René Girard-The Scapegoat-The Johns Hopkins University Press (1989).pdf

8/17/2019 René Girard-The Scapegoat-The Johns Hopkins University Press (1989).pdf

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ALSO B REN IRARD

Deit, Desire, and the Novel

Critique ns un sou teain

Violen and the Sacr

Des Choses chs uis la Jontion du monde

"To Double Business Bound: Essays on Literature, Mimesis, an d Anthropolog

La Route antique s hommes pervers

REN GRARD

alat b Y VON N R C C R

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THI S BO OK HAS BEEN BROUG HT TO PUBCATION WI TH THE

GENEROUS ASSI S T ANCE OF THE ANDREWW M EL ON FOUNDA TON

© 6 The Johns Hopkins University Pssll rights eedPrinted in the United St of Aeri

Originaly published as Bo issaire by Be Gmsset, Paris

© Editions Gmsset & Fasquell 2The Johns Hopkins University Ps7 Wt t StetBaltior Maryland 22

8 The paper used in this publication eets the mnu quientsof Aerican National Snda for Inforation Scienc-Peranenceof Paper for Printed Libmry Materials, ANSI Z3 �

I BR ARYOFCONGRESS CA T AO GNG·INPUBC ATION DAT A

G, en 192- The aa

Tsation o I uc ncud biblophi refec and d1 Violence ious asts saity

2 Persuon Sa 4 J itPaso TitBT6l G61 1986 261 8' 862699SBN 080181·9 ( pr)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER T HR EE

CHAPTER FO UR

CHAPTER FVE

CHAPTER SX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER E G HT

CHAPTER N NE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER E EVEN

CHAPTER TWE VE

CHAPTER TH R TEEN

CHAPTER FO UR TEEN

CHAPTER FF TEEN

Contents

Guillaume de Machaut and the Jews 1

Stereotypes of Persecution 12

What Is a Myth? 24

Vioence and Magic 45

Teotihuacan 57

Ases, Curetes, and Titans 66

The Crimes of the Gods 76

The Science of Myths 95

The Key Words of the Gospel Passion 100

That Only One Man Should Die 112

The Beheading ofSaint John the Baptist 125

Peter's Denial 149

The Demons of Gerasa 165

Satan Divided against Himself 184

History and the Parac1ete 198

ndex 213


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.,

,:�; i:

C AR N

uilaume de Machautand the Jews

GUILLAUME DE ACHAUT was a French poet o the midourteenthcentury His Judgment of the King of Navae deserves to be betterknown The main part o the work is a ong poem in the conventiona,courty sye, but its opening is striking Guiaume caims that he par-

ticipated in a conusing series o catastrophic events beore he naycoseted himse in his house in terror to await death or the end o theindescribabe ordeaSome o the events he describes are totay impb-abe, others ony partiay so Yet the account eaves the impression thatsomething must actuay have happened

There are signs in the sky Peope are knocked down by a rain ostones Entire cities are destroyed by ightning Men die in greatnumbers in the city where Guiaume ives (he doesnt te us its name)Some o these deaths are the resut o the wickedness o the Jews andheir Christian accompices How did these peope cause such hugeosses among the oca popuation? They poisoned the rivers that

rovided the drinking water Heavensent justice righted these wrongsby making the evidoers known to the popuation, who massacred thema Peope continued to die in ever greater numbers, however, unti oneday in spring when Guiaume heard music in the street and men and

women aughing A was over, and courty poetry coud begin againModern criticism, since its origin in the sixteenth and seventeenth

ent uries, has not reied bindy on tts Many schoars today beieveheir critica insight deveops in roportion to increasing skepticismts that were ormery thought to contain rea inormation are nowsusect because they have been constanty reinterreted by successive

genetions o historians On the oher hand, eistemoogists and


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4 THE SCAPEGOAT

very end. At the climactic moment he solemnly introdces the Greek word epdimie which was uncommon at the time.The word obviouslydoes not function in his text in the same way as it would in ours; it is notreally a synonym for the dreaded word but rather a sort of euphemism,a new way of not calling the plague by its name. It is in fact a new butpurely linguistic scapegoat Guillaume tells us it was never possible todetermine the nature and the cause of the disease from which so many

people died in such a short time: Nor was there any physician or doctor who really knew the cause o r origin, or

wha it was (nor was there any remedy), yet this malady was so great that it was

called an epidemic.

On this score Guillaume prefers to refer to public opinion ratherthan to think for himself. The word epdimie in the fourteenth centuryhad a certain scientic avor which helped to ward o anxiety, some-

what like the vapors of the fumigation carried out at street corners toreduce the waves of pestilence A disease with a name seems on the wayto a cure, so uncontrollable phenomena are frequently renamed to create

the impression of control Such verbal orcisms continue to appeal wherever science remains illusory or ineective By the resal to nameit, the plague itself becomes "dedicated to the god This linguisticsacrice is innocent compared with te human sacrices that accompany or precede it, but its essential structure is the same

Even in retrospect, all the real and imaginary collective scapegoats,the Jews and the agellants, the in of stones and the epdimie, con-tinue to play such an eective role in Guillaume's story that he neverperceives in them the single entity that we call the "Black Death' Theauthor continues to see a number of more or less independent disasters,

linked only by their religious signicance, similar in a way to the tenplagues of Egypt.

Almost everything I have said so far is obvious We all understandGuillaume's tt in the same way and my readers have no need of meIt is not useless, however, to insist on this reading, of which the boldnessand forcefulness elude us, precisely because it is accepted by everyoneand is uncontroversial.There has been agreement about it literally forcenturies, all the mor remarkable in that it involves a radical reinterpre-tation.We reect without question the meaning the author gives his textWe declare that he does not know what he is saying. From our several

centuries distance we know better than he and can correct what he has

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT AND THE JEWS 5

written We even believe that we have discovered a truth not seen by the author and, with still greater audacity, do not hestitate to state that he

provides us with this truth even though he does not perceive it himselfWhat is the source of our amazing condence in the statement that

s were really mssacred? An answer comes immediately to mind Weare not reading this text in a vacuum Other texts ist from the sameperiod; they deal with the same subects; some of them are more val-

uable than Guillaume's Their authos are less credulous They providea tight framework of historical knowledge in which Guillaume's text cane placed.Thanks to this contt, we can distinguish true from false inthe passage quoted

It is true that the facts about the antiSemitic persecutions duringthe plague are quite well known.There is an already recognized body ofknowledge that arouses certain expectations in us. Guillaume's text isponding to those pectations.This perspective is not wng from theoint of view of our individual experience and our immediate contact

with the tt, but it does not justify us from the theoretical point of view.Although the framework of historical knowledge does exist, it con-

ists of documents that are no more reliable than Guillaume's text, forimilar or dierent reasons. And we cannot place Guillaume exactly inthis context because w � lack knowledge of where exactly the events hescribes took place It may have been in Paris or Reims or even anotherity In any case the context is not signicant; even without that infor-ation the modern reader ould end up with the reading I have givene would conclude that there were probably victims who were unustlyasacred He would therefore think the text is false, since it claims thathe victims were guilty, but true insofar as there really were victims Heould, in the end, distinguish the truth from the false exactly as we do.

at gives us this ability? Would it not be wise to be guided systemati-lly y the principle of discarding the whole basket of apples becauseof the few rotten ones among them? Should we not suspect a certaine of caution or remnant of navet that, given the opportunity, will

. b attacked by overzealous contemporary critics? Sho uld we not admitat all historical knowledge is uncertain and that nothing can e takenfm a tt s uch as ours, not even the reality of a persec ution?

All these questions must be answered categorically in the negativetadout skepticism does not take into account the ral nature of thet her is a particular relationship between the likely and the

ly characteristics of this tt In the beginning the reader cannot


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8 E SCAEGOAT

soution is accurate and perfect because it makes aowance for a thechacteristics found in this type of text. Soidinteectua reasoning isthe basis, rather than humanitarianism or ideoogy This interpretationhas not usurped the amost unanimous agreement granted it For thesocia historian reiabe testimony, rather than the testimony of someone

who shares Guiaume de Machaut's iusions, wi never be as vauabeas the unreiabe testimony of persecutors, or their accompes, whichreveas more because of its unconscious nature The concusive docu-ment beongs to persecutors who are too nave to cover the traces of theircrimes, in contrast to modern persecutors who are too cautious to eavebehind documents that might be used against them

I ca those persecutors nave who are sti convinced that they areright and who are not so mistrustfu as to cover up or censor thendamenta characteristics of their persecution Such characteristicsare either ceary apparent in the text and are directy reveaing or theyremain hidden and revea indirecty.They are a strong stereotypes andthe combination of both types, one obvious and one hidden, provides us with information about the nature of these texts.

WE ARE AL ABE today to recognize the stereotypes of persecution. But what is now common knowedge scarcey existed in the fourteenthcentury.Nave persecutors are unawae of what th ae doing.Their con-science is too good to deceive their readers systematicay, and they present things as they see them. They do not suspect that by writing theiraccounts they are arming posterity against them This is true of the infa-mous "witchhunts of the sixteenth century. It is sti true today in thebackward regions of the word. We are, then, deaing with the common-pace, and my readers may be bored by my insistence on these rst obvi

ous facts The purpose wi soon be seen. One sight dispacement isenough to transform what is taken for granted, in the case of Guiaumede Machaut, into something unusua and even inconceivabe

My readers wi have aready observed that in speaking as I do Icontradict certain principes that numerous critics hod as sacrosanct I�m aways tod one must never do vioence to the tt Faced with Gui-aume de Machaut the choice is cear: one must either do vioence to thett or et the tt forever do vioence to innocent victims. Certain prin-cipes universay hed to be vaid in our day, because they seem to guardagainst the cesses o f certain interpretations, can bring about disas

rus consequences never anicipated by those who, thinking they have

GUILLAUME DE MACAU AND THE JEWS 9

foreseen everything, consider the principes invioabe. veryonebeieves that the rst duty of the critic is to respect the meaning of texts.

