Scapegoat, The - Rene Girard & Yvonne Freccero

8/12/2019 Scapegoat, The - Rene Girard & Yvonne Freccero

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REN GIRARD

Tanltl Y V 0 N N E F R E C C E R 0

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIERS RESS BALIMORE


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THIS BOOK HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO PUBLICATION WH THE

GENEROUS ASSISTAE OF THE AREW W. MEON FOUNDATION

c 986 e Johns Hopkins Uiveity Pss

All ghts Pnted in the Uted S of ei

Ogilly published B by Gt, Pasc Ediio G & Faue 982

e Johns Hopki Uveiy Ps

7 W SeBaimor Maand 22

e par ud his pubicaon mees he menso mecan Naiona Snda or Ifoaion ienc-Permanence

o Paper or Prined Libry Maerias, NSI Z94984

IBRARY OF CONGRS CATAINGIN- PUBICATION DATA

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Te Tnon o uc c l e a .l Vo1eel o .

2 on 3 . 4 J io TBT715G5613 1986 261.8'335 899IBN 801 833159 (


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Contents

CHAPER NE Guillaume de Machaut and the Jews 1

CHAPER W Stereotyp of Persecution 1 2

CHAPER HREE What Is a Myth? 24CHAPER UR Vioence and Magic 45

CHAPER IVE Teotihuacan 57

CHAPER SIX Ases, Curetes, and Titans 66

CHAPER SEVEN The Crim of the Gods 76

CHAPER E I GH The Science of Myths 95CHAPER NINE The Key Words of the Gospel Passion 1

CHAPER EN That Only One Man Should Die 1 12

CHAPER EEVEN The Behding ofSaint John the Baptist 125

CHAPER WEVE Peters Denial 149CHAPER HIREEN The Demons of Gerasa 165

CHAPER UREEN Satan Divided against Himself 14

CHAPER IEEN History and the Paraclete 19

ndex 2 1 3


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C A R N

Guiaume de Machautand the Jews

E E H was a Frech poet of the mdfourteethcetury Hs Jgnt o th Kng o v deserves to be betterkow The ma part of the work s a og poem the covetoa

courty stye but ts opeg s strkg uaume cams that he par-tcpated a cosg seres of catastrophc evets before he aycoseted hmsef hs house terror to awat dth or the ed of thedescrbabe ordea Some of the evets he descrbes are totay mprob-abe others oy paay so Yet the accout eaves the mpresso thatsomethg must actuay have happeed

There are sgs the sky Peope are kocked dow by a ra ofsto Etre ctes are destroyed by ghtg Me de grtumbers the cty where uaume ves (he does't te us ts ame)Some of the dths are the rut of the wckess of the Jews adher Chrsta accompc. How dd the ppe cause such hugelosses amog the local populato? They so the rvers that

pvded the drkg water Heaveset justce rght the wrogsby makg the evldoers ow to the populato who massacr thema Peope cotued to de ever greater umbers however ut oeday sprg whe uaume heard musc the street ad me adme aughg A was over ad courty poetry coud beg aga

Mode crtcsm sce ts org the sxteeth ad seveteethetures has ot reed bdy o tts May schoars today beeveher crtca sght deveops proo to creasg skeptcsmts that were formery thought to cota rea foato are owsuspect because they have bee costaty reterpreted by successvegeeratos of hstoras O the oher had epstemoogsts ad


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2 H E S C A E G O A T

phiosophers are periencng exreme crss which s underminingwhat was once led historica science Scholars who used o sustainthemselves on their ts now doubt the ceainty of any nterpreaton

A rst glance Guilaume de Machaus tt may seem susceptbeto he prevailng septicism conceng hsorica ceanty Bu aersome momens reecton even conemrary readers wil d some reaevens among the unely occurrences of he story They wl no beleve in the signs n he sy or in the accusaions aganst the ews butneither wi they trea al the unely themes n the same y or puthem on the same level Gulaume dd not nven a sngle hing He scredulous admtedly and he reects he hysera of pubic opinonThe nnumerable dhs he talys are nonethes rl used presumaby he famous Bac Deah whch ravaged he north of Francebetween 349 and 350. Smiarly he massacre of the Jews was rea nhe eyes of he massacrers he deed was usted by he mors ofposonng in crculaon everywhere The univeal fr of disse ves

sucen weigh to the mo to unleash the massacres descrbed Thefolowing he passage from the Judgnt th Kng v hads wih the ews:

Aer a ame a ase reaerous and onempbe swne: s was same

srae e wked and dsoya wo aed gd and oed eeryng e wo

gae so mu god and ser and promses o Crsans wo en posoned

seera rers and ounans a ad en ear and pure so a many os eres; or wer used em ded suddeny. erany en mes one undred

ousand ded rom n ounry and n y Ten nay s mora aamy

was noed

e wo ss on g and sees ar wo goerns and prodes or eeng

dd no wan s reae o reman dden e reeaed and made so

generay known a eyos er es and possessons Ten eery ew was

desroyed some anged oers urned some were drowned oers eaded

w an or sword And many Crsans ded ogeer w em n same1

Medeval communties were afrad of he plague that he wordalone was enough o frighen them They avoided mentonng it as ongas possbe and even avod tang he necsary preuions at the ris

of aggravating the eects ofthe epdemic So helpess were they hat eing he tth dd no mean facing the suaon bu raher gvng in o

1 Gie e , s d ien fanai vo L gme R Nav Pas En pp, 908 p 1 444


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G U A U E D E A C H A U A D H E E W S

ts destctve cnseqences and enqshng a sembance nae The ene ppatn shaed n ths tpe bndns Thedespeae dese t den the evdence cntbted t the sch

"spegats2

La Fntane, n Anmls Scknd th Plg gves anceent descptn ths ams egs ectance t atcae theteng em and heeb neash sme st ev pwe n thecmmnt:

Te pae (snce mus cae b s name) . 3

Fntane ndc s t the pcess cectve bad ahwhch ecgnzes the page as a dvne pnshment The ang gd sanned b a g tha s n eqa shaed T ave the page theg mst be dented and pnshed , athe, as Fnane wes,"dedcated the gd The s t be negated n the abe ae hebeass pe, wh dcbe the besta behav, whch s mmedatecsed Last cm he ass, the s bdh them a, and

heee the weakest and east ptected t s he ass that s nadgnaed

Accdng hsans, n sme ces Jews wee massaced at themee menn the page beng n the aea, even bee t had actaaved Games accnt cd t hs s phenmenn, becasehe massace cced we bee the hegh the epdemc Bt he

nmbe deaths the ath atbtes the Jews psnng sggestsanthe panan he deahs ae eaand thee s n easn hnk he ae magnedthe mght we be the vcms thasame page Bt Game des nt thnk s even n etspect n hses the dtna spegas eman he se th st stgs o thmc On n the ate stag des the ah ecgnze he pesence

a ppe pathg phenmenn Utmate, he dsaste s sgeat hat t sts dbt n he kehd a snge epanatn anspac psnes, hgh Game des n then entepehe whe chan evens m a ana pespectve

In ac, we mght we ask t what ent he pet ecgnzes hesence the page, snce he avds wtng the ta wd nt he

2 N Ban, Les Hoes et t et ns les pys s et mitra, 2 Pa- ag on 5 -6 J , P tPai: Faa, 8.

3 Jean Fonine Les A; maas Ia e Pi: ia nb. , no.


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H E S C A E G O A T

ve end A t the cmacic moment he solemnly ndces the Geewod dm whch was ncommon a he ime The wod obviosydo not ncton n his tt n the same way as t wold in os; i is no

y a synonym o he deaded wod bt he a so o ephemsm,a new way o not caing the page by its name I is in ac a new bpely ngsic scapegoa Gillame tells s i was neve ssibe odeemine henate and he se o he disease om which so manyppe ded n sch a sho ime:

No was hee any physician o do who lly ew he cause o ogin o

wha was (no was hee any emedy) ye hs malady was so g ha wascaed an epidemic

On his scoe Game pees to ee to pbc opnion ahehan o thn o himse The wod dm he oeenth cenyhad a cetain scenic avo which heped to wad o anxiety, somewha lie he vapos o he mgation caed o at see cones o

edce he waves o pestence A disease wth a name seems on the wayo a ce, so nconoable phenomena ae eqeny enamed o ceatethe impesson o cono Sch vebal ocsms conine o appealwheeve science emans lso o ineecive By he esa o namet, the page ise becomes dedicated to the god Ths lingstcsacice s innocent compaed wth te hman sacic ha accom

pany o pecede i, bt is essenia stce the sameEven in eospect, a the ea and imagnay coecive scapegoats,

the Jews and the agellans, the an o stones and the dm contne to play sch an eecive oe in Gillame's stoy ha he nevepeceiv n them he sngle entty ha we ca the Blac Death' Theaho conines o see a nmbe o moe o ess independen dsastes,

ned ony by thei gios signcance, sima in a way o the enpages o EgyptAmost eveyhing I have sad so a s obvos We a ndestand

Gllame's in he same way and my eade have no need o meI is no ses, howeve, o nsst on his dn o which he ldnessand ocelness elde s, pecisey becase t s acceped by eveyoneand is ncontovesial Thee has been ageemen abot t teally ocenes, a he mo emable in hat involv a adical eintepeaton We eject wtho qion he meaning he atho gves his ttWe declae ha he does no now what he sayng Fom o sevealcenies disancewe now bette han he and can coect wha he has


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G U I A U E D E A C H A U A D H E E W S 5

t W v bv hat hav discovd a tt ot s by taho ad, th s ga adacy, do ot sat o sta that hpovid s t ths th v og h dos ot pcv t himsl

