René Girard's Mimetic Theory

4. The Scapegoat Mechanism as Origin of Culture

135 CHAPTER 4 The Scapegoat Mechanism as Origin of Culture Brute force is overcome by union; the allied might of scattered units makes good its right against the isolated giant. Thus we may define “right” (i.e., law) as the might of a community. Yet it, too, is nothing else than violence, quick to attack whatever individual stands in its path, and it employs the selfsame methods, follows like ends, with but one difference: it is the communal, not individual, violence that has its way. —Sigmund Freud, Why War? G irard’s work on mimetic desire leads to the second large step of his theory in the direction of an all-encompassing theory of culture . The core of this second part is formed by his thesis of the scapegoat mechanism, which posits that human culture emanated from a founding murder. Girard claims that the first forms of human civilization were engendered by the collective deterrence of violence in archaic situations of crisis. 136 Chapter 4 Mimetic Crisis and the Monstrous Double Up to this point, our analysis of mimetic desire has focused merely on its manifestations in relations between individual human beings. The next stage of Girard’s theory pursues the effects of mimesis on larger groups, and its role in the workings of society. The Mimetic Crisis As we saw in the preceding section, mimesis in the more intensified stages of desire (metaphysical desire) carries with it an extreme potential for contagious proliferation. The spatial, social, and above all mental proximity of humans to one another in situations of internal mediation transforms mimetic rivalry into a sickness that can spread through the community like a plague.1 One finds the recurring symbol of the plague in many archaic myths and literary texts, as it symbolizes the threat of social collapse brought about by the violent proliferation of mimesis.2 The plague, like imitation, is fundamentally contagious; both threaten social order in similar ways. The direct consequence of social crises is the outbreak of reciprocal violence that can lead to the self-annihilation of the community. It is no surprise, therefore, that natural and social catastrophes are habitually linked in the primitive psyche. In myths, for instance, natural disasters often function as metaphors for socially induced crises. For an understanding of social crisis, it is of no great import whether the outbreak is caused by a natural disaster, an epidemic, an external military threat, or internal rivalries. In each of these cases, the decisive factor is the way the conflict is dealt with inside the community. The conflict is ultimately always internal, as it threatens the relations between the individual members of the community.3 One must emphasize this point when considering Gunnar Heinsohn’s theory of religion, which maintains that the blood rituals at the beginning of the Bronze Age were caused by a cosmic catastrophe.4 Even ifHeinsohn’sdataareviable,histheorylacksapersuasivesocial-psychological explanation. Such a theory can only be achieved by means of a fundamental understanding of archaic examples of crisis, which Girard attempts to provide with his mimetic theory. The Scapegoat as Origin of Culture 137 Girard uses an array of concepts to describe the crisis-ridden dissolution of social order. With reference to instances of disorder caused primarily by the consequences of violent mimesis, he speaks of a mimetic crisis (Things Hidden, 78; De la violence à la divinité, 795: “crise mimétique”).5 He uses the term sacrificial crisis to describe the disorder caused by the failure or disappearance of sacrificial rituals (Violence and the Sacred, 49; De la violence à la divinité, 355: “crise sacrificielle”).6 The concrete and visible consequences of this cultural breakdown lead finally to what Girard describes as a crisis of distinctions (Violence and the Sacred, 49; De la violence à la divinité, 355: “crise des differénces”).7 The following examples, taken from a range of mythical and literary texts, will help to illustrate how the symbol of the plague is used as a metaphor for these social crises. Oedipus the King (Sophocles) Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus the King begins with a description of an epidemic plague that threatens to destroy the entire city of Thebes. An aged priest tells Oedipus of the misery that has descended upon the city: Our city—look around you, see with your own eyes—cannot lift her head from the depths, the red waves of death. . . . Thebes is dying. A blight on the fresh crops and the rich pastures, cattle...