Can this principe be sustained in the face of Guiaume de Machaut's

work ?Another contemporary notion suers in the ight of Guiaume de

Machaut's tt, or rather from the unhesitating way we read it, and that

is the casua way in which iterary critics dismiss what they ca the"referent' In current inguistic jargon the referrent is the subject of thett; in our ampe it is the massacre of the Jews, who were seen asresponsibe for the poisoning of Christians. For some twenty years theferent has been considered more or ess inaccessibe It is unimpor-tant� we hear, whether we are capabe or not of reaching it; this naveotion of the referent woud seem ony to hamper the atest study ofttuaity. Now the ony thing that matters is the ambiguous and unreiabe reationships of anguage This perspective is not to berejected whoesae, but in appying it in a schoary way we run the riskthat on rnest Hoeppfner, Guiaume's editor in the venerabe Socitdes anciens textes, wi be seen as the try idea critic of that writer His

introduction does in fact speak of courty poetry, but there is never anymention of the massacre of the Jews during the pague

The passage from Guiaume provides a good exampe of what Ihave caed in Des choses chs depuis a fondation du mon "persecu

_. tion text'4 By that I mean accounts of rea vioence, oen coective,tod from the perspective of the persecutors, and therefore inuenced bycharacteristic distortions. These distortions must be identied andcorrected in ordeo revea the arbitry nature of the vioence that thepersecution text presents as justied

We need not examine at ength the accounts of witch trias to deter-

mine the presence of the same combination of rea and imaginary,hough not gratuitous, detais that we found in the text of Guiaume deachaut Everything is presented as fact, but we do not beieve a of it,or do we beieve that everything is fase Generay we have no di-y in distinguishing fact from ction.Again, the accusations made inias seem ridicuous, even though the witch may consider them truend there may be reason to suspect her confession was not obtained by ure. The accused may we beieve hersef to be a witch, and may

4. Rne irrd Des choses chs s la jonton mon Pris rse 1978)

1: 1 36-62


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10 THE SAEAT

wel have tried to harm her neighbors by magical proceedings We stilldo not consider that she deserves the death sentenceWe do not believethat magic is eectiveWe have no dicuty in accepting that the victimshares her torturers ridicuous belief in the ecacy of witchcraft butthis belief does not aect us; our skepticism is not shaken

uring the trial not a singe voice is raised to reestabish or, rather,to estabish the truthNo one is capable of doing soThis means that not

ony the udges and the witnesses but aso the accused are not in agreement with our interpretation of their own textsThis unanimity fais toinuence us The authors of these documents were there and we werenot We have access to no information that did not come from themAnd yet, several centuries ater, one single historian or even the rstperson to read the text feels he has the right to dispute the sentencepronounced on the witches5

Guiaume de Machaut is reinterpreted in the same extreme way,the same audacity is exercised in overthrowing the text, the sameintelectua operation is in eect with the same certainty, based on thesame type of reasoning The fact that some of the detais are imagineddoes not persuade us to consider the whole text imaginary On thecontrary, the incredibe accusations strengthen rather than diminish thecredibility of the other facts

Once more we encounter what woud seem to be, but is not, a paradoxica relationship between the probable and improbable details thatenter into the text's composition It is in the light of this relationship,not yet articuated but no ess apparent to us, that we wil evauate thequantity and quality of the information that can be drawn from our textIf the document is of a ega nature, the results are usualy as positive oreven more positive than in the case of Guilaume de Machaut It is

unfortunate that most of the accounts were burned with the witchesThe accusations are absurd and the sentence unust, but the texts havebeen edited with the care and carity that generay characterize egaldocumentsOur condence is therefore wel placed There is no suspicion that we secrety sympathize with those who conducted the witch-huntsThe historian who would consider al the detais of a tria equaly

J. Hae Zaubeah Inquisition und Hexnpzss im Mittelalter un die Entstehungr gssen Heerfolgung (MicLipzig: Scietia 9; Delmea, L Pr e Oint,v. 2 cap 2. O e ed f te witccra trial ee Rber Madr, Magistrats et sorciers(Pari PI 968 See al Natale Zem Davi Socety and Culture n EarlyMo Fran

(Stafrd, Calf Stafrd Uverit P 95

IAME DE MAHAT AND THE EWS 11

ntastic, on the excuse that some of them are tainted by the distortionsof the persecutors, is no expert, and his coleagues woud not take himseriousyThe most eective criticism does not consist in reecting eventhe believable data on the ground that it is better to sin by cess ratherhan lack of distrust Once again the principe of unlimited mistrustmust give way to the goden rule of persecution tts: the mind of apersecutor creates a cerain type of iusion and the traces of his ilusion

onrm rather than invalidate the existence of a certain kind of event,he persecution itself in which the witch is put to death To distinguishhe true from the false is a simpe matter, since each bears the clear mark

of a stereotypeIn order to understand the reasons behind this tordinary assur-

ance evidenced in persecution texts, we must enumerate and describethe stereotypes This is also not a dicult task It is merely a questionof articuating an understanding we already possessWe are not aware ofits scope because we never examine it in a systematic fashion The understanding in question remains captive in the concrete exampes to which we appy it, and these aways belong to the mainly Western istorica domain We have never yet tried to appy this understandingbeyond that domain, for exampe to the socaled ethnoogical universeTo make this possible I am now going to sketch, in summary fashion, aypology of the stereotypes of persecution


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14 THE SCAPEGOAT STEREOTYPES OF PERSECUTION 15


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14 THE SCAPEGOAT

the predominance of the same. Thus, paradoxicaly, it is both conictualand solipsistic.This lack of dierentiation corresponds to the reality ofhuman relations, yet it remains mythicIn our own time we have had asimiar experience which has become absolute because it is projected onthe whoe universe. The text quoted above highlights this process ofcreating uniformity through reciprocity: "Those who were buryingothers yesterday are themseves buried today No pity is shown tofriends since every sign of pity is dangerous ..chidren are suddenlyseparated from their parents, wives from husbands, brother and friendsfrom each other' The similarity of behavior creates consion and a universal lack of dierence "Peope regardless of position or weath aredrowning in mortal sadness ...Everything is reduced to an extremeconfusion

The perience of great social crisis is scarcely aected by the diver-sity of their true causes. The result is great uniformity in the descriptions that relate to the uniformity itself Guiaume de Machaut is noexception. He sees in the egotistica withdwa into the sef and in theseries or reprisas that resultthe paradox of reciproca consequencesone of the main causes of the plague.We can then speak of a stereotype\f crisis which is to be recognized, logicaly and chronoogicay, as therst stereotype of persecution. Culture is somehow eclipsed as it be-comes less dierentiated Once this is understood it is easier to understand the coherence of the process of persecution and the sort of logicthat inks al the stereotypes of which it is composed.

Men fee poweress when confronted with the ecipse of cuture;they are disconcerted by the immensity of the disaster but never lookinto the natura causes; the concept that they might aect those causes

by learning more about them remains embryonic.Since cultural eclipse

is above a a socia crisis, there is a stong tendency to pain it bysocia and, especialy, mora causes. After al, human reations disinte-grate in the process and the subjects of those relations cannot be utterlyinnocent of this phenomenon But, rather than blame themseves,peope inevitaby bame either society as a whoe, which costs themnothing, or other people who seem particuarly harml for easilyidentiable reasonsThe suspects are accused of a particular category ofcrimes.

Certain accusations are so characteristic of collective persecutionthat their very mention makes modern observers suspect violence in the

STEREOTYPES OF PERSECUTION 15

air They look everywhere for other likely indicationsother stereo-types of persecutionto conrm their suspicion.At rst sight the accu-sations seem fairly diverse but their unity is easy to nd. First there areviolent crimes which choose as object those people whom it is mostcriminal to attack, either in the absoute sense or in reference to the indi-vidual committing the act: a king, a father, the symbol of supremeauthority, and in biblical and modern societies the weakest and mostefenseless, especially young chidren Then there are sual crimes:pe, incest, bestiaity.The ones most frequently invoked transgress theboos that are considered the strictest in the society in question.Finalythere are religious crimes, such as profanation of the host. Here, to itis the strictest taboos that are transgressed.