What s th soc of o amazig codc i h satmt tas ay mssacd? A as coms immday to md Wa o dig this t a vacm Oh tts ist fom h sampod; thy d ih th sam sbjcs; som of hm a mo val-abl a Gams h ahos a lss cdos y povida tgt fmok ofsoical kodg ch Gillams tt ca

b pacd haks to his cott, ca dissh t fom fas ith passag qotdIt s ta facs abot th aiSmiic pscios dg

pag a qi ko a aldy cogzd body ofkodg that aoss cai xpctatos s Gams txt spodig to hos pctaos s pspcv is ot g fom thpoi of v of o idivdal xpic ad o mmdat coac

th t , b i dos ot si s fom h oical poi of vAthog th famok of soil kodg dos xis, i co-

iss of docms tha a o mo liabl tha Gams x, fomia o di sos Ad cao pac Gilam xacty ithis cot bcas lack kodg of actly t vs cbs took pac t may hav b Pais o Rms o v aoh

iy I ay cas cotxt is o sgca; v ihot tha fo-aio h mod ad old d p i adg I hav giv old cocd tat h pobaby vcms ho jslyasacd H old hfo hik t tx is fas, sic it clams hath vcims giy, bt t sofa as h ay victms Hold, i h d, dsigis t fom h fals xacty as do

at gvs s this abiliy? Wold i ot b s o b gdd sysmat-y by pcip of discadg th ho bask of appls bcasf f ott os amog m Sold o sspc a caip of caio o mat of avt a, giv h oppoty, atackd by ovzalos cotmpoa ciics? Sold o admtha all histoica kodg s ctai ad a otg ca b ak

a t sch as os, ot v th aliy of a pscto?All s qsos ms b asd catgoically t gatvtadot skptcsm dos o ak io acco th a a of h h s a patca latiosip bt ky ad hly caacistics of hs t th bgg ad caot


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6 H E S C A E G A

of course dstngush beween te and false He sees only hemes thatare ncredbe as wel as ohers that are que credbe He can beleve nthe ncreasng number of dths; t coud be an epdemc. But the

massve scale of the posonngs descrbed by Gullaume s scarcelycredbe. here were no substances n he fourteenth cen capable ofproducng such harml eects he auhors hatred for he supposedyguly people s pc and makes hs hess remely suspect

hese two types of characterstcs cannot be recognzed wthou als mpcty acowedgng tha hey nteract wh each other here realy s an epdemc, then mght wel str up atent prejudceshe appette for persecuton rdly focuses on regous mnort,especaly durng a tme of crss. On the other hand a real persecuonmght we be usted by the so of accusaon that Gullaumecreduousy echoes Such a poe s not expeced to be partcuarlysanguna If he beeves n he stores he tels us, no doubt they arebeleved by he peope around hm he tex suggests that pubc opn-

on s overcted and ready o accept the mos absurd mo In shot suggess a proptous clmae for massacres whch the auhor consctualy k place

n a cont of mprobable vents, those that a possbe becomeprobabe he reverse s also te n a cont of probabe events, theunlkey ones canno be ascrbed to an magnaton operang freey for

he plre of nvenng cton We a aware of he magna ele-men, bu t s the very specc magnaton of people who cve vo-ence As a resu among the textual representatons here s a mutuaconrmaton hs correspondence can ony be planed by onehypothess_ he we are rdng has ts rts n a rea peecuondescrbed from he perspecve of he persecutors he perspectve s

evtaby decepve snce the persecutors are connced that ther vo-lence s jused; they consder hemseves judges, and therefore heymust have guy vctms, yet ther perspectve s o some degree reabe,for the ceany ofbeng rgh encourages them o hde nothng of hermassacr

Faced wh a tt such as Gulaume de chauts, t s egmateto suspend he genera le by whch the t as a whole s never wohmore, as far as real nformaton goes, than the least reable of tsfeatur. If the tt descrbes crcumstanc favobe to persecuton, ft presens us wth vctms of the type ha persecuto usually choose,and n addton, t represents these vcms as gulty of he type of


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G U I L L A U A C H A U T A D H J W S 7

crme whch peecuor normaly atrbute to ther vctm, then very lkely that the perecuon real If th rly conrmed by thet tef then there ltte cope for doubt

When one begn to undertand the perpectve of the perecuto,the aburdty of ther accuaton trengthen rather han compmehe nformatonal vaue of the tt, but ony n reference to the volencehat t echoe f Gulaume had added tore of rua nfantcde to theepode of poonng, h account woud be even more mprobabewthout, however, n the leat dmnhng the accuracy of the maacre repo The more unkely the accuaon n th genre of tt themore they trengthen the probabty of the maacre they con foru the pychoocal contt whn whch the maacre mu have akenplace Conveely f he theme of maacre placed aongde theheme of an epdemc t provde the horca cont wthn whcheven the mo prece choar coud ake h account of poonngerouy

The accoun of peecuon are no doubt naccurate, but n a wayhey are o characterc of perecutor n genel and of medevalperecuto n parcuar, that he tt can be beleved n al the ar n

whch conecture are prompted by he very nature of he naccuracyWhen potental perecutor decrbe he reaty of ther perecuto,h houd be beeved

The combnaton of he two type of characertc generateeranty f the combnaton were ony to be found n rare ample weud not be o cean But t frequency too grt o allow doubtnly actua perecuton een from he perpectve of the perecutorn plan the regular combnaton of hee characertc Ourerpretaton of al the tt conrmed tattcaly

Te ct hat ceanty atcay verable doe no mn t ed only on an accumuaton of equally uncertan document. Allent lke Gulaume de Machaut are of condeble value be-e n hem the probable and mprobabe nteract n uch a way thah pan and ute the preence of the other f here a att- aracter to our ceanty t becaue any document tuded n ola- culd be forged Th unkely, but not mpoble n he cae of le document And yet t mpoble where a grt number ofment are concerned

The mode Wete world che o terpret t of peecu- a real, th beng the ony poble way to demyty them Th


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8 T H E S C A E G O A T

soluion is accuae and pefec because i makes allowance fo a hechaaceisics found in his ype of ex Solid inellecual soning ishe basis, ahe han humaniaianism o idlogy This inepeaion

has no usuped he almos unanimous ageemen gan i Fo hesocia histoian eiabe ttimony, ahe han he ttimony of someonewho shaes Guiaume de Machaus iusions, wi nee be as auabeas the uneiabe testimony of pesecuos, o thei accompies, whiches moe because of its unconscious natue The concusie document beongs to pesecutos who ae too nae to coe the taces of theicimes, in contast to moden pesecutos who ae t cautious to eaebehind documents that migh be used against them

I ca those pesecutos nae who ae sti coninced that they aeight and who ae not so mistst as to coe up o censo thendamenta chaacteistics of thei pesecution Such chaacteisticsae eithe ceay appaent in the tt and ae diecty eing o theyemain hidden and e indiecty They ae a stng steeotypes and

the combination of boh ypes, one obious and one hidden, pides uswih infomaion abou he naue of he exs

W oday o ecognize he seypes of pesecuion Buwha is now common knowledge scacely exised in he foueenhcentuy Nae pesecutos unwr o wht th r dongThei con

science is too gd to deceie thei eades sysemaicay, and they pesent things as they see them They do no suspect that by witing theiaccounts they ae aming posteiy against them This is te of the infamous itchhunts of the sixteenth centuy It is sti te today in thebackwad egions of the wod We a, then, deaing with the commonpace, and my eades may be boed by my insistence on these st obi

ous facts The pupose wi sn be seen One sight dispacement isenough to tansfom what is taken fo ganted, in the case of Guiaumede Machaut, into something unusua and een inconceiabe

My eades wi hae ady obseed that in speaking as I do Icontadict ceain pincipes that numeous citics hod as sacosanct Iam aways tod one mus nee do ioence to the tt Faced with Guilaume de Machau he choice is clea one mus eihe do iolence o he o le he foee do iolence o innocen icims Ceain pinciples uniesally held o be alid in ou day, because hey seem o guadagainst the cses of cetain inepeaions, can bing about disasus consequences nee anicipaed by hose who, thinking they hae


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G A D A C H A A N D H W S 9

foreen everythng, consder the prncples nvolable. veryonebeeves that the rst duty of the crtc s to respect the mnng of textsCan ths prncpe be sustaned n the face of Guaume de Machauts

workAnother contemporary noton suers n the ght of Guaume deMachauts tt, or rather from the unhtatng way we read t, and thats the casua way n whch tera crtcs dsmss what they ca thereferent In current ngustc argon the referrent s the subect of thett; n our ampe t s the massacre of the Jews, who were seen asrnsbe for the sonng of Chrstans For some twenty yrs thereferent has been consdered more or s naccsbe. It s unmpor-tant! we hear, whether we are capable or not of rchng t; ths naveoton of the referent woud seem only to hamper the atest study ofttuaty Now the ony thng that matters s the ambguous andunreabe reatonshps of anguage Ths perspectve not to berejected wholesale, but n applyng t n a scholarly way we n the rsk

that onl Ernest Hoepper, Gullaumes tor n the venerable Soctdes ancens ttes, wll be seen as the truly dl crtc of that wrter Hsntroducton does n fact spk of courty poet, but there s never anymenton of the masc of the Jews durng the pague.

