.

The feud is usually initiated to secure revenge, reprisal, or honour for a member of the injured group. The hostile groups are related in some way, such as being members of the same political or cultural unit. Within each group there is a strong sense of collective solidarity that protects individual members against injury by outsiders. Members of any other such group are held collectively responsible for any injury suffered at the hands of the members of that group. If, however, both parties accept as “due process” a counterkilling in response to an original homicide, a feud will not result.

Most nonliterate societies have institutions that forestall blood feud or bring it to a close. Even though many peoples, such as the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia and the Nuer of the Sudan, profess that honour demands revenge, payment of compensation is more common than reciprocal killing (see blood money). Regulated combat was frequently used by the Australian Aborigines as a substitute for blood feud. The establishment of a strong centralized political authority generally results in the suppression of blood feud.