Al these crimes seem to be fundamenta.They attack the very foundation of cultura order, the family and the hierarchica dierences with-out which there woud be no social order. n the sphere of individuaaction they correspond to the gobal consequences of an epidemic of theplague or of any comparabe disaster.It is not enough for the social bondto be loosened; it must be totally destroyed

f Ultimatey, the p rs cutorsJ!lwas convince themselves that a smalDumber of p op , or�asing

individu�i, despite his relative weak -_, . " . _ ,

ess, isxtr m�ly

harmfu to the whole of societ. The stereotypicaon

usf s and faciitates this beief by ostensiby acting the roleof mediator.It bridges the gap between the insignicance of the individ

ual and the enormity of the social bodyIf the wrongdoers, even the dia-olical ones, are to succeed in destroying the community's distinctions,hey must either attack the community directy, by striking at its heart

r head, or else they must begin the destruction of dierence within heir own sphere by committing contagious crimes such as parricide

d incesWe need not take time to consider the utimate causes of this belief,uch as the unconscious desires described by psychoanalysts, or therxist concept of the secret will to oppressThere is no need to go that·r Our concern is more elementary; we are only interested in the mech-ism of the accusation and in the interaction between reprseation ,Vd acts of persecution. They comprise a system, and, if knowedge o�e cause is necessary to the undersanding of the system, then the most mediate and obvious causes wil suce.The terror inspid in peopeb the eclipse of culture and the universal consion of popular upris

16 H E C A P E G OA E E O Y P E O P E E C U ON 17


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16 H E C A P E G OA

ngs e sgns of commnt tt s ltell ndeentted, depedof ll tt dstngses one peson fom note n tme nd spce As eslt ll e ell dsodeed n te sme plce nd t te sme te

Te cowd tends towd pesecton snce te ntl cses ofwt tobles t nd tnsfoms t nto turba cnnot nteest t Tecowd b denton seeks cton bt cnnot ect ntl cses Itteefoe looks fo n ccessble cse tt wll ppese ts ppette fo

[ olence Tose wo mke p te cowd e lws potentl pesec-tos, fo te dem of pgng te commnt of te mpe elementstt copt t, te ttos wo ndemne t Te cwd's ct of be com-ng cowd s te sme s te obsce cll to ssemble o moblze, note wods to become mob. Actll ts tem comes fom mobil,wc s s dstnct

o t

hwod crod s te tn turba s fomvulgus. Te wod mobilization emnds s of mlt opeton,gnst n led dented enem o one soon to be dented b temoblzton of te cowd

All te steeotpes of ccston wee mde gnst te Jews ndote scpegots dng te plge Bt Gllme de Mct doesnot menton tem As we e seen, e ccses te ews of posonngte es He dsmsses te most mpobble ccstons, nd s el-te modeton cn peps be explned b te fct tt e s n"ntellectl Hs modeton m lso e moe genel sgncncelnked to ntellectl deelopment t te end of te Mddle Ages

Dng ts peod belefn occlt foces dmnsed te we sllsk w Te sec fo people to blme contnes bt t demnds moetonl cmes t looks fo mtel, moe sbstntl cse Tsseems to me to be te eson fo te feent efeences to poison. Tepesectos mgned sc enomos concenttons of poson tt

een e smll nttes wold sce to nnlte ente popl-tons Hencefo te clel lgtwegt lt of mgc s cse s

J{ wegted down b mtelt nd teefoe "scentc logc Cems-t tkes oe fom pel demonc nenceTe obecte emns te sme, owee Te ccston of

posonng mkes t possble to l te esponsblt fo el dsstes onpeople wose cttes e not been ell poen to be cmnlTnks o poson, t s possble to be pesded tt smll gop, oeen sngle nddl, cn m te wole socet wtot bengdscoeed Ts poson s bot less mcl nd st s mcl s

E E O Y P E O P E E C U ON 17

pos ccstons o een te odn "el ee wc s sed tottbte lmost n el to lmost n peson We sold teefoeecognze n te posonng of dnkng wte ton of steeotp-cl ccston Te fct tt tese ccstons e ll xtposed n tetc tls s poof tt te ll espond to te sme need Te sspectselws concted of noctnl ptcpton n te fmos sabbat. Nolb s possble snce te pscl pesence of te ccsed s not neces-

s to estbls poof Ptcpton n cmnl ssembles cn bepel sptlTe cmes nd te pepton wt wc te sbbt s

ssocted e welt of socl epecssons Among tem cn bend te bomntons tdtonll ttbted to te Jews n Cstn

contes, nd efo tem to § te mn Em Te lws nclde tl nfntcde, elgos pofnton, ncests eltonsps, nd bestlt Food posonng s well s oensesgnst nentl o p sts ctzens lws pl sgncnt oleCons q nlY dpt

e pesol ncnce, wtc s engged ncttes tt cn potentll ect te wole of socet Ts explns te del nd s demons e not dsdnfl of sc n llnce Ill s no moe bot steeotpcl ccstons It s es to ecognzete css csed b te lck of deentton s te second steeotped ts lnk to te st

tn now to te td steeotpe Te cowds coce of ctms be totll ndom bt t s not necessl so t s een possble tte cmes of wc te e ccsed e el, bt tt sometmes teesectos coose te ctms becse te belong to clss tt scll ssceptble to pesecton te tn becse of te cmese e commtted Te Jews e mong tose ccsed b Gllme

e Mct of posonng te es Of ll te ndctons e ges ss s fo s te most lble, te one tt most eels te dstoonf pesecton Wtn te contt of ote mgn nd el steeo- we know tt ts steeotpe mst be el In fct, n modenesten socet Jews e feentl been pesected

Etnc nd elgos mnotes tend to polze te motesnst tems s we see o of te cte b wc ctms selected, wc, tog elte to te nddl socet, s tnscl-l n pncple Tee e e few socetes tt do not sbect te notes, ll te pool ntegted o meel dstnct gops, to cetn


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2 S C A P G O A S R O Y P S O F P R S C I O N 21


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broad contours are easiy outined. It is one thing to recognize the exist-ence of this pattern, another to establish its relevance. In some cases thisis dicut to determine, but the proof am looking for is not aected bysuch diculty. If a stereotype of persecution cannot be clearly recognized in a particular detai of a specic event, the solution does not restony with this particuar detai in an isoated context We must determine whether or not the other stereotypes are present along with the de-tai in question

Let us look at two examples Most historians consider that theFrench monarchy bears some responsibility for the revoution in 789.Does Marie Antoinette's ecution therefore lie outside our pattern?The queen belongs to severa famiiar categories of victims of persecu-tion; she is not only a queen but a foreigner Her Austrian origin is men-tioned repeatedly in the popuar accusations against her. The court thatcondemns her is heavily inuenced by the Paris mob Our rst stereo-type can aso be found; al the characteristics of the great crisis that pro

voke colective persecution are discernible in the French Revoution Tobe sure historians are not in the habit of dealing with the detais of the

French Revolution as stereotypes of the one genera pattern of persecu-tion. I do not suggest that we shoud substitute this way of thinking ina our ideas about the French Revoution Nonetheess it sheds interesting ight on an accusation which is often passed over but which gurespicitly in the queen's trial, that of having committed incest with herson.2

Let's ook at another exampe of a condemned person, someone whohas actualy committed the deed that brings down on him the crowds vioence: a black male who actually rapes a white female The colective violence is no onger arbitrary in the most obvious sense of the term. It

is actually sanctioning the deed it purports to sanction. Under such circumstances the distortions of persecution might be supposed to play noroe and the existence of the stereotypes of persecution might no ongerbear the signicance I give i t. Actualy, these distortions of persecutionare present and are not incompatibe with the iteral truth of the accusa-tion The persecutors' portrayal of the situation is irrational. It invertsthe reationship between the globa situation and the individua trans

2 a ate to eanaude Gulebaud fo dawng y atenon to his asaonof nt

S R O Y P S O F P R S C I O N 21

ssion. If there is a causal or motivationa ink between the tw o levels,it can only move from the coective to the individual. The persecutorsmentaity moves in the reverse direction. Instead of seeing in the microosm a reection or imitation of the globa level, it seeks in the individ-ual the origin and cause of all that is harmful The responsibility of theictims suers the same fantastic exaggeratin whether it is real or not.s far as we are concerned there is very litte dierence between Marientoinettes situation and that of the persecuted black mae.

W E HAVE SEEN the close reationship that e xists between the rst two

tereotypes. In or der to bame v ictims for the loss of distinctio" n� sult-from the crisis, the are accuse of crimes that eliminate distinc-

.ti

�

'

"

S. But in actuaity th� ar e identied as victims for'pon us e they bear the signs of victims. W hat is the relations hip of the

hird type to the r st two stereotypes? At r st sight the signs of a victim

purey dierentia. But cultura signs are equaly so. There must herefore be two ways of being dierent, two types of dierences.

No culture ists within which everyone does not feel dierentrom others and does not consider such "dierences legitimate andecessary. Far from being radical and progressive, the current goricaion of dierence is merely the abstract expression of an outlookommon to al cutures. There exists in every individua a tendency to

ink of himsef not only as dierent from others but as extremely diernt, because every cuture entertains this feeling of dierence among thed viduas who compose it

The signs that indicate a victims selection result not from theerence within the system but from the dierence outside the system,e potential for the system to dier from its own dierence, in other

' ords not to be dierent at all, to cease to exist as a sys tem T his is easiy en in the case of physical disabiities. The human body is a system ofatomic dierences. If a disability, even as the resut of an accident, is

turbing, it is because it gives the impression of a disturbing dyna m It seems to threaten the very system Eorts o limit it are unsuc

s; it disturbs the dierences that suround it These in turnome monstrous, rush together, are compressed and bended together the point of destruction Dierence that exists outside the system isr iying because it reveas the truth of the system, its relativity, its iity, and its mortaity

22 T H E S C A P E G O A T S E R E O T Y P E S O F P E S E C O 23


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The arious kinds of icims seem predisposed o crimes ha eimi-nae dierences. Religious, ehnic, or naional minoriies are neer acualy reproached for heir dierence, bu for no being as dieren asexpeced and in he end for no diering a all. Foreigners are incapabeof respecing real dierences; hey are acking in culure or in ase, ashe case may be. They hae diculy in perceiing exacly wha isdieren. The barbaros is no he person who speaks a dieren languagebu he person who mixes he only ruly signican disincions, hoseof he Greek language. In all he ocabuary of ribal or naionalprejudices hared is pressed, no for dierence, bu for is absence. Iis no he oher nomos ha is seen in he oher, bu anomay, nor is ianoher norm bu abnormaliy; he disabled becomes deformed; heforeigner becomes he apatrid. I is no good o be a cosmopolian inRussia. Aliens imiae all he dierences because hey hae none. Themechanisms of our ancesors are reproduced unconsciousy, from gener-aion o generaion, and, i is imporan o recognize, oen a a less ehaleel han in he pas. For insance oday aniAmericanism preends odier from preious prejudices because i espouses all dierences and

rejecs he uniquely American irus of uniformiy.We hear eerywhere ha dierence is persecued. This is he

faorie saemen of conemporary pluralism, and i can be somewhamiseading in he presen conex.