The passage from Guaume provdes a good ampe of what Ihave caed n Ds choss chs dus ondton du mon persecu-

ton texts4 By that I mean accounts of rea voence, often coectve,tod from the perspectve of the persecutors, and therefore nuenced bycharacterstc dstortons These dstortons must be dented andcorrected n order to revea the arbtra nature of the voence that thepersecuton text presents as usted

We need not examne at ength the accounts of wtch tras to deter-

mne the presence of the same combnaton of rea and magnary,hough not gratutous, detas that we found n the text of Guaume deachaut. Evethng s presented as fact, but we do not beeve a of t,or do we beleve that evehng s false Genelly we have no d-y n dstngushng fact from cton Agan, the accusatons made nals seem rdculous, even though the wtch may consder them tend there may be reason to suspect her confesson was not obtan byure The accused may we beeve hersef to be a wtch, and may

4 R Gi Ds cs s s a fontn Pai: G 986 -62


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10 T S A G O A T

wel ae ed o am e negbos by magca poceedngs We sdo no consde a se desees e dea senence We do no beeea magc s eece We ae no dcly n accepng a e cm

saes e oes dclos beef n e ecacy of wcca bs beef does no aec s o skepcsm s no sakenDng e a no a sngle oce s ased o eesabls o, ae,

o esabls e No one s capabe of dong so Ts mns a noonly e dges and e wnses b also e accsed ae no n ageemen w o nepeaon of e own es Ts nanmy fals onence s Te aos of ese docmens wee ee and we weeno We ae accs o no nfomaon a dd no come fom emAnd ye, seea cenes lae, one snge soan o een e speson o ead e fees e as e g o dspe e senencepnonced on e wces

Gllame de Maca s enepeed n e same eme y,e same adacy s ecs n oeowng e e, e same

nelecal opeaon s n eec w e same ceany, based on esame ype of easonng Te fac a some of e deals ae magneddoes no pesade s o consde e woe magnay On econay, e ncedble accsaons sengen ae an dmns ecedby of e oe facs

Once moe we encone wa wold seem o be, b s no, a paa

docal eaonsp beween e pbabe and mpobabe deas aene no e s comson s n e g of s eaonsp,no ye aclaed b no ls appaen o s, a we wl ealae eqany and qay of e nfomaon a can be dawn fom o ef e docmen s of a legal nae, e s ae saly as pose oeen moe se an n e case of Glame de Maca s

nfonae a mos of e accons wee bned w e wcTe accsaons ae absd and e senence ns, b e s aebeen eded w e cae and clay a geneally caaceze legadocmens O condence s eefoe wel paced Tee s no sspcon a we secely sympaze w ose wo condc e wcns Te soan wo wod consde al e deals of a al eqaly

J H Zub Inquisitn und Henpss im Mittelter und Entstu g Hexlgung (Muh-L S 19; Dluu Pr Ont,L 2 p O h o h wh l s bMou Magtrats et rcs( o 1968 Slo Nl Zmo Dv Sty a Culture n rlyM Fra(S Cl So 197


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G U I L L A UE D E AC H A U A D H E J E W S 11

ntastic, on the cuse that some of them are tainted by the distoionsof the persecutors, is no expert, and his coleagues woud not take himseriousy The most eective criticism does not consist in reecting even

the believable data on the ground that it is better to sin by cess ratherhan lack of distst Once again the principe of unlimited miststmus give way o he goden le of persecuion s he mind of apersecuor creaes a cerain ye of illusion and he races ofhis illusionconrm raher han invalidae he isence of a ceain kind of even,he persecuion iself in which he wich is pu o deah To disinguishhe te from the false is a simpe matter, since each bears the clear markof a stereotype

In order to understand the reasons behind this traordina assur-ance evidenced in persecution texts, we must enumerate and describethe stereotypes This is also not a dicult task It is merely a questionof aicuating an understanding we already possess We are not aware ofits scope because we never examine it in a systematic fashion The

understanding in question remains captive in the concrete ampes towhich we appy it, and these aways belong to the mainly Westehistorica domain We have never yet tried to appy this understandingbeyond that domain, for ampe to the socaled ethnoogical universeTo make this possible I now going to sketch, in summa fashion, aypology of the stereotypes of persecution


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CAPER

Stereotes of Persetion

I SA ONNE my disussion to olletive perseutions and theirresonanes By oetive peeutions I mean ats o violene ommitted diretly by a mob o murderers suh as the perseution o the Jews

during the Bak Death By oletive resonanes o peeutions Imean ats o vioene, suh as withhunts, that are legal in orm butstimulated by the tremes o publi opinion The distintion is not,however, essentia Poitial terrors, suh as the Frenh volution,oen belong to both types The perseutions in whih we are interestedgenelly take pae in times o crsis, whih weaken noa institutions

and vor mb ormation Suh sntaneous gatherings o people anexert a deisive inuene on institutions that have been so weakened,and even repae them entirey

These phenomena are not always produed by idential irumstanes Sometimes the ause teal, suh as an epidemi, a severedrought, or a ood ollowed by amine Sometimes the ause is

internalpolitial disturbanes, or example, or religious onitsFortunately, we do not have to determine the atua ause No matterwhat irumstanes trigger great oletive peeutions, the experieneo those who live through them is the same The strongest impressionis without question a treme oss o soia oder evidened by the disapprane o the es and "dierenes that dee utul divisionsDesriptions o these events are a alike Some o them, espeiallydesriptins o the pague, are ound our greatt write We rdthem in Thuydides and Sopholes, in Luretius, Boaio,Shakespeare, Deoe, Thomas Mann, Antonin Aaud, and many othersSome o them are also written by individuas with no itery preten


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S O S O S U ON

sions and thee is never any great dierence We shoud not besurprised snce all the sources speak endlessy o the absence o derence the lack o cutura dieentiation and the consion that esults

For example the Pouguese monk Fco de Santa Maria writes n 1697:As sn as his vioen and emstos spak is it in a kingdom o a repbicmagisaes are wideed people ae eied he govenmen hown ino

diay. ws are no onge oyed bsiness comes to a ha families e

coheence and the sees heir livey amosphee Eveyhing is edced oeme con sion. Eve hing g to in. Fo everything is oched and ove

hemed by the weigh and magnitde of sch a horibe caamiy. Ppegadess of position o weah are drowning in mortal dness . . he who

ee bing othes yeseday are hemseves bried oday . . . No pity isshown o fiends since evey sign of piy is dangeros . . .

A he aws of ove and nare are downed o forgoen in he midst of hehoos of sch gea consion chiden ae sddenly sepaaed fom thei

paens wives from hei hsbands bohes and friends fom each other . . . .

Men ose heir naa coage and no knowing any onge wha advice oow ac ike despeae bindmen who enconer fear and condictions aevey sep.

Institutona colapse obteates or teescopes hierarchical and nctiona dieences so that eveything has the same monotonous andmonstus aspect The impresson o dierence n a society that s not

a state o csis is the resut o real diversity and also o a system ochange that "dierentiates and thereore concs the recpocaeements it contains by its vey cuture and by the nature o thechange Maages or ampe or consume gds are not cearlypeeived as changes When a society breaks down time sequencesoen Not ony is there an acceeration o the tem o postve hanges that continue ony when absoutey indspensable as barteror ample but aso the hoste or "negative exchanges tend to inrse The ecprocity o negatve rather than positive chan beomes oreshoened as it becomes more visbe as witnessed n theciprocity o nsults bows evenge and neutc symptoms That ishy traditiona cutures shun a t immediate eciprocity

Negative eciprocity athough it brings peope into opositon with

ch other tends to make the conduct uniom and is resnsbe or

] Fo e Sana H savas CTeS (: Feea6; qo b ea L r en Oden 12


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14 THE SCAPEGOAT

te pedomnane of e m. Tus padoxay t s t ontuaand psst Ts a of derentaon orrponds o te reaty ofuman reatons yet remans myt In our own tme we ave ad a

smar expeene w as eome asoute eause s projeed onte woe unverse. Te text uoted aove ggts s pros ofreang unformty roug eproy "Tose wo were yngotes yesterday are emseves bured today .No py s sown tofrends sne eve sgn of py s dangerous dren are suddenysepaated fom te parents wves fom usands oer and fendsfrom ea oer' Te smaty of beavor eates onson and aunvesa a of deene "Peope regardess of ston or wea aredrownng n moa sadness ...Eveng s edued to an emeonson

Te peene of great soa rss s sarey aeed y te dver-sty of te e auses Te esut s great unformty n te drptons tat reae to te unformty tse Guaume de Maa s no

exepon. He sees n e egotsta wdrawa nto te sef and n teser or repsas ta ute paradox of reproa onseuenesone of te man auses of te pae.We an ten spea of a steeotypeof ss w s to e reognze ogay and ronoogay as terst stereotype of peeuton Cutue s someow epsed as t eom ess derentaed. One ts s nderstd t s easer to nder-

stand te oerene of te ps of perseuton and e sort of ogtat ns a e stereotypes of w s omposed.

Men fee poweress wen onfroned wt te epse of ture;tey are dsonerted y te mmensy of te dsaste ut neve oonto e natua auses te onept ta tey mgt aet tose ausesby rnng more abo tem emans embryon Sne utura epse

s ave a a soa ss tee s a srong tendeny o pan t bysoa and peay mora auses.Aer a uman reatons dsnte-grate n te pess and te sujets of ose eatons annot e tterynnoent of s penomenon But ater an bame temsevespeope nevaby bame ete soety as a woe w oss temnotng or oter peope wo seem pauay arm fo easydenbe reasons.Te suspets are aused of a paar ategory ofrmes.

