René Girard - Violence and Magic

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44 C A P G O A

Beyond a cerain hreshold of beie he eec of he scapegoa is oreverse he relaionships beween persecors and heir vicims, herebyprodcing he sacred� he _onceso and he i The vicin r altY·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 a re obec-ive or ha concern only hemselves, if he relaionships a he hear of

hese 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 persecions

similar 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 are

able o recognize he rs evil ransgraion of he vicim, which seemsnorma, 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, moreimporanly, he myserios insigaor

If 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 prpose 3

3 Ren Giard, Violen and the Sacr (Baltimoe: Johs Hopkins Univesty Press,

1972) pp 85-88; Des chses ches puis lafondation du monde, pp. 32-50.

C H A P T E R F O U R

Violence and Magic

I ORDER 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 ha

peciciy 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 ohe ces of he sacred ha persis in inelligibe disorions and conider wheher hey fncion as hey do in myhs

H�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 because

hey 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

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 independent

of their authorityIf a person shows ill wil to the Jew, he might infect him with the

pague If, on the other hand, he shows good wi, the Jew might sparehim 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 Platoreproached 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

V I O L EN C E A N D M A G I C 47

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 Ato

edioevo 1980), pp 31467





r

50 H S C A P G O A

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 ohersereoypia 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 rans guraion 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 disinguished

from 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

V I O L N C A N D M A G C 5 1 v

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 areenouraged o go bak o he forms ha are si ina and deode hemeaning of real myh�

par from he omplee reversa invoved in he onversion o hesared 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 and

sapegoas 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 hosen

ha 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







56 T H E s e A P E G 0 A T

ends by inging isef on im. Te my describes e sory of a formidabe 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 canno conceive of disorions of persecion powerfl enog o consecrae e vicim.

as enology is rig o sspec a e mos bral ries are emos 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

C H A P T E R F V E

Totihuacan

MyCRITICS CONSTANTLY 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 exsf 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.How 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 SaagUn, e

of Historia general de las cosas d la Nua Espaa. Georges1.�'L Jl" as given in La Part maudite a paraprased nsaion of ey, wic I wil cie in abbreviaed form:

hey say that before there was day in the world, the gods came together in that whichis named Teotihuacan. They said to one another: "0 gods, who will

ave the burden of lighting the world? Then to these words answered a godTecuciztecat, and he said: "I shall take the burden oflighting the world'

once more the g ods spoke, and they sa id: Who will be another Thenlooked at one another, and delibeted on who the other should be And

ne of them dared oer himself for that oce All were afraid and declinedOne of the gods, to whom no one was paying any attention, and who was

ered with pustules, did not speak but lisened to what the ther gods were

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René Girard - Violence and Magic