Een in he mos cosed cuures men beiee hey are free and openo he uniersa; heir dierenia characer makes he narowes culural elds seem inexhausibe from wihin. Anything ha compromiseshis iusion erries us and sirs up he immemorial endency o perse-cuion. This endency always akes he same direcion, i is embodied bye same sereoypes and always responds o he same hrea. espie

( wha is said around us persecuors are neer obsessed by dierence bu raher by is unuerable conrary, he lack of dierence.

Sereoypes of persecuion canno be dissociaed, and remarkabymos anguages do no dissociae hem. This is rue ofain and Greek,for example, and hus of French or English, which forces us consanlyin our sudy of sereoypes o urn o words ha are reaed: crisis, crim,critria, critiqu, all share a common roo in he Greek erb krino, whichmeans no only o judge, disinguish, diereniae, bu also o accuseand condemn a icim. Too much reiance should no be paced on ey-moogy, nor do I reason from ha basis. Bu he phenomenon is so

onstan i deseres o be menioned. I impies an as ye concealed rea-onship beween colecie persecuions and he cuure as a whoe If h a relaionship exiss, i has neer been expained by any linguis,iosopher, or poliician.

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A T E R T R E E

Wht Is Myth?

EH TIE N or or wrien esmen menions n c of ioence is direc or indirec coecie we uesion weer i incudes edescripion of soci nd cuur crisis, is, generized oss ofdierences (e rs sereope, crimes "eimine dierences (esecond sereope, nd weer e idenied uors of ese crimespossess e mrks sugges icim, e prdoxic mrks of e b-sence of dierence (e ird sereope. Te four sereope is io-ence isef, wic wi be discussed er.

r Te juxposiion of more n one sereope wiin singe docu-men indices persecuion. No e sereopes mus be presen:ree re enoug nd ofen een wo. Teir exisence coninces us () e cs of ioence re re () e crisis is re 3) e icims recosen no for e crimes e re ccused of bu for e icim's signs e ber, for eering suggess eir gui reionsip wie crisis nd (4) e impor of e operion is o e responsibiifor e crisis on e icims nd o exer n inuence on i b desroingese icims or es b bnising em from e communi e"pou

If is pern is uniers i soud be found in iru soci-eies. Hisorins do in fc nd i in e socieies incuded in eirsudies wic od embrce e enire pne, bu preious wereconned o Wesern socie ni

i£

o e omnEi. And e enoogiss e neer come o recognize is prnof persecuion in e socieies e sud. W is Two nswers repossibe "Enoogic socieies re so ie gien o persecuion

e pe of nsis ppied o Guiume de cu is no ppicbe

o em. Conemporr neoprimiiism wic ends owrd is souion pces e superior umni of oer cuures in opposiion oe inumni of our socie. Bu no one dres rgue persecuionis o exis in nonWesern socieies. Te second possibe nswer is rs ecuion exiss bu we do no recognize i, eier becuse we re no possession of e necessr documens, or bus do not kno hot dciphr th documnts do possss

I consider e second of ese wo poeses o be e correc one.ic, riuisic socieies re no exemp from persecuion. We pos-ss documens ow us o proe is e conin e sereopesf persecuion I e nmed, e emerge from e sme o prn s e remen of e Jews in Guiume de Mcu. If our ogic consisen we soud pp e sme pe of inerpreion o em.ese documens re ms.

To mke m sk esier I s begin wi m is exempr. conins e sereopes of persecuion nd noing ese, nd ionins em in sring form. I is Sopoces' ccoun of e mfOedipus in Oipus Rx. I s en urn o ms reproduce e ern of persecuion bu in form is rder o deciper. Fin, s urn o ms rejec is pern bu do so in suc n obious!> s o conrm is reence. B proceeding from es o more

cu I inend o sow ms mus e eir roos in re csfioence gins re icims

I begin wi e edipus. Te pgue is rging Tebes:hee we e e rs sereope of persecuion. Oedipus is responsibecuse e s kied is fer nd mrried is moer ere is econd sereope. Te orce decres , in order o end e epimic, e bominbe crimin mus be bnised. Te ni of

rsecuion is expici. Prricide nd inces sere open s e inerediries beween e indiidu nd e coecie ese crimes re so iious of dierences eir inuence is congious o e woe

cie. In Sopoces' we esbis o ck dierence is o be_ uesricken.

Te ird sereope s o do wi e signs of icim. Te rs !bii: Oedipus imps. Tis ero from noer counr rried in

known o none, srnger in fc ifno in rig. Fin, e_ e son of e king nd king imse e egiime eir of ius.L mn oer mic ccers, Oedipus mnges o combine e

gini of e ousider wi e mrgini of e insider. ike

T H E s e A P E G 0 A WHA A MYH? 7


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Ulysses at the end of the Odyss he is sometimes a stranger and a beggarand sometimes an allowerful monarh

The only detail without an equivalent in historial erseutions isthe exosed infant But the whole world agrees that an exosed infant isa vitim at an early stage hosen beause of the signs of abnormality

whih augur bady for his future and whih evidently are the same asthe signs that indiate the seletion of a vitim mentioned above Thefatal destiny determined for the exosed hild is to be exeled by his

ommunity His esae is only ever temorary his destiny is at the bestdeferred and the onlusion of the myth onrms the infalibility of thesigns of the orale that dediate him from eariest infany to olletive

violener The more signs of a vitim an individual bears the more likey heL is to attrat disaster Oedius's inrmity his ast history of exosure as

an infant his situation as a foreigner newomer and king all make hima veritable onglomerate of vitim's signs We would not fai to observethis if the myth were a histent and we woud wonder at themeaning of all these signs together with other stereotyes of erseu

tion There woud be no doubt about the answer We woud ertainly seein the myth what we see in Guiaume de Mahaut's text an aount oferseution tod from the ersetive of nave erseutors The erseutors ortray their vitim exatly as they see him as the guityerson but they hide none of the objetive traes of their erseutionWe onlude that there must be a rea vitim behind the text hosen notby virtue of the stereotyia rimes of whih he is aused rimes

whih never sread the lague but beause of all the harateristis ofa vitim seied in that text whih are most ikely to rojet on him thearanoia susiion of a rowd tormented by the lague

In the myth as in Guilaume and in the withraft trias the ausations are truy mythologil: arriide inest the mora or hysialoisoning of the ommunity These ausations are harateristi of the

way in whih frenzied rowds oneive of their vitims But these sameausations are juxtaosed with riteria for the seetion of a vitim

whih may wel be rea How an we not beieve that a real vitim liesbehind a text whih resents him in this way and whih makes us seehim on the one hand as the erseutors genely see him and on theother hand as he shoud reay be to be hosen by rea erseutors Foreven greater ertainty his banishment is said to take lae in a time ofextreme risis whih favors rea erseution Al the onditions are res

ent that wil automatialy romt the modern reader as we havedes ribed above for historil texts to reah the same interretation we would make of texts written from the ersetive of erseutors W hydo we hesitate in the ase of myths?

ust as in medieval erseutions stereotyial erseutors areaw ays found in myths and are statistially too revalent to ignore Theyths are too numerous for us to be abe to attribute the reetition of themodel to anything but real erseutions Any other onusion woudbe as absurd as to think that Guillaume de Mahaut's aount of theews was ure tion As soon as we are onfonted with a text that isereived to be historia we know that ony the behavior of a erseutor seen through a erseutor's mind an generate the olletion oftereotyes we nd in many myths Perseutors believe they hoosetheir vitims beause of the rimes they attribute to them whih makehem in their eyes resonsible for the disasters to whih they reat byperseution Atualy the vitims are determined by the riteria ofperseution that are faithfully reorted to us not beause they want tonform us but beause they are unaware of what they revea

In the ase of a text written by the erseutors the only elements of that shoud be beieved are those that orresond () to the rea ir umstanes of the texts oming into being () to the harateristi traits

f its usua vitims and 3) to the results that normaly folow oetive

ioene If these authors desribe not merely arriide and inest as theause of agues but also everything that goes with this tye of belief in e a word and al the resuting sorts of behavior then they are rob by right on all these oints beause they are wrong about the rst one

ese are our four stereotyes of erseutors the same ombination of e ikely and the unlikey that we saw in the historial texts and we an

ot et it to have another signiane than the one stated above Its te arty aurate and artly false ersetive of erseutors who arenined of their own erseutin

This onusion is not the resut of navet Real navet is buried ·der the tremes of sketiism whih is inaable of identifying the

eotyes of erseution and of resorting to the daring yet legitimate ter tation they require The myth of Oedius is not just a iterary t, or a syhoanayti tt but a erseution tt and shoud be interted as suh It wi be obeted that an interretiv e method that wasented in and for history annot be apied to myh I aree but a I

aeshown above

enuine histrial evidene pay no m tan a

8 H C A G O A T W H A A M Y 9


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secodary role i decipherig represetatios o persecutio. I theyhad bee depedet o history they would ever have bee deciphereda process that has oly ust begu i the moder era.

I we cosider that the victims metioed by the witchhuters arereal we do ot usually do so because we have iormatio o them romidepedet ubiased sources. Admittedly we place the tt i aramework o kowledge but that ramework would ot exist i wetreated historical persecutio texts as we treat the myth o Oedipus

As already metioed we do ot kow exactly where the evetsdescribed by Guillaume de Machaut took place; eve i we kew almostothig icludig the istece o the Black Death we would still coclude that such a tt must reect a pheomeo o real persecutio.ust the combiatio o persecutor stereotypes would give suciet idicatio. Why is the situatio dieret i the case o myth?