Cean ausatons are so araerst of oeve perseutontat er vey menton ma modern oserve suspe voene n te


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STERETYPES F PERSECUIN 15

air They oo everywhere for oher liely indicationsoher stereo-typ of persecutiono conrm their suspicion A rs sight the accu-satons seem fairly divee but ther unity s sy to nd First there are

vioent crimes whch chse as object those people whom t is mostcriminal to attac either in the absolute sense or n reference to the ndi-vidual commiting the ac: a ing a father the symbo of supremeauthoriy and n biblical and mode socieies he weat and mostefenseess especially young children Then there are sual crimpe incest bestialiy The ones mos frequenly invoed transgress theaos that are consdered the strctes in the society in question Finallythere are reigious crimes such as profanaion of the hos Here t itis the srictest taboos that are transgressed

All hese crimes seem to be ndamenta They attac the very foundaton of cutural order the family and he herarchica dierenc with-out which there would be no social order In the sphere of individualaction they correspond to he globa consequences of an epidemic of the

plague or of any comparabe disastert is not enough for he social ndto be loosened; i must be totaly destroyed

Ultmately the persecuor alwas convince themselves that a smalumber of people or even a snge individua dpite his relative weakess is remy harml to the whole of socet The sertypicalcton uses and faciltat this belief by osensiby acting the role

of mediaor I bridge the gap between the insignicance of the individual and the enormty of the social body If the wrongdoe even the da-lical ones are to succeed in destroying the communitys distinctionshey must either atac he community directy by striing at its hear head or else they must begin he destcton of dierence wthinheir own sphere by committng contagous crimes such as parricide

d ncesWe need not tae time to consider the ultimae causes of ths belieuch as the unconscious desir described by psychoanalysts or theist concept of the secret wil to oppress There is no need to go thatr Our concern is more elementay; we are only interested n the mech-ism of he accusaton and in the interaction between repeaond acts of persecution They comprise a system and if owledge oe cause is necessay o the undersanding of the system then he mosmediate and obvious causes will suce The terror inspired in peopleb the eclipse of culture and the universa consion of popular upris


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S O Y P S O P S C U ON

vous accusatons o vn th odinay "v y whch s usd toattbut almost any l to amost any son W should thfocognz n h osoning of dnng wat a vaaton of a stoty-

cal accusaton. Th fac ha hs accusatons a all jutasd n thtch tals s f hat thy all sond to th sam nd Th suscts

a always convictd of noctunal acaton n th famous sabbat Noalb s ossibl snc th hyscal snc of th accusd is no ncs-say to stablsh oof Patcaton n cmina assmbls can buy stual.

Th cms and th aaion wth whch th sabbat sassocatd hav a walth of socia cussons Among thm can bund th abomnatons tadonally attbutd to th Jws n Chstancount and bfo hm to th Chstans n th Roman EmiThy always nclud tual nfantcd lgous ofanaton nctu-us latonshs and bstalty Food osonng as wl as onssgains nunial o rstgous ctzns always ay a sgncant ol.

Consuny ds h sonal nsgnicanc a wtch s ngagd nactvts hat can otntally act h whol of sty Ths lanshy th dvl and hs dmons a no dsdanful of such an allanc. ll say no mo about stoyical accusatons t s asy to cognzth css causd by th lac of ntaton as th scond stotyd ts ln to th st

tun now to th hd stoty Th cowds choic of vctmsay b totally andom; but t s not ncssaly so is vn ossbl thath cms of which thy a accusd a but that somtms thscutos choos th vctms bcaus hy blong to a class that saculaly susctbl to scuton ath than bcaus of th cmsy hav commttd Th Jws a among thos accusd by Gullaum

Machaut of osonng th ivs. Of all th ndcatons h gvs uss s fo us th most valuab th on that most vals th distoon scuton Wth th contt of oth magnay and al sto-, w now that his stoty must b a. n fact n mnstn socty Jws hav funtly bn scutd

Ethnc nd gous mnots tnd o laz th majotsnst thmsls.n hs w s on of th cta by whch vctms slcd whch though latv o h ndvdual socty s tanscu-al n ncil.Th a vy fw socts that do not subc hnots all th ooly ntgad o mly dstnct gous to ctan


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8 H S C A P G O A

fms f dscmnan and even esecun In Inda he Msems aeesecued, n Paksan he Hndus Thee ae heefe unvesal sgnsf he seecn f vcms, and hey cnsue hd seey

In addn cua and egus hee ae uey physlcea Sckness, madess, genec defmes, accdenal njues, andeven dsabes n genea end ae esecus. We need nyk aund whn undesand he unvesay Even ay eecann cn a mmenay ec fm hysca abnmay The veywd abnrmal, ke he wd plae n he Mdde Ag, s smehngf a o; s bh nbe and cused, sar n al senses f he wd s cnsdeed me ng n Engsh eace wh he wd handpped The "handcaed e subc dscmnay measues hamake hem vcms, u f a n he een whch heesence dsubs he ease f sca echange One f he gea uaesf u scey s ha nw fees bged ake measu f he bene.

saby belngs a age gu f bana sgns f a vcm, and

amng cean gus n a badng sch f ameevey ndvdua wh has dcuy adag, smene fm anhe cuny sae,an han, an ny sn, smene wh s enness, even smy helaes ava, s me ess nechangeabe wh a ce. If he dsaby defmy s ea, ends lae "mve ee aganshe aced esn Smay, f a gu f ee used chsng

s vcms fm a cean sca, ehnc, egus caeg, ends abue hem dsabes defmes ha wud enfce heaan agans he vcm, wee hey eal Ths endency s ceaybsevable n acs cans

The abnmay need n ny be hysca n any aea f esence behav abnmay may ncn as he cen f seecng

hse be secued F eame hee s such a hng as sca abnmay; hee he aveage denes he nm The fuhe ne s fm nmal sa saus f whaeve knd, he geae he sk f esecun.Ths s easy see n elan hse a he bm f he scal adde.

Ths s ess bvus when we add anhe magna gu he and usdes he mana nsde, he ch and wefu Themnach and hs cu ae fen mnscen f he e f he hucane.Ths dube magnay s ndcave f a sca ganan n um.In nmal mes he ch ad we enjy al ss f ecn andveges whch he dsnheed ack We ae cncened hee n whnmal ccumsances bu wh eds f css A mee glance a wld


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S O P S O P S I O N

hor wll rval ha h d of a von dah a h hand of a frnd crowd ar acall grar for h prvgd han for an ohrcagor Erm characrc lma arac colcv drc

on a om m or ohr, rm no j of wah or povr, balo of cc and falr, a and gln, vc and vr, h ab- o pa and o dpa h wakn of womn, chdrn, and oldpopl, a wl a h rngh of h mo powrl, bcom waknn h fac of h crowd Crowd commonl rn on ho who org-na hd cponal powr ovr hm

No dob om popl wl b hockd o nd h rch and powrd among h vcm of cocv prcon ndr h am la h poor and wak h wo phnomna ar no mmrcal n hr h rch and powr r an nnc ovr oc whch j h ac of volnc o whch h ar bjcd n m of crh h ho rvol of h opprd

h bordrln bwn raona dcrmnaon and arbrar

rcon omm dcl o rac. For polca, moral, anddca raon cran form of dcrmnaon rk a raonaba, h ar mlar o h ancn for of prcon for -pl, h qarann of anon who mgh b conago drng anpdmc.In h Mdd Ag docor wr hol o h da ha hpa cod prad hrogh phcal conac wh h dad Gnr-

all, h longd o h nlghnd grop and an hor of conagonmackd mch of a prcor prjdc no o b pc.And h dor wr wrong For h da of conagon o bcom ab-hd h nnnh cnr n a pr mdca con, dvod ofan aaon wh prcon, wa ncar for hr o b nopcon ha wa h rrn of prjdc n a nw dg.

h an nrng qon b ha nohng o do wh orprn work M onl goal o nmra h qal ha nd opolar voln crowd agan ho who po hm. h ampl hav gvn nqonab blong n h cagor.h fac ha omof h ac of vonc mgh vn b jabl oda no ralporan o h n of anal I am png

I am no kng o ac ndar o h ld of prconnor am I rng o drmn prcl whr njc bgn or ndonrar o wha om hnk, I am no nrd n dnng wha gd and bad n h ocal and cral ordr M onl concrn ohow ha h parn of colcv vonc cro cl d ha


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27/220

22 H S C A P G O A T

Te aious kinds o ictims seem edisosed to cimes tat eliminate dieences Religious, etnic, o national mioities ae nee actu-ally eoaced o tei dieence, ut o not ing as dieent as

ected ad in te end o not dieing at all Foeignes ae incaaleo esecing ea dieences ey ae acking i cuue o in ase, ase case may Tey ae dicuy in eceiing exacy wa isdieen.Te barbaros is no e eson wo seaks a dien anguageu e eson wo mixes e ony uy signican disincions, oseo te Geek language In all te ocaula o tial o nationaleudices ated is essed, not o dieence, ut o its asence. Itis not te ote nomos tat is seen in te ote, ut anomaly, no is itanote no ut anoality; te disaled ecomes deoed; teoeigne ecomes te apatri. It is not good to e a cosmoolitan inRussia. Aliens imitate all te dieences ecause tey ae none. Temecanisms o ou ancestos ae eoduced unconsciously, om geneation to geneation, and, it is imoant to ecognie, oen at a less letal

leel tan i te ast Fo instance today antiAmeicanism etends todie'' m eious eudices ecause it esouses all diences andeects te uniuely Ameican is o uiomity.