My hypothesis relies o othig historical i the critics sese. It ispurely "structural as i our iterpretatio o historical represetatioso persecutio. We assert that certai texts are based o a real persecutio because o the ature ad the dispositio o the persecutor stereo

types they porray. Without this origi it is impossible to explai whyad how the same themes keep recurrig i the same patter. I weaccept this thesis the obscurity o the text is immediately dispelled. Thethemes are all easily explaied ad o serious objectio ca be raised.For this reaso we have uhesitatigly accepted the thesis as the origio all the historical tts that ollow the patter o persecutio we havedescribed. As a result we o loger see it as cotroversial but as the puread simple truth o these texts Ad we have good reaso. It remais tod out why such a solutio does ot occur to us i the case o a mythlike that o Oedipus.

That is the real problem. The legthy aalysis I have ust give othe type o iterpretatio that automatically results i the ideticatioo stereotypes o persecutio was ecessary i order to uderstad thatproblem. As log as we are talkig o historical texts the iterpretatiopresets o problem ad there is o eed to detail each step o theprocess. But this attitude is precisely the obstacle to our takig theecessary step backward to reect o our unrstanding o the represetatios o persecutio. We have ot completely mastered that uderstadig because it has ever bee made totally explicit.

verythig I have said about myhology would appear to be obvious

almost too obvious i the case o a "historical documet. I my raders

are ot coviced I shall covice them ow by a very simple example.I a goig to draw a rough sketch o the story o Oedipus; I shall removehis Greek clothig ad substitute Wester garb. I so doig the mythill desced several steps o the social ladder. I will give o details otheplace or the precise date o the evet. The reader s good will will pro de the rest. My tale alls aturally ito some part o the Christiaorld betwee the twelth ad thirteeth ceturies; that is all that iseeded to release like a sprig the operatio that o oe has thought

applyig to a myth as log as we have bee callig it precisely that myth.

Harvests re bd, the cows give birh o ded clves; no one is on good termsth anyone else. It is s if spell hd been cast on the villge Clerly, it is hepple who is the cuse e arrived one ne morning, no one knows fromhere nd mde himself home e even took the liberty of mrrying heost obvious heiress i the villge nd hd two cildren by her All sorts ofings seemed to tke plce in their house The strnger w s suspected of hvingled his wife's former husbnd sor of local potentte who dispperedder mysterious circumstnces and ws rther too quickly replced by he

wcomer. One dy the fellows in the villge hd hd enough; they took theirtforks nd forced he disturbing chrcter to cler out

No ONE I have the slightest hesitatio i this istace. veryoe ill istictively give the explaatio I have metioed. veryoe u

rstads that the victim most certaily did ot do what he was accusedfbut that everythig about him marked him as a outlet or the aoy

• ce ad irritatio o his ellow cities. veryoe will uderstadsily the relatioship betwee the likely ad ulikely elemets i thisle story. No oe will suggest that it is a iocet able; o oe will

it as a casual work o poetic imagiatio or o a wish to portray "theCmntal mechaisms o mas thought

Ad yet othig has chaged. It has the same structure a the myth

ce it is a rough sketch o it. Thus the iterpretatio does ot rest o· heher it is or is ot set i a ramework o historical detail. A chagesettig is eough to redirect the iterpreter to a readig that he idigtly rejects whe the text is preseted i a "true mythological orm.e trasported our story to the Polyesias or America Idias we·uld see the same ceremoious respect that the Helleists had or theek versio o the myh accompaied by the same ostiate reusal have recourse to the most eective iterpr etatio Th latter is


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H A P G O A W H A A M Y H ?


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pled o abounds wih people siken by he plague. As well as heheoes in disgae hee ae hose who ae exepionally beauil andfee of all blemish. This means no ha myhology lieally is meaning-less bu ha i usually deals in exemes and we have aleady noed hahis is a haaeisi of he polaizaion of peseuion.

The whole ange of viim signs an be found in myhs a faunnoied beause we fous on he viim's ehni o eligious minoiy.Tha paiula sign anno appea in he same fom in myhology. We

nd neihe peseued Jews no blaks. Bu hei equivalen an befound in a heme ha plays a enal ole in all pas of he wold haof he forir banished o assassinaed by he ommuniy.

� The viim is a peson who omes fom elsewhee a wellknownsange. He is invied o a feas whih ends wih his lynhing. Why? He

has done somehing he should no have done his behavio is peeivedas faal one of his gesues was misinepeed. Hee again we have onlyo imagine a eal viim a eal sange and everyhing beomes lea.If he snge behaves in a sange o insuling way in he eyes of hishoss i is beause he onfoms o ohe usoms. Beyond a eain

heshold of ehnoenism he sange beomes fo bee o woseuly myhologial. The smalles misundesanding an be disasous.Beneah his myh of an assassinaed sange who is made a god we anae a fom of "povinialism so exeme ha we an no longe idenii us as we no longe an see he sounds and olos of an eleomag-nei wave beyond a eain lengh. Again o bing ou ovephilosophi-al inepeaions down o eah we need only plae hese myhialhemes agains a Wesen ual bakgound. One immediaely gaspshe meaning jus as in he ansposiion of he Oedipus myh a momenago. A lile suiable inelleual gymnasis and espeially a lile less

iy veneaion fo all ha does no belong o he moden Wesen woldand we will quikly lean how o enlage ou eld of eogniion andundesanding in myhology.

A lose examinaion of myhs is no neessary o esablish ha agea numbe of hem onain ou fou seeoypes of peseuion heeae ohes of ouse ha onain only hee wo one o even none. Ido no ovelook hem bu am no ye able o analyze hem suesslly

1 See te tree yts ned n De choes chs u la Joon u mon 1 1440

We ae beginning o see ha he epesenaions of peseuion we havealeady deipheed ae fo us an Aiadne's head o guide us hough helabyinh of myhology. They will enable us o ae he eal oigin inollei ve violene of even he myhs ha onain no seeoypes ofpeseuion. We shall see lae ha insead of gainsaying ou hesis odemanding quesionable feas o mainain i hose myhs ha aeeniely void of seeoypes of peseuion will povide us wih he mosasounding veiaion. Fo he ime being we mus oninue ou analysis of he myhs ha onain ou seeoype bu unde a fom ha is lesseasy o idenify beause i is somewha moe ansgued han in hemedieval peseuions o he myh of Oedipus. This moe exemeansguaion does no eae an insupassable abyss beween myhsand peseuions ha have aleady been deipheed. One wod issuien o dene he ype o whih hey belong: monsous.

Eve sine he omani movemen we have ended o see in hemyhologial monse a rue eaion ex nihilo a pue invenion. Imagi-naion is peeived as an absolue abiliy o oneive of foms ha exisnowhee in naue. Examinaion of myhologial monses eveals no

suh hing. They always onsis of a ombinaion of elemens boowedfom vaious exising foms and bough ogehe in he monse whihhen laim an independen ideniy. Thus he Minoau is a mixue ofman and bull. Dionysus equally bu he god in him ommands moeaenion han he monse o han he mixue of foms.

We mus hink of he monsous as beginning wih he lak ofdieeniaion wih a poess ha hough i has no ee on ealiydoes ae he peepion of i. As he ae of oniual eipoiyaeleaes i no only gives he auae impession ofidenial behavioamong he anagoniss bu i also disinegaes peepion as i beomes

dizzying. Monses ae suely he esul of a fagmenaion of peepionand of a deomposiion followed by a eombinaion ha does no akenaual speiiy ino aoun. A monse is an unsable halluinaionha in eospe rysallizes ino sable foms owing o he fa hai is emembeed in a wold ha has egained sabiliy.

We saw ealie ha he epesenaions of hisoial peseuionsesemble myhology. A nsiion o he monsous is ade in heeme epesenaions we have menioned suh as in he isis ausedby he lak of dieeniaion o in signs like deomiy ha mak aiim fo peseuion. Thee omes a poin a whih physial mon


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8 H E C A P E G OA W H A A M Y H? 9


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n natral ci; thr ar no longr thological or n zoologicalgnr Thy long intad to th qaignr of th imaginary,archty of fal had in an nconcion that i n mormythical than th myth thml Thr wa a tim whn no oncold rad n th ditortion of rction fond in or own hitoryFinally w did larn W can t a dat to thi achimnt t go ackto th ginning of th modrn ra and m to contitt only th rttag in a roc that ha nr rally n intrrtd t ha n

marking tim for cntri ca it lackd a trly fritfl dirctionthat wold trtch ack to mythology

N WE U dic an ntial dimnion of myth that i almotntirly ant from hitorical rction: that of th acrd Mdial and moder�.Rr_ecutor do nQt worh thir ictim, th onhatthm Thy ar thrfor ay to idntify a ictim t i mor dicltto ot th ictim in a rnatral ing who i a clt ojct Admittdly, th glorio adntr of th hro can hardly ditingihdfrom th trotyical crim of collcti ictim Lik tho ictim,

moror, th hro i hntd and n aainatd y hi own olBt th xrt ar in agrmnt that ch annoying incidnt ar notimortant Thy ar mrly minor caad in a carr that i o noland trancndntal it i oor tat to notic thm

Myth xd th acrd and do not m comaral with txt thatdo not No mattr how triking th imilariti mntiond in th rcding ag thy al for thi diimilarity am trying to xlainmyth y dicoring in thm mor xtrm ditortion of rctionthan tho of hitorical rctor a thy rcall thir own rction Th mthod ha n ccfl ntil now inc ha ncord

in myth th ward form of rything that aar qally in rction txt W may wondr whthr w ar miing th ntial Enif on a lowr ll mythology i lnral to my comarati mthod,idalit will ay that at a highr ll it ca throgh th trancndntal dimnion that i yond rach

Thi i not o for th following two raon Bginning with thimilaritiand dirnc twn or two ty of txt, th natr ofth acrd and th ncity of it rnc in myth can litrally ddcd y a iml roc of raoning will go ack to th rction txt and how that, dit aaranc, thy contain trac of thacrd that corrond xactly to what i to xctd, if w wr to

rcogniz, a did arlir, th dgnratd and haldcomod mythin th txt

n ordr to ndrtand that xitnc of th acrd, w mt giny rcognizing a tr lif in what ha calld th troty of accation, th gilt and th aarnt roniility of th ictim Gillam d Machat incrly lid that th rir wr oiond yth w Jan Bodin incrly lid that Franc wa xod todangr y orcry in hi day W do not ha to ymathiz with th

lif y admitting it incrity an Bodin wa an intllignt man and yth lid in orcry Two cntri latr ch a lif mak ol ofn mdiocr intllignc lagh W hat, thn, i th orc of th illion of a Jan Bodin or a Gillam d Machat? Clarly, thy arocial in natr Thy ar illion hard y a grat nmr of oln mot ociti lif in witchcraft i not th act of crtain indiidalonly, or n of many, t th act of ryon

Magical lif orih amid a crtain ocial conn Enthogh it wa far from nanimo in th ixtnth and n in th fortnth cntry, th conn wa road, at lat in crtain mili t

actd a a ort of contraint on ol Th ction wr notnmro, and thy wr not inntial nogh to rnt th rction Th rrntation of th rction rtain crtain charactritic of a collcti rrntation in th n d y DrkhimW ha xamind th mak of thi lif Vat ocial gro fondthml at th mrcy of trrifying lag ch a th Black Dath oromtim l iil rolm Thank to th mchanim of rction, collcti angih and frtration fond icario aamnt inth ictim who aily fond thml nitd in ooition to thm y

virt of ing oorly intgratd minoritiW ow or comrhnion of thi to th dicory of troty of

rction in a txt Onc w ndrtand w almot alway xclaim:Th victim is a spgoat Eryon ha a clar ndrtanding of thi xrion; no on ha any hitation aot it maning Scagoat indicat oth th innocnc of th ictim, th collcti olarization inooition to thm, and th collcti nd rlt of that olarizationTh rctor ar caght in th logic of th rrntation ofr ction from a rctor tandoint, and thy cannot rak awayGillam d Machat no dot nr articiatd himlf in collci act of iolnc, t h adot th rrntation of rctionhat fd th iolnc and i fd in rrn H har in th collcti

40 H C A P G O A T WHA A MYH 4


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eect of the scapegoat The poarization erts sch a constraint onthose poarized that the victims cannot prove their innocence

We se the word scapegoat therefore to smmarize al that I havesaid so far on colective persections By mentioning scapegoat whendiscssing Gilame de Machat we indicate that we are not taken inby his representation and that we have done what is necessary to breakdown the system and sbstitte or own reading Scapegoatepitomizes the type of interpretation I wod ike to tend to mythology

Unfortnately, the expression and the interpretation ser the samefate Becase everyone ses it no one bothers to determine its exact signicance, and the misconceptions mtipy In the ampe of Gilame de Machat and persection texts in general, this se has nodirect connection with the rite of the scapegoat as described in vitics, or with other rites that are sometimes described as beonging to thescapegoat becase they more or less resemble that of vitics

As soon as we begin to stdy the scapegoat or think abot thepression apart from the contt of the persector, we tend to modifyits meaning We are reminded of the rite; we think of a religios

ceremony that nfolds on a xed date and is performed by priests; weimagine a deiberate manipation We think of skilll strategists whoare y aware of the mechanisms of victimization and who knowingysacrice innocent victims in awareness of the case with Machiaveian ease.

Sch tings can happen, especialy in or time, bt they cannothappen, even today, withot the availabiity of an eminently maniplable mass to be sed by the maniplators for their evil prposes, people

who wil aow themseves to be trapped in the persectors representation of persection, peope capable of belief where the scapegoat is con

cerned Gillame de Machat is obviosly no manipator He is notintelligent enogh If manipation exists in his niverse, he mst benmbered among the maniplated The detais that are so revealing inhis text are not reveaing for him, evidenty, bt ony for those whonderstand their rea signicance Earlier I spoke of nave persectors;I cod have spoken of their ack of awareness

Too conscios and calclating an awareness of all that the scapegoat connotes in modern sage eiminates the essentia point that thepersectors beieve in the git of their victim; they are imprisoned inthe ilsion of persection that is no simple idea bt a fl system ofrepresentation. Imprisonent in this system alows s to speak of an

nconscios persector, and the proof of his existence ies in the factthat those in or day who are the most procient in discovering otherpeopes scapegoats, and God knows we are past masters at this, arenever able to recognize their own Almost no one is aware of his ownshortcoming We mst qestion orseves if we are to nderstand theenormity of the mystery Eac_h�tk whathis relationship isto the scapeoat I am not aware of my own, and I am persaded that thes�hd tre for my readers We only have legitimate enmities And

yet the entire niverse swarms with scapegoats The ilsion of persection is as rampant as ever, less tragicaly bt more cnningy than nderGiame de Machat Hypocit lctur mon smblabl mon frr

If we are at the point where we compete in the penetrating and sbtle discovery of scapegoats, both individal and colective, where was theforteenth centry? No one decoded the representation of persection as we do today Scapegoat had not yet taken on the meaning we give it today The concept that crowds, or even entire societies, can imprisonthemselves in their own ilsions of victimage was inconceivable Had wetried to plain it to the men of the Middle Ages, they wold not have n

derstood Giame de Machat was mch more inenced by thescapegoat eect than we are His niverse was more deeply immersed inits nawareness of persection than we are, bt even so, it was ess sothan the word of mythoogy In Gilame, as we have seen, st a smalportion, and not the worst, of the Black Death is bamed on scapegoats:in the myth of Oedips it is the entire plage In order to expain epidemics, mythological niverses have never needed anything more thanstereotypical crimes and of corse those who are gilty of them Proofcan be fond in ethnological docments Ethnologists are shocked bymy basphemies yet for a ong time they have had at their disposa the

necessary evidence to conrm them In socaled ethnological societiesthe presence of an epidemic immediatey roses the sspicion that therehas been an infraction of the basic res of the commnity We are notpermitted to ca sch societies primitive, yet we are expected to describeas primitive everything that perpetates the mythological type of beliefsand behaviors that belong to persection in or niverse

The representation of persection is more forcefl in myths than inhis torica acconts and we are disconcerted by that strength Compared w ith sch granitelike beief ors seems paltry The representations ofpersection in or history are aways vaciating and resida, which is w hy they are so quick�ytif d, at least within several centries,

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44 C A P G O A


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Beyond a cerain hreshold of beie he eec of he scapegoa is oreverse he relaionships beween persecors and heir vicims, herebyprodcing he sacred he oncesoand he i The vicin r aY·pasiv , becomes he only eecive and omnipoencase in he face of a grop ha believes isef o be enirely passive Ifgrops of people can, as a grop, become sick for reasons ha are obec-ive or ha concern only hemselves, if he relaionships a he hear ofhese grops can deeriorae and hen be reesablished by means of vic-ims who are nanimosy despised, obviosly hese grops wil commemorae hese social ils in conformance wih he ilsory beief hahe scapegoa is omnipoen and faciiaes he cre The niversalecraion of he person who cases he sickness is replaced by niversal

veneraion for he person who cres ha same sickness)

We can race in myhs a sysem of represenaion persecionssimilar o or own b compicaed by he eeciveness of he process ofpersecion We are no willing o recognize ha eeciveness becasei scandalizes s on he leves of boh moraliy and inelligence We areable o recognize he rs evil ransgraion of he vicim, which seems

norma, b we canno recognize he second benecen ransgraion;i is inconceivabe ha i can nie wih he rs wiho desroying i,a eas iniiay

People in grops are sbec o sdden variaions in heir relaion-ships, for beer or worse If hey aribe a compee cycle of variaionso he clecive vicim who faciliaes he rern o normal, hey willineviaby dedce from his dobe ransference beief in a ranscendenal power ha is boh dobe and will bring hem alernaively bohoss and healh, pnishmen and recompense This force is manifeshrogh he acs of violence of which i is he vicim b is also, more

imporanly, he myserios insigaorIf his vicim can eend his benes beyond deah o hose whohave kiled him, he ms eiher be ressciaed or was no ry deadThe casaliy of he scapegoa is imposed wih sch force ha evendeah canno preven i In order no o renonce he vicims casaiy,he is brogh back o ife ad immoraized, emporarily, and wha weca he ranscenden and spernaral are invened for ha prpose3

3 Re Giard Vle a the Sac (Batimoe Johs Hopis ivesty Press1972) pp 85-88; Des chses ches pus lafat u e, pp. 32-50.

A T E R F O U R

Violence nd Mgic

I RDER eplain he sacred, I have compared persecors' represenaions of persecion which involve he sacred wih hose which do noI have eamined wha was specic o myhological compared wihhisorical persecions, b I have negleced he relaive qaliy of hapeciciy I have discssed hisorical disorions as if hey had no con-

necion wih he sacred B hey do Alhogh increasingy less apparen, he sacred sill persiss in medieva and modern es I have mied hese insances of srvival in order no o minimize he disancebeween myhology and my chosen es eliance on approimaeimiariies is a he more annoying in a cone where a perfec eplanaion for dissimilariies eiss he scapegoa mechanism, he rea rigin of he varios kinds of disorions fond in persecion, bohnineigible and ineigible, myhologica or oherwise, according ohe order wihin which persecion is operaing

Now ha I have idenied his dierence in order, I can rern o

he ces of he sacred ha persis in inelligibe disorions and conider wheher hey fncion as hey do in myhsH�lr .plays a prominent r ole in mediev a pers ecutions , and it is

eas y to see nothing but hatr ed, especiay w here the J ew s are concerned.Dur ing this period, how ev er, J e wis h medicine enjoyed exceptiona pres -ige, w hich can be explained by the r eal s uperiority of their practi-i ner s , w ho w er e mor e open than others to s cientic p og r es s . But in e par ticular cas e of the plague this explanation is s car cely con v incing . The best medicine is no mor e eectiv e than the w ors t . Both the is tocrats and the common people pr efer r ed Je w is h doctor s becausehey associated their pow er to cure w ith the po wer

to caus e s ickness.