We ea eeywee tat dieence is esecuted Tis is teaoite statement o contemoay lualism, and it can e somewatmiseading in e esen conex

Een i e mos cosed cuues men iee ey ae ee and oeno e uniesa; ei dieenia caace mes e naowes cutua eds seem inexausie om wiin.Anying a comomisestis illusion teies us d stis u te immemoial tendency to esecution.Tis tendency always takes te same diection, it is emodied yte same steeotyes and always esonds to te same teat. Desite

wat is said aound us esecutos ae nee osessed y dieence utate y its unutteale conta, te lack o dieence.Steeotyes o esecution cannot e dissociated, and emakaly

most languages do not dissociate tem.Tis is te o Latin and Geek,o examle, and tus o Fenc o Englis, wic oces us constantlyin ou study o steeotyes to tun to wods tat ae elated crisis crimcritria critiqu all sae a common oot in te Geek e krino wicmeans not only to udge, distinis, dieentiate, ut also to accuseand condemn a ictim Too muc eliance sould not laced on etymology, no do I eason om tat asis But te enomenon is so


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S E R E O Y P E S P E S E CU O 23

onstt it desees to be mentioned. It implies an as yet concealed rea-

onship between collective persecutions and the culture as a whole If

uh a relationship exists, it has never been explained by any linguist

hilosopher o politicia


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C A P T R T R

Wha Is a Myh?

EA E AN l we esme mes c lece hs decly decly cllece we ques whehe cludes hedesc scl d culul css, h s, eeled lss

deeces (he s seeye), cmes h "elme deeces (hesecd seeye), d whehe he deed uhs hese cmesssess he mks h su cm, he dcl mks he b-sece deece (he hd seeye) The uh seeye s -lece sel, whch wll be dscussed le

The us me h e seeye wh sle dcu-

me dces esecu N ll he seeys mus be esehee e euh d e ee w The esece cces us h(I) he cs lece e el; (2) he css s el; () he cms echse he cmes hey e ccused bu he cms ssh hey be, eeyh h suess he uly elsh whhe css; d (4) he m he e s ly he essbly

he css he cms d ee uece by desyhese cms les by bsh hem m he cmmuy hey"llue

hs e s uesl shuld be ud ully ll sc-ees ss d c d ll he scees cluded hesudes whch dy embce he ee le, bu eusly weeced We scey d h secclly he Rm Ad ye ehlss he ee cme ece hs e esecu he scees hey sudy Why s h Tw swes essble "Ehlcl scees e s lle e secu hhe ye lyss led Gullume de Mchu s lcble


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W HAT IS A M TH ? 2

o hem Conempoay neopmvsm whch ends owad hs solu-

on paces he supeo humany of al ohe culues n opposon ohe nhumany of ou sey u no one da ague ha pesecuon

s o exs n nonesen socees he second possbe answe s haesecuon exss bu we do no ecognze ehe because we ae no possesson of he necessay dumens or bu w o not know how r th ocumnt w o po

consde he second of hese wo hypoheses o be he coec oneMyhca uasc socees ae no exemp fom pesecuon e possess dmens ha aow us o pove hs: hey conan he seeoypesf pesecuon ha have named hey emege fom he same oa pa-en as he eamen of he Jews n uaume de Machau f ou ogc conssen we shoud appy he same ype of nepeaon o hemhese dmens ae myhs

o make my ask ease sha begn wh a myh ha s exempay conans all he seeoys of pesecuon and nohng ese and

onans hem n a sang fom s Sophoces' acco of he myhfOedpus n Oipu Rx. sha hen m o myhs ha epuce heaen of pesecuon bu n a fom ha s hade o decphe Fnay sha un o myhs ha eec hs paen bu do so n such an obvousy as o conm s eevance y poceedng fom easy o moecu nend o show ha a myhs mus have he oos n ea acs

f voence agans ea vcms begn wh he myh of Oedpus he pague s avagng hebes:

ee we have he s seeoype of pesecuon Oedpus s ponsbecause he has ked hs fahe and maed hs mohe hee s heecond seeoype he oace decles ha n ode o end he epemc he abomnabe cmnal mus be banshed he nay of

secuon s expc Pacde and nc seve openly as he needaes beween he ndvdual and he coecve hese cmes ae sovous of deences ha he nuence s conagous o he whoeey n Sophes we esabsh ha o ack deence s o beaguescken

he hd seeoype has o do wh he sgns of a vcm he s sably Oedpus mps hs heo fm anohe couny aved nees unknown o anyone a sange n fac fno n gh Fnay he he son of he kng and a kng hmsef he legmae he ofLausL many ohe myhcal chaaces Oedpus manages o combne heagnay of he ousde wh he mgnaly of he nsde Lke


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26 T H S C A A

Ulysses at the end of the Oy he is sometimes a stranger and a ggarand sometimes an alpower monarch

The only detail without an equivaent in historica persecutions is

the exposed infant But the whole world agrees that an exposed infant isa victim at an early stage, chosen cause of the signs of abnormalitywhich augur badly for his ure and which evidently are the same asthe signs that indicate the selection of a victim mentioned ave Thefatal destiny determined for the exposed child is to be expelled by hiscommunity His escape is only ever temporary, his destiny is at the stdeferred, and the conclusion of the myth conrms the infalibility of thesigns of the ocle that dedicate him, fm earliest infancy, to collectiveviolence

The more signs of a victim an individual bears, the more likely heis to attract disaster Oedipuss inrmity, his past history of exposure asan infant, his siation as a foreigner, newcomer, and king, all make a veritable conglomerate of victims signs We would not fail to obsee

this if the myth were a historcal document, and we would wonder at themeaning of al these signs, together with other stereotypes of persecu-tion There would be no doubt aut the answer We would ceainly seein the myth what we see in Guillaume de Machauts text, an account ofpersecution told from the perspective of nave persecutors The persecutors poray their victim exactly as they see himas the guilty

personbut they hide none of the objective traces of their persecutionWe conclude that there must be a real victim hind the text, chosen notby viue of the stereotypical crimes of which he is accused, crimeswhich never spread the plague, but because of all the characteristics ofa victim specied in that text which are most likely to project on theparanoiac suspicion of a cwd toented by the plague

In the myth, as in Guillaume and in the witchcra trials, the accu-sations are tly mytholol parricide, incest, the moral or physicaisoning of the community These accusations are characteristic of theway in which frenzied crowds conceive of their victims But these sameaccusations are jtaposed with criteria for the selection of a victimwhich may well be real How can we not believe that a real victim lieshind a text which presents him in this way and which makes us seehim, on the one hand, as the persecutors generaly see him and, on theother hand, as he should really to chosen by real persecutors Foreven greater ceainty, his banishment is said to take place in a time ofextreme crisis which favors real persecution the conditions are pres


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W H A S A M T H ? 7

ent that wll automatcally prompt the modern reader, as we havedescrbed ave for hitil texts, to reach the same nterpretaton wewould make of texts wrtten from the perspectve of persecutors. Why

do we hestate the case of myths?Just as n medeval persecutons, stereotypcal persecutors arealways found n myths and are statstcay too prevalent to gnore Theyths are too numerous for us to be abe to attrbute the repetton of themode to anythng but real persecutons. Any other concluson would as absurd as to thnk that Gullaume de Machauts account of theJews was pure cton. As soon as we are confronted wth a text that sperceved to be hstorcal we ow that ony the havor of a persecu-tor, seen through a persecutors mnd, can generate the collecton oftereotypes we d many myths Persecutors leve they choosether vctms because of the crmes they arbute to them, whch makehem n ther eyes responsble for the dsters to whch they react bypersecuton Actually, the vctms are detened by the crtera of

persecuton that are fathlly repoed to us, not cause they want tofo us but because they are uaware of what they reveal

n the case of a text wrtten by the persecutors the only elements oft that should be leved are those that correspond () to the real cr-mstances of the tes comg nto ng, (2) to the characterstc tratsf ts usual vctms, and ) to the resuts that noally follow collectve

olence. f these authors descrbe not merey parrcde and ncest as theause of plaes but also everythng that goes wth ths type ofbelefnhe real world ad all the resultng sorts ofbehavor, then they are pb-bly rght on a these ponts because they are wrong about the rst one .hese are our four stereotypes of persecutors, the same combnaton ofe lkely and the unlkely that we saw n the hstorcal texts, and we ca-

ot pect t to have another sgncance than the one stated above. t the paly accurate and pay false perspectve of persecutors who arennced of ther own persecutn

Ths concluson s not the result of nvet. Real navet s buredder the tremes of skeptcsm, whch s ncapable of dentng theereotypes of persecuton d of resong to the darng yet legtmateterpretaton they requre The myth of Oedpus s not ust a lterary or a psychoanalytc tt, but a persecuton tt and should be nter-ted as such. t wll be obected that an nterpretve method that wasented n and for hsto cannot be apped to myth ae, but a ae shown above, genune hstorcal evdence play no mre than a


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H S C A A

secodary roe i decipherig represetatios o persecutio I theyhad bee depedet o history they woud ever have bee deciphereda process that has oy ust begu i the mode era

I we cosider that the victims metioed by the witchhuters arerea we do ot usuay do so because we have iormatio o them romidepedet ubiased sources Admittedy we pace the tt i aramework o kowedge but that amework woud ot exist i wetreated historica persecutio texts as we treat the myth o Oedipus

As aready metioed we do ot kow exacty where the evetsdescribed by Guiaume de Machaut took pace; eve i we kew amostothig icudig the istece o the Back Death we woud sti cocude that such a tt must reect a pheomeo o rea persecutioust the combiatio o persecutor stereotypes woud give suciet idicatio Why is the situatio deret i the case o myth?