46 T H E S C A P E G O A T V I O L EN C E A N D M A G I C 47


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This medical practice, therefore, cannot be viewed as an example of in-dividuas who are distinguished from others by their ack of prejudice

r Prestige and prejudice seem to be two faces of the same attitude, indicat-ing the surviva of a primitive form of the sacred Even in our own time

l the almost sacred fear inspired by doctors is not altogether independentof their authority

If a person shows ill wil to the Jew, he might infect him with thepague If, on the other hand, he shows good wi, the Jew might spare

him or even cure him if he is aready stricken He is seen therefore as theast resource because o and not in spite o the evil he can do or has al-ready done The same is true in the case of Apolo; if the Thebans beghim (rather than some other god) to cure them of the pague, they do sobecause they hod him ultimately responsibe Apoo shoud not there-fore be seen as a particularly benevolent, peacefu, or serene god in thesense Nietzsche and the aestheticians give to the word Apolonian Likeso many others they were mised by the ultimate fading of the Oympiangods Despite appearances and weakened theories this tragic Apollo remains "the most abominable of al the gods, the formua Plato

reproached Homer for using, as if the poet had indulged in a personalfantasy

Apart from certain intense beliefs, the scapegoat no longer appearsto be merely a passive receptacle for evil forces but is rather the mirageof an omnipotent manipulator shown by mythoogy to be sanctioned

unanimousy by society Once the scapegoat is recognized as the uniquecause of the plague, then the plague becomes his to dispse of at wil,either as punishment or reward, according to his dispeasure orpleasure

Queen Elizabeth of Engand's Jewish doctor, pez, was executed at

the height of his inuence for his attempts at poisoning and for his prac-tice of magic The sightest faiure or denunciation can cause a new-comer to fal far lower than the heights he has cimbed Thus, Oedipus,the savior of Thebes and a licensed heaer, who bears the signs of a vic-tim, is crushed during times of troube, just at the moment of hisgreatest glory, a victim of one of the stereotypica accusations we have

identied!

1. Joshua Trachtenberg The Dil and the Js (New Haven Yae University Press!943), p. 98; H. Michelson The J in Early English Liteatue (Amsterdam: A.I Paris 1928),

p 88 On the portrayal ofthe Jew in the Christian word see the works of Gavin I. Langmuir"Qu'est-ce que les juifs signiaient pour la sit mdivale? in Nijuf ni Grec: Entretiens sur

The supernatural aspect of the oense is coupled with a crime in

the modern sense, in response to the demand for rationaity that isharacteristic of a time in which belief in magic is dwindling The im-portant detai is the fact that it is poisoning, a crime that deprives the ac-cused of any lega protection just as blunty as any accusation directyinvolving magic Poisoning is so easy to concea, especialy for a doctor,

that it is impossible to prove the crime and therefore there is no n to

prove it.

This bring s us back to al of our exampes at once. It contains fea-tr es which recal the myth of Oedipus, others which remind us of G uil-aume de Macha ut and all the per secuted Jew s , and sti others w hich are reminiscent of the f alse myth I concocted to "historicize that ofOedipus and demonstrate that the decision to dene a text as histor ica

�}tholog :L!s iJry. " . "

-

Because of the his torical conte xt 'e automatically demystify it with a psychosocioog ical interpr etation. We sense a caba organized by jeal-ous rivals , and we immediatey lose aw areness of thos e aspects that re-ind us of the s acred in mythology.

pez, ike Oedipus, and ike Apollo himself, is both master of ifeand master of death, for he controls this terrible plague, the sicknessOne moment Lopez miracuously dispenses cures, the next, no essiraculously, sickness which is within his capabiity to cure if he sopleases It is inevitable that the historical requirements of the text re-ind us of the sort of interpretation that is considered basphemousand almost inconceivabe in mythoogy, particulary Greek mythoogy

Presented in the form of myth it becomes a power symbo of thehuan condition, of the heights and depths of destiny How the

humanists rejoice Put the story in an Eizabethan setting and it is

nothing more than a sordid paace scanda, typica of the frenzied ambi-tions, hypocritical vioence, and superstition that are rife ony in the

odern Western word The second vision is certainly more accuratethan the rst, but still not entirey so, given that a remnant of uncon-s cious persecution sti pays a role in the pez aair No alowance isade for this. What is more, a shadow is cast on our historica universe

k racisme, ed. Lon Poliakov (ParisThe Hague: M outo nDe Gruyter 1978), pp 179-90; "Fr om Ambrose of Mian to Emicho of Leini ngen: The ransf ormatio n o fH ostility againstJews in Norther n Europe," in G/ Ebi nell' alt Medio (Spoleto: Ai, Ce ntro Studi Atoedioevo 1980), pp 31467


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r

50 H C A P G O A

anism is a work hroughou and beomes ndamenal; i urns ino

I O L N C A N D M A G C 5

amos enirey disappeared Modern Wesern hisory is haraerized by


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anism is a work hroughou and beomes ndamenal; i urns inosomehing posiive. Tha is why he ommuniy exiss boh before andaer he rime i is punishing i is born of his rime no of is mon-srosiy whih is emporary in naure bu of is humaniy whih is welldened. Thanks o he sapegoa who is a rs aused of ausing heommuniy o vailae beween human and animal he dierene be-ween he wo is permanenly seled. The womandog beomes a greagoddess who punishes no only besialiy bu also ines and all oher

sereoypia rimes all infraions of soiey's fundamena rules. Theapparen ause of disorder beomes he apparen ause of order beauseshe is a viim who rebuilds he erried uniy of a graeful ommuniy� rs in opposiion o her and naly aund her. There ar e tw o stages in myths , but interpreters hav e failed to distin-

guish hem. The rs is he a of ausing a sapegoa who is no yesared o whom al evil haraerisis adhere Then omes he seondsage when he is made sared by he ommuniy's reoniliaion. I havesueeded in idenifying his rs sage by means of is equivalen inhisorial exs ha ree he perspeive of he perseuor These s

are all he more appropriae for guiding an inerpreer oward his rssage beause hey are almos exlusivey imied o i.Texs of perseuion indiae ha myhs omprise a rs ransgura

ion similar o ha of our perseuors ha is really only he subsruureof he seond ransguraion Mythologial perseuors more redu-lous han heir hisorial equivalens are so aken wih wha is aom-plished by heir sapegoas ha hey are ruly reoniled and heir fearof he viim and hosiliy oward him are supplemened by adoraionI is diul o undersand his seond ransguraion whih has almosno equivalen in our universe Bu one i has been early disinguishedfrom he rs i an be analyzed logially beginning wih he dierenesbeween he wo ypes of exs being ompared espeialy in he onu-sion Finaly I have onrmed he auray of his analysis of esablish-ing ha he fain raes of he sared sill inging o hisorial viimsbear oo lose a resembane o he vanished forms of he sared for hemo have evolved from an independen mehanism.

Coleive violene mus herefore be reognized as a mehanismha is sill reaing myths in our universe bu for reasons we shallearn more abou is nioning less and less well. The seond of hewo mythia ransguraions is obviously he mos fragile sine i has

amos enirey disappeared. Modern Wesern hisory is haraerized byhe deay of myhi forms ha ony survive as phenomena of perseu-ion and are amos enirely imied o he rs ransguraion. If hemyhologial disorion is direy proporiona o he belief of heperseuors his deline migh we onsiue he oher side of ourgrowing ye imperfe abiiy o deode. This abiiy o deode began wih he deomposiion of he sared and hen deveoped ino our abil-iy o read he parially deomposed forms. s our abiiy grows we are

enouraged o go bak o he forms ha are si ina and deode hemeaning of real myhpar from he omplee reversa invoved in he onversion o he

sared here are no greaer disorions of perseuion in he Dogribmyh han in our passage from Guiaume de Mahau. I is primarilyhe elemen of he sared ha inerferes wih our undersanding If wedo no reognize he doube ransguraion of he sapegoa hen un-doubedly he phenomenon of he sared iusory as i seems o us wibe no less impenerable han i was for he faihful of he Dogrib uMyhs and ries onain everything neessary o analyze his phenome-

non bu we do no reognize iWill we rus he myh oo muh if we assume ha heir viims andsapegoas are real? Tha riiism wil ertainly be made bu he samesiuaion faes he inerpreer of he Dogrib s as in he preedingamples. I onains oo many sereoypes of perseuion for he ex obe purey imaginary Exreme disrus is as desruive o he under-standing of myths as an exess of belief My inerpreaion seems rashony if judged by sandards ha anno be appied o he sereoypes ofperseuion

I ould of ourse be misaken in he pariuar myh I have hosenha of he womandog. This myh ould have been made up of variouspiees for reasons similar o hose ha ed me earlier o inven a "falsemyh of Oedipus. The misake in ha ase woud be purely oal and

woud no ompromise he auray of he whole inerpreaion Evenif he Dogrib myh were no he resul of aual oleive vioene i

woud be he work of a ompeen imiaor apable of reproduing heual ees of his ype of vioene; i would herefore si provide a

vauabe example like my fase myth of Oedipus If I were o assumehere was a real viim behind he ex I have jus invened I woud bemak ing a huge misake bu my error would no in fa be any less faih


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5 H E s e A P E G 0 A

ends by inging isef on im. Te my describes e sory of a formi


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y g g y ydabe god wo saved e faif by some sacrice, or by dying aerspreading disorder in e commniy.

Te faif of ese cs decare a ey are reenacing in eirries wa appened in e mys. We canno ndersand is saemensince we see in e ries an nleased mob a arms a vicim, and emys speak of an apowerf god wo dominaes a commniy. We dono ndersand a i is e same person in bo cases becase we can

no conceive of disorions of persecion powerfl enog o consecrae e vicim.as enology is rig o sspec a e mos bral ries are e

mos primiive. Tey may no be e mos ancien on an absole scaleof cronology, b ey are e closes o eir violen origin, and erefore e mos reveaing. Alog mys se as eir model e sameseqence of persecion as ries, ey resembe em leas a emomen of greaes resemblance. Te words in is case are more decepive an acions, and invariaby deceive e enologiss. Tey see onlya e very same episode of collecive vioence is mc closer o wa

acaly akes place in e rial an in e my. Indeed in rias efaifl repea e coecive vioence of eir predecessors; ey imiaea vioence, and eir represenaion of wa appened does no inence eir beavior as mc as eir words. Te words are enirelydeermined by e represenaion of persecion, a is, by e symboic power of e appoined vicim, wereas e rial acions aredirecly paerned on e acions of e crowd of persecors j

A P T E R F V E

otihucn

MyRITI NTANTLY accse me of swicing back and for beweene represenaion and e realiy of wa is being represened. Readerso ave been folowing e ex aenively will ndersand a I dono deserve e reproac or, if! do, we al deserve i eqaly becase werm e exisence of rea vicims beind e amos myoogical exs

f medieval persecors.I sal now rn o mys a are more problemaic for my esis, eas on e srface, since ey deny e reevance of colecive mrderor myology. One of e ways of denying a relevance is by arming a, alog ey are dead, e vicims wen o eir dea willingy. ow sod e mys of selsacrice in primiive socieies be iner

Le s look a a grea American my of selsacrice, e Azecy of e creaion of e sn and moon. Like amos everying elsee know abo e Azecs we owe is o Bernardino d Saagn, e

of Historia genera de as cosas a Nua Espaa. Georges1.�LJl as given in La Part maudite a paraprased nsaion of ey, wic I wil cie in abbreviaed form

hey sy h beoe hee ws dy in he wold he gods cme ogehe in h whichis nmed Teoihucn. They sid o one nohe: gods who will

e he buden o lighing he wold? Then o hese wods nsweed godTecucizec nd he sid: " shll ke he buden olighing he wold'

once moe he g ods soke nd hey s id: Who will be nohe Thenlooked one nohe nd delibeed on who he ohe should be And

ne o hem ded oe himsel o h oce All wee id nd declinedne o he gods o whom no one ws ying ny enion nd who wseed wih usules did no sek bu lisened o wh he he gods wee

58 H S A P G OA

saying And the others spoke to him and said to him "You be the one who is to

O T I H U A A N 59

gd, which is not t of th st In ach cas th is an mnt of


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give light, little pustule-covered one' And right willingly he obeyed what theycommanded, and he answered "Thanklly I accept what you have commanded me to do t it be as you say And then both began to performpenances for four days

And midnight having come, all the gods placed themselves about thehearth, called teotexli. In this place the re blazed four days The aforementioned gods arranged themselves in two rows, some at one side of the re, someat the other side And then the two gods above mentioned placed themselves

before the re, between the two rows of gods, all of whom were standing Andthen the gods spoke, and said to Tecuciztecatl: "How now, Tecuciztecatl! Gointo the re! And then he braced himself to cast himself into the re

And since the re was large and blazed high, as he felt the great heat of there, he became frightened and dared not cast himself into the re He turnedback Once more he turned to throw himself into the re, making an eort anddrawing nearer, to cast himself into the ames But, feeling the great heat, heheld back and dared not cast himself into it Four times he tried, but never lethimself go Since he had tried four times, the gods then spoke to Nanauatzin,and said to him "How now, Nanauatzin! You try! And when the gods hadaddressed him, he exerted himself and with closed eyes undertook the ordeal

and cast himself into the ames And then he began to crackle and pop in there like one who is roasted

And when Tecuciztecatl saw that Nanauatzin had cast himself into theames, and was burning, he gathered himself and threw himself into the reAnd it is said that an eagle entered the blaze and also burned itself; and for thatreason it has dark brown or blackened feathers Finally a tiger entered; it did notburn itself, but singed itself; and for that reason remained stained black and

white And they say that aer this the gods knelt down to wait to see where Nanau

atzin, become sun, would rise And when the sun came to rise, he lookedvery red He appeared to waddle from one side to the other No one could look

at him, because he snatched sight from the eyes. He shone and cast rays of lightfrom him in grand style His light and his rays he poured forth in all directionsAnd thereafter the moon rose on the horizon Having hestitated, Tecuciztecatl was less brilliant Lter the gods all had to die. The wind Kwetzalcoatlkilledthem all; it tore out their hearts and gave life to the newborn stars1

Th st god is not chosn b anonh tl volntsbtthis is not t fo th scond god. Lat on, th vs is t Thscond god thows himsf into th immdiat withot bing

1. Qoted in The Savage Min, pp. 10-3

g

constaint in th bhavio of ths two gods. As w ook fom on to thoth w s vsas that a tansatd into both dincs and sm-mtis. W mst not fogt th fom bt, conta to what th stctalists think, it is nv th dinc bt ath th smmtisth

as pcts shad b th victimsthat a th most vaing.Th mh mphasizs th f and vonta aspct of thi dci-

sion Th gods a gat, and th giv thmslvs to dath ssntial

of thi own f wil, to sc th contind xistnc ofth wod andof mankind. Nvthlss th is an obsc mnt of constaint inboth cass that givs s pas Th littl pockmakd god shows gatdociit xalts in th ida of ding fo sch a wondfl cas asth bith of th sn bt h is not a volnt Unstionabl, all thgods sha in th waknss. Th a fightnd, intimidatd, and danot "o thmslvs fo that job Th waknss might b said to bv slight, bt lat w shall s a tndnc in mths to minimiz thwaknsss of th gods In an cas it is a waknss that th pockmakdon dispas bi bfo h coagos ndtaks th mission n

tstd to himNanaatzin posssss a distinctiv fat that cannot fai to attacto attntion, th pocks o sos that mak him a lp, somonstickn with th plag, th mbodimnt of contagios disas. Fomm pspctiv of collctiv psction w mst cogniz in this apfntial sign fo th sction of a victim. Th stion foowswhth it is nt this sign that dtmins th choic of victim, in whichcas it wod b a stion of a victim and a collctiv md athhan a slsacic. Th mth, of cos, dos not sa this, bt w mstnot xpct th mth to val this tp of tth. Th mth dos, how-v, conm Nanaatzin's pobab ol as a scapgoat b psntinghim as a god "to whom no on was paing an attntion h stands toon sid and mains silnt

W shod not in this passag that th Aztc sngod is also thgod of pstilnc, ik th Gk god Apoo. Apollos smbanc toh Aztc god might b gat if Ompian cns had not clnsdim of a th stigmata of a victim Th a man amps o thiscombination What do pstinc and th sn hav in common To n-stand this w mst bak awa fom th insipi concpt o sbo-im and of th nconscios, whth coctiv o invid f wct on what w wan to s thn inviab w nd wht w


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A S S U R S , A N D T A N S 67

dscrib this sam gam as both "spctaclar and "fak' aross ori i i h f i i Wh i h b hi h h


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A T E R S X

Ases, Curetes, and Titans

I HVE EEN discssing a mth in which collctiv mrdr is absnt Ishall now slct a nmbr of xampls from mths, or th ndlss variants of mths, in which th cntral scn clarl dpicts collctivmrdr bt in which sch an ort is mad to avoid dning th ddthat th scn bcoms a nar caricatr Th congration of th scn

is alwas th sam th mrdrrs ar in a circl arond thir victimbt th obvios or intntional signicanc of th scns can var widlIt ma shar onl a singl charactristic: th awarnss that th do notsgnf collctiv mrdr

M scond xampl blongs to Scandinavian mtholog Baldr isth bst of all th gods: h has no falts, is rich in virts, and is incapabl of violnc is distrbd b drams warning him that a thrat ofdath is hanging ovr him shars his angish with his companions,th Ass, who dcid to "claim protction for Baldr aganst all dangr'To achv this, Frigg, his mothr: "maks all animat and inanimat

cratrs r, watr, mtals, stons, arth, wood, disass, adrpds,birds, snaks swar to do him no harm Ths protctd, Baldrnjos an xtraordinar gam with th Ass in th pblic sar Thhrl things at him and strik him with thir swords bt nothing wondshim'

Th snopss hav otd s Gorgs Dmzil's in Mythe etepop1 It is as to ndrstand wh th minnt scholar considrs thgam th Ass ar plaing astonishing A littl frthr on h will

Geg uzil,Mythe t p (ais Bibliothue d sceces huas 1968),p 224

criosit withot satsfing it What is thr abot this mth that po-voks or astonishmnt? Is

Documents

René Girard-The Scapegoat-The Johns Hopkins University Press (1989).pdf