My hypothesis reies o othig historica i the critics' sese It ispurey "strucra as i our iterpretatio o historica represetatios

o persecutio We asse that ceai texts are based o a rea persecutio cause o the ature ad the dispositio o the persecutor stereotypes they portray Without this origi it is impossibe to expai whyad how the same themes keep recurrig i the same pae I weaccept this thesis the obscurity o the text is immediatey dispeed Thethemes are a easiy expaied ad o serious obectio ca be ised

For this reaso we have uhesitatigy accepted the thesis as the origio a the historica tts that oow the patte o persecutio we havedescribed As a resut we o oger see it as cotroversia but as the puread simpe tth o these texts Ad we have good reaso It mais tod out why such a soutio does ot occur to us i the case o a mythike that o Oedipus

That is the rea probem The egthy aaysis I have ust give othe type o iterpretatio that automaticay resuts i the ideticatioo stereotypes o persecutio was ecessary i order to uderstad thatprobem As og as we are takig ohistorica texts the iterpretatiopresets o probem ad there is o eed to detai each step o theprocess But this aitude is pcisey the obstace to our takig theecessary step backward to reect o our unsng o the psetatios o persecutio We have ot competey mastered that uderstadig cause it has ever bee made totay expicit

verythig I have said aut myhoogy woud appear to be obviousamost too obvious i the case o a "historica documet I my readers


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W H A T I S A M T H

are not convnced I shall convnce them now by a very smple eampleI a gong to draw a rough sketch of the sto of Oedpus; I shall remove

s Greek clothng and substte Weste garb In so dong, the myth

ll descend several steps on the socal ladder I wll gve no detas ofthe place or the precse date of the event The readers good wll w pro

de the rest My tale fals naturally nto some pa of the Chstanorld between the twelh and theenth centures; that s a that seeded to release, e a sprng, the operaton that no one has thought

fapplyng to a myth, as long as we have been callng t precsely that, myth

aes ae bad e cows gve b o dead calves no oe s o gd est ayoe ese s as f a spe ad been cast on te vage Ceay s eppe wo s e cause e aved one ne mog no one kows omee ad made msef a ome e even k e bey of mag e

os obvous eess e vage and ad wo cde by e A sos ofgs seemed o ke pace n ei ouse Te sage was suspeced of avng

led s wfes fome usband a so of oca poeae wo dsappeaednde myseous ccumstances ad was ae oo qucky epaced by ewcome. One day the feows e vage ad ad eoug ey ook echfoks and foced e dsubg caace o cea ou

N ONE have the slghtest hestaton n ths nstance Everyone

nstnctvely gve the eplanaton I have mentoned Everyone unrstands that the vctm most ceanly dd not do what he was accusedbut that evethng aut hm marked hm as an outet fo the annoyce and rrtaton of hs fellow ctzens Everyone w understandsly the relatonshp tween the lkey and unkely elements n thsle story No one wll suggest that t s an nnocent fable; no one wll

t as a casual work of poetc magnaton or of a wsh to poray theamenta mechansms of mans thoughtAnd yet nothng has changed It has the same stcture as the myth

ce t s a ough sketch of t Thus the nterpretaton does not rest onheher t s or s not set n a framework of hstorcal detal A changesettng s enough to redrect the nterpreter to a readng that he ndgtly rejects when the tet s presented a true mythologcal forme transpoed our story to the olynesans or Amercan Indans weuld see the same ceremonous respect that the Hellensts had for theek verson of the myh accompaned by the same obstnate resal have recourse to the most eectve nterptaton Th latter s


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0 T H S C A A T

reseed exclsivey for or historica niverse, for reasons we shall tto ncover later.

We are dealing with cal schizophrenia. My hypothesis wod

have seed a prpose if it had only revealed jst that We interpret textsnot by what they reay are bt by their external trappings (I am almostempted to call it their commercial wrapping. A slight modication ofthe presentation of a text is enogh to inhibit or relse the only tyradical demystication available to s, and no one is aware of thesiation

S AR I have only spoken of a myth that I myself recognize to be exem-pay in regard to representations of peection. Those myths that arenot mst also be discssed. They do not bear an obvios resemblance topersection texts, bt if we look for the for stereotypes we shall ndpeny of them withot diclty, thogh in a ther more transgredform

Oen the beginning of the myth can be redced to a single charac-teristic Day and night are consed; heaven and eah commnicate;gods move among men and men among gods. Among god, man, andbeast there is lie distinction Sn and moon ar twins; they ghtconstantly and cannot be distingished one from the other. The snmoves too close to the eah; dght and heat make ife nbearable. At

rst sight, there is nothing in these ginnings of myth that has any con-nection with reality. Clearly, however, myh involves a ack of dierentiatio The great social crises that engender collective persections areperienced as a lack of dierentiation This is the characteristic that Incovered in the preceding chapter We might well ask whether this isnot or rst stereotype of persection, in an extremely stylized and

tnsgred form, redced to its simplest expressionck of dierentiation in myth sometimes has idyic connotations,of which I will speak later Usaly, its chacter is catastrophic Theconsion of day and night signies the absence of sn and the wither-ing of eveything The sns too cose proximity to the eah indicatesthat istence is eqally nbearable bt for the opposite reason Mythsthat are thoght to "invent death in reality invent nothing bt ratherdistingish it fm ife when "in the beginning'' both are consed. Ibeieve this to mean that it is impossible to live withot dying or, onceagain, that istence is nbearable

"rimordial ack of dierentiation and the "origina chaos conict


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W H A I S A M T H 3

strongly in charactr. Thos lmnts that ar indistingishal onhav conictal connotations This thm is paiclarly dvlopd inth postVdic tts ofBrahman India Evrything always gins with an

intrminal, indcisiv attl twn gods and dmons who ar soalik on can hardly tll thm apa In short, that too rapid and visilvil ciprocity maks all havior th m in th grat criss of socity

that ar apt to triggr collctiv prsctions. Th ndirntiatd isnly a partially mythical translation of this stat of aairs. W mstassociat with it th thm of twins or fratal nmis who illstratth conict twn thos who com ndirntiatd in a patic-larly graphic fashion o dot this is why th thm provids th mostcassic ginning for myths vrywhr

viStrass was th rst to idnti th nity of nms mythi-cal ginnings ts of a lack of dirntiation. For him th n-rntiatd is prly rhtorical; it srvs as a ackground for thisplay of dirncs. Thr is no qstion of rlating this, thn, to ral

cial conditions And ntil now thr wold sm to no vidnc ofy hop of nding in myth any concrt lationship with rality. Orur strotyps of prsction hav now modid this stat of aai. If nd thr of thm in th myths which gin th way I havdscd, w might lgitimatly concld that th initial lack ofirntiation constituts a schmatic t nvhlss rcognial

rsion of th rstW nd not dwll on this. All th crims that prsctors attrit

thir victims can gnrally fond in myths. In crtain, spciallyk, mythologis ths crims ar on not tratd as crims; thy arn mr pranks; thy ar csd and mad light of t thy arvrthlss prsnt and, at last in lttr not in spirit, thy cor-

pond prfctly to or strotyp In th myths that appar mostrimitiv if I dar s th trm th chif charactrs a formi-l criminals and ar tratd as sch Bcaus of this thy incur aunishmnt that a a strang rsmlanc to th fa of th vicimsf collctiv prsctions (it is oftn a qstion of lynching. On thisn main point th myths which I call primitiv ar vn closr than myth of Odipus to th crowd phnomna ith which I am compar-g thm

Thr is only on strotyp w mst nd in ths myths th markhat idntis th slction of a victim for prscution I nd not pointt that world mythology swarms with th lam, th lind, and th crip


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H E C A E G A T

pld o aunds wth popl stckn by th plagu As wll as thhos n dsgac th a thos who a cptonally bautl andf of all blmsh Ths mans not that mythology ltally s manng

lss but that t usually dals n tms and w hav alady notd thatths s a chaactstc of th polazaton of pscutonTh whol ang of vctm sgns can b found n myths, a fact

unnotcd bcaus w focus on th vctms thnc o lgous mnotyThat pacula s cannot appa n th sam fom n mythology Wnd nth pscutd Jws no blacks But th quvalnt can bfound n a thm that plays a cntal ol n all pas of th wold, thatof th rr banshd o assassnatd by th communty

Th vctm s a pon who coms fom swh, a wknownstang H s nvtd to a fast whch nds wth hs ynchng Why? Hhas don somthng h should not hav don hs havo s pcvdas fatal on of hs gss was msntptd H agan w hav onlyto magn a al vctm, a al stang, and vythng bcoms cla

If th stang havs a stang o nsultng way n th ys of hshosts, t s caus h confoms to oth customs Byond a canthshold of thnocntsm, th stang bcoms, fo tt o wos,tly mythologcal Th smallst msundstandng can b dsastusBnath ths myth of an assassnatd stang who s mad a god w cantac a fo of"povncalsm so tm that w can no long dnt

t, ust as w no long can s th sounds and colos of an lctomagntc wav yond a can lngth Agan, to bng ou ovphlosophcal ntptatons down to ah, w nd only plac ths mythcalthms aganst a Wst, al backgound On mmdatly gaspsth manng, just as th tansposton of th Odpus myth a momntago A tt sutab ntctua gymnastcs, d spcay a tt ss

cy vnton fo a that dos not bong to th mod Wst wod,and w w qucky a how to nag ou d of cognton andundstandng mythology

A clos amnaton of myths s not ncssay to stablsh that agat num of thm contan ou fou stotyps of pscuton tha oths, of cou, that contan only th, two, on o vn non Ido not ovlook thm but am not yt abl to analyz thm succsslly

S h hr myh mnd n Des chos cs us Ia onon u monpp 1 14-40.


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W H A A M Y H ?

We are ginning to see that the representations of persecution we havealready deciphered are for us an Ariadnes thread to guide us through thelabyrinth of mythology They will enable us to trace the real origin in

collective violence of even the myths that contain no stereotypes ofpeecution We shall see later that instead of gainsaying our thesis ordemanding questionable feats to maintan it those myths that areentirely void of stereotypes of persecution will provide us with the mostastounding verication For the tme ng we must continue our analysis of the myths that contain our stereotype but under a fo that is lesseasy to identi because it is somewhat more transgured than in themedieval persecutions or the myth of Oedipus This more extremetransguration does not create an insurpassable abyss beeen mythsand persecutions that have already en deciphered One word issucient to dene the type to which they belong monstrous

ver since the romantic movement we have tended to see in themythological monster a te creation ex nihilo a pure invention magi

nation is perceived as an absolute ability to conceive of fos that existnowhere n nature xamination of mythological monsters reveals nosuch thing They always consist of a combination of elements borrowedfrom various existing fos and brought together in the monster whichthen claim an independent identity Thus the Minotaur is a mixre ofman and bull Dionysus equally but the god in him commands more

attention than the monster or than the mixre of fosWe must think of the monstrous as ginning with the lack of

dierentiation with a process that though it has no eect on realitydoes aect the perception of it As the rate of conical reciprocityaccelerates it not only gives the accurate impression ofidentical behavioramong the antagonists but it also disintegrates perception as it becomes

dizzying Monsters are surely the result of a fragmentation of perceptionand of a decomposition followed by a recombination that does not takenaral specicity into account A monster is unstable hallucinationthat in retspect cstallizes into stable fos owing to the fact thatit is remembered n a world that has regained stability

We saw earlier that the representations of historical persecutionsresemble mythology A transition to the monstrous is ade in thetreme representations we have mentioned such as in the crisis causedby the lack of dierentiation or in signs like defoity that mark aictim for persecution There comes a point at which physical mon


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3 H E C A E G A T

srosty and moral monstrosty merge The crme of bestalty for exam-pe engende monstrous mxtures of men and anmas; heheaphrodtsm of a Tsas physcal monstrosy canno be dsn-

gushed from moral monsrosty The stereotypes hemselves mee nother words to fo the mythologcal monstersIn he myhologca monster the physcal and the moral are

nseparable The two are so perfectly combned that any aempt to separate hem seems doomed to faure Yet f am rght there s a dsncton o made Physcal dformty must corespond to a real humanchacterstc a real nrmty Oedpuss wounds or Vucan's lmp arenot necessary less rea n therorgns han the characterstcs of medeval wtches Moral monstrosy by conrast acuales he tendency ofall persecuos to project the monstrous resuts of some calamty orpubc or prvate msfoune onto some poor unfortunae who by bengn or a foregner suggess a cean any to the monstrous

My anayss may seem srange for the monstrous character s gener

ay perceved as beng the nal proof of the absolutely cttous and magna character of mythology Ye n the monster we recogne thefalse cean and the te possbty tha I have been dscussng Itwll be sad that he presence of stereotypes n such conson dscounsmy argument If hey are examned all at once however they do form asot of uty; they create a pacuar clmate that s specc to mythol

o and we should do nothng to dssocate the elements even foraesthec reasons Nor have our best nterpretes ever separated themthough some scholars are movng n the drecton of a dentve sepa-ton of the (magnary) crmes of he vctms and he (possbly real) sgnsthat ndcate a vctm Here s a represenatve tex of Mrcea Elades onGreek mythoogy tha begns wth the atter and ends wh the foer:

[ os a dsgisd y t strengt ad butyu aso y monstrousrtersts ([ggaic] sau a s s Oss Popsu aso

satu [muc so] ta avag) o y a [omopic] (ycao wo) o a to nge temseles nto nmls. Ty a ndronous(Ccops) o nge ter sex (Tsas) o dress lke women (acs) addiio s a caacizd y umous nomls (/ o po

ly acs as tr rs o tt) y a ap o lme one- obnd os of al vicm to nsnty (Oss Bopo v cptioa acs w slugt s sons Mgaa) A o t selbeor it s esse o bent: cs mpregntes te ty ugts oTespus n one ngt; Tss s famos fo s numous rpes (l Aad


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W H A T A M Y T H ?

etc) Achilles rases traton he heoes coi nst wt ter daugts

or tr mots and nduge in massaes fo en o ange o ofen fo no

son a al t en slaugter ter faters and mots or tr relates 2

This text is impant because it cntains s many relevant traitsnder the sign f the mnstrus the authr unites the marks that identi a victim and the steretypica crimes withut mixing them Smething here seems t resist cnating the tw rubrics There is an aca,

thugh nt justied, separatinPhysical and mral mnstrsity g tgether in myth Their

cnnectin seems na, and is even suggested by anguage But in asimiar siatin ur histrica univee we wud nt exclude thessibility f the victims being rea, making the perpetual tapsitinfthe tw kinds f mnstrsity dius; we wuld suspect that its riginay the mentaity f persecutin But what else culd be its surce?at ther frce might aways be respnsible fr cnverging the twthemes? Fr reassurance it is attributed t the imagination We arely n the imaginin in der t avid eaity Yet Im nt referring tthe imaginatin f the aesthetic ian but, rather, t that f Guilaume dechauts at its mst cnsed, t the s f imaginatin, which, precisely because it is cnsed, brings us back t the real victims It isaways the imaginatin f the persecutrs Physic and mral mnstrsity are heaped tgether myths that usti the persecutin f the

in The fact that ther steretypes f persecutin surund themeaves n rm fr dubt If this were a rare cnunctin it might bedubius, but innuerabe exampes can be fund; it is the daily fare fmythlgy

xcept the case f ceain exemplary myths, that f Oedipus inpaicular, mythgy nnt be irtly assimilated t the patte f

representatins f persecutin that can be decded, but it can be s inirt Instead f aring ceain faintly mnstrus characteristics, thevictim is hard t cize as a victim because he is ttally mnstrusThis dierence shuld nt lead us t decide that the tw types f textscannt have a cmmn surce

Aer detailed examinatin it becmes cear that we are deing with

a single principe f disted pesentt, thugh in mythlgy themechanism perates in a higher register than in histry It is undeniaby

2 c Eade, A Hi of Reigo (cago Uest of cago P,978, 288 tacs me.


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6 T H E C A E G A T

d uvsly tu ht th ss to th psutos vo thmo mdbl th ovo boms. But hsol putos th ovto s ot so ovhmg s to ol ts ht

d th pss of usto fm whh stms Admttdy thvm s odmd dv; h ot dfd hmsl hs l hsldy tk pl but t ls th s tl o mt how juddTh wths hud lgy; v h putd ws xpltlyhgd hgd wh ms tht lss ukly th thos of thmyhl hs Th ds fo ltv pbblty whh ous up"th sog of vs pdoxly hlps us to mk th dstobtw th d flsty. Mythology dmds th sm optothough mo dg fom bus th umss moosd.

hstol putos th "gulty m sutly dsttfm th "ms fo th o b o mstk ut th tu of thpss Th sm ot b d of myh Th gulty p s so muh

pt of hs os ht o s dsgushbl fm th oth. Hsos sms to ftst ss o otoogl tbut. mymyhs th wthd ps ps s ough to om vthg ud hm ftg m d bsts wth th plgu ugps g d usg gm o dspp d wg dsodud hm Evythg shvls ud hs f d th gss dos ot

gow g H pdus dss s sly s g t pdus gs. Hd oly b hmsf.

Th dto ofvtm s s o ml s so blut mythd h usl ltoshp b m d ollv ss s sostog tht v pptv shols hv s yt fld to dsstths dtls d to dt h ustoy pss. Th psuto

tx whth mdvl o mod pvds th dd Adsthd. Ev thos hsto txts tht t th stos ss ofpsuto t oly v slght ovto Th mo ltlsslythy stgg to dmostt h jus of th wgdog h lssovg hy soud Ifth myth w to stt "Udoubtdly Odpusklld hs fh; t s ht h hd tous wh hs mothw uld ogz h typ of l t mds; t woud b wt th styl of hsto psuos fm bss of blf But spkstqully of uqustob ft: Odpus klld hs fth; h hdtous wth hs moth th sm to o ud sy: Nghtfollows dy o "Th su ss th Est


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W H A A M Y H 7

The distoions perseuion beome weaer as we move rom

myths o perseutions the Wese word. This weaening has in at

allowed us to deipher he later. Our as is o use this deoding

oer o gain aess to mytholo will use as my guide he tt o Guillaume de Mahaut and the others we have already enountered beausehey are easier to read to help interpre he myh o Oedipus rs o allnd hen inreasingy more diult texts. As we peed we wi reognize all the serypes o perseution and so reah the onlusion thathere are real ats o violene and real vitims behind hemes hat seemso antasti hat it is diul o thin hat one day we may no longer onsider them purely and simply imaginary.

Our medieval anestors t the most inredibe ables seriouslyhe ining o untains by the Jews or by lepers ritual inaniidewithes bmsis and moonlight diaial orgies. The mixture oelty and redulity seems insupassable o us. And yet myhs surpassthem historia perseuions are the resu o degraded superstitions.

We thin we are ree o mythia ilusions beause we have swo not tobe hdwined by them.

We are in he habi o onsidering neessarily tional even themost plausibe haraerisis o mythoogial hees beause o theirasiation wih other impbable haateristis. Simiarly i we wereto permit it he same alse notion o pdene and the same aitude

toward tion would prevent us m reognizing the reaity o he antiSemiti massares in Guillaume de Mahaut We do no doubt he reality o the massares on he use tha they a taposed with all sortso more or less signiant ables There is equally no od reason tooubt the reality the ase o myhs

The ae o the vitim shows thugh the mas in he texs ohistor

ial perseutions There ae hins and s. n myhology he masis still inat; it overs the whole ae so wel that we have no idea i isa mas We thin there is no one behind i neither vitim nor perseutor. We are mewha ie Poyphemuss bthers the Cylopes tohom he alls in vain or el p aer Ulysses and his ompanions blindedhim We save our only eye i we have one or what we al history Asor our ears i we have hem they only hear this hatis deeply embedded in olleive violene tha we tae i or nohingonistent pure abriation by a Poyphemus in a vein o etiimpvisation.

We no longer onsider myhologial monsers as a supeaural or


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8 H E C A P E G O A T

even natural speies; there are no longer theologial or even zoologialgens They long instead to the quasigenres of the imaginary"arhetypes of fable heaped in an unonsiousness that is even more

mythia than the myths themseves There was a time when no oneoud read even the distoions of perseution found in our own historyFiny we did ea We an put a date to this ahievement It goes bakto the beginning of the mode era and seems to onstitute ony the rststage in a proess that has never really been interrupted but has beenmarking time for enturies beause it laked a truly fruitful diretionthat would streth bak to mytholo

N WE UST disuss an essential dimension of myth that is almostentirely absent from historial perseutions that of the sared Medie-val and moden erseutors do not worship their vitims they only hatethem They are therefore easy to identi as vitims It is more diultto spot the vitim in a supeatul being who is a ult objet Admit-

tedly the gloous adventures of the hero an hardly be distingishedfrom the stereotypial rimes of olletive vitims ike those vitimsmoreover the hero is hunted and even assassinated by his own peopleBut the experts are agreement that suh annoying inidents are notimpoant They are merey minor esapades in a areer that is so nobeand transendenta it is poor taste to notie them

Myths exude the sared and do not seem omparabe with texts thatdo not No matter how striking the simiarities mentioned in the preeding pages they pe before this dissimilarity I trying to explainmyths by disovering them more extreme distoions of perseutionthan those of historial perseuto as they reall their own perseutions The method has been suessful until now sine I have unovered

myths the warped fos of evething that appears equally in perseution texts We may wonder whether we are missing the essential Evenif on a lower level mythology is vulnerable to my omparative methodidealists will say that at a higher level it esapes through the transen-dental dimension that is beyond reah

This is not so for the following two reasons Beginning with thesimilarities and dierenes tween our two types of texts the nature ofthe sared and the neessity of its presene in myths an litraly bededued by a simple proess of reasoning I will go bak to the perseution texts and show that despite appearanes they ontain traes of thesared that orrespond exaty to what is to expeted we were to


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W H A A M H I

rcgiz s I did rlir t dgrtd d ldcmsd myts

i ts ttsI rdr t drstd tt xistc f t scrd w mst bgi

by rcgizig tr lif i wt I clld t strty f ccsti t git d t rt rssibiity f t ictims Gim d Mct sicy bid tt t ris wr isd byt ws J Bdi sicry bid tt Frc ws sd tdgr by srcry i is dy.W d t t symtiz wit t lif by dmittig its sicrity.J Bdi ws itlligt m d yt lid i src.Tw ctris ltr sc lif mks l f mdicr itlligc lg Wt t is t src f t illsis f J Bdi r Gillm d Mct? Clrly ty rscil i tr Ty r illsis srd by grt mbr f lI mst scitis blif i witccrft is t t ct f ci idiidlsly r f my bt t ct f ry

Mgicl blifs ris mid ci scil csss E

tg it ws fr frm ims i t sxtt d i t fr-tt ctry t csss ws brd t lst i ci milis. Itctd s s f cstit l T ctis wr tms d ty wr t itil g t rt t rsctis T rrstti f ts ctis rtis ci crctristics f ccti rstti i t ss sd by Drkim

W mid t mk f tis bif Vst sci gs fdtmss t t mrcy f triig gs sc s t Bck Dt rsmtims l isibl blms. Tks t t mcism f rscti cllcti gis d frstrti fd icris smt it ictims w sily fd tmsls itd i siti t tm byi f big rly itgrtd miritis

W w r cmrsi f tis t t disc f strtys frscti i txt. Oc w drstd w lmst lwys xclim victim i a goat. E s clr drstdig f tis rssi; s y sitti bt its mig Scgt idi-cts bt t icc f t ictims t cllcti lrizti isiti t tm d t cllcti d rslt f tt lriztiT rsctrs r cgt i t "lgic f t rrstti frscti fm rsctr's stdit d ty ct brk yGillm d Mct dbt r icitd imslf i cllci cts f ic bt dts t rrstti f rsctit fds t ic d is fd i r H srs i t ccti


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H E C A P E G O A

eec of he scapegoa The poazaon es such a consan onhose poazed ha he vcms canno pove he nnocence

We use he wod scapegoa heefoe o summaze a ha I have

sad so fa on coecve pesecuons By menonng scapegoa whendscussng Guaume de Machau we ndcae ha we ae no aken nby hs epesenaon and ha we have done wha s necessay o beakdown he sysem and subsue ou own eadng Scapegoaepomzes he ype of nepeaon I woud ke o end o myhoogyUnfounaey he pesson and he nepeaon sue he samefae Because eveyone uses no one bohes o deene s exac sgncance and he msconcepons mupy In he ampe of Guaume de Machau and pesecuon exs n genea hs use has nodc connecon wh he e of he scapegoa as descbed n vcus o wh ohe es ha ae somemes descbed as beongng o hescapegoa cause hey moe o ess esembe ha of vcus

As soon as we begn o sudy he scapegoa o hnk abou he

pesson apa fom he con of he pesecuo we end o mods meanng We ae emnded of he e; we hnk of a egousceemony ha unfods on a xed dae and s pefoed by pess; wemagne a debeae manpuaon We hnk of sk saegss whoae y awae of he mechansms of vcmzaon and who knowngysacce nnocen vcms awaeness of he cause wh Machave

an easeSuch ngs can happen especay ou me bu hey cannohappen even oday whou he avaaby of an emneny manpuabe mass o be used by he manpuaos fo he ev puposes peopewho w aow hemseves o be apped n he pesecuos' epesena-on of peecuon peope capabe ofbeefwhee he scapegoa s con

cened Guaume de Machau s obvousy no manpuao He s nonegen enough If manpuaon exss n hs unvese he mus benumbeed among he manpuaed. The deas ha ae so veang nhs ex ae no eveang fo hm evdeny bu ony fo hose whoundesand he ea sgncance. Eae I spoke of nave pesecuos;I coud have spoken of he ack of awaeness

Too conscous and cacuang an awaeness of a ha he scapegoa connoes n mode usage emnaes he essena pon ha hepesecuos eve he gu of he vcm; hey ae mpsoned nhe uson of pesecuon ha s no smpe dea bu a fu sysem ofepesenaon Impsonmen n hs sysem aows us o speak of an


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W H A A M H 4

unconscous pesecuto and the poof of hs exstence les n the factthat those ou day who ae the most pocent n dscoveng othepeoples scapegoats and God nows we ae past mastes at ths ae

neve able to ecognze the own. Almost no one s awae of hs ownshotcomng We must queston ouselves f we ae to undestand theenomty of the mystey ach peson must as what hs elatonshp sto the scapegoat I am not awae of my own and I am pesuaded that thesame hod tue fo my eades We only have legtmate enmtes Andyet the ente unvese swas wth scapegoats The lluson of pesecuton s as ampant as eve less tagcally but moe cunnngly than undeGullaume de Machaut Hocit lctur mon mblabl mon r

If we ae at the pont whee we compete n the penetatng and subtle dscovey of scapegoats th ndvdua and collectve whee was theteenth centuy? No one decoded the epesentaton of pesecuton aswe do today "Scapegoat had not yet taen on the meanng we gve t today The concept that cowds o even ente socetes can mpson

themselves the own usons ofvctmage was nconcevable Had weted to plan t to the men of the Mddle Ages they would not have undestood Gullaume de Machaut was much moe nuenced by thescapegoat eect than we ae Hs unvese was moe deeply mmesed nts unawaeness of pesecuton than we ae but even so t was less than the wold ofmythology In Gullaume as we have seen ust a small

poon and not the wost of the Blac Death s blamed on scapegoats: the myth of Oedpus t s the ente plague In ode to explan epdemcs mythologcal unveses have neve needed anythng moe thansteeotypcal cmes and of couse those who ae gulty of them Poofcan be found ethnologcal documents thnologsts ae shoced bymy blasphemes yet fo a long tme they have had at the dssal the

necessay evdence to conm them In so


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42 H E C P E G

insead f lasing fr illennia ike he h f Oedipus which swih ur es undersand i Such fridabe lief is ign usda. A bes we can r iagine i b racing i in he s We are

led hen he deeinain ha he sacred s a pa f ha blndand assive belief. us exaine his phenenn ginning wih he cndiins

ha ake i pssible. We d n knw wh his belief is s sng buwe suspec ha i crrespnds a re eecive scapega echanishan ur wn a sse f peecuin ha ncins a a higher levelhan ur wn. T udge b he nuerica prendence f hlgical universes his higher sse is re he nr fr huani hanur wn scie which cnsiues he cepin Such a sng beliefcud n esablished and perpeuaed afer he deah f he viciin he persecurs' cerain in heir hs if here were andub le in he reainships a he hea f he cuni in herwrds if here we n al recnciiain In rder fr all he persecu

rs inspired b he sae faih in he evil wer f heir vici heaer us successll plarize all he suspicins ensins andreprisals ha ined hse reainships. The cuni us eecivel epied f is ins I us feel ibeed and cnciledwihin isef This is iplied in he cnclusin f s hs We seehe acua reu he rder ha was cprised b he crisis r

even re en he bih f a cpleel new rder in he religiusunin f a cuni bugh life b is experience

The perpeual cnjuncin in hs f a ver guil vici wih acnclusin ha is h vilen and liing can nl be plained bhe ree rce f he scapega echanis This hphesis in faclves he ndaena eniga f all hlg he rder ha is eiher

absen r cpised b he scapega nce esabishes iself ris esablished b he ineenin f sene wh disurd i in hers place. I is cnceivable ha a vici a be snsible fr pubicdisase which is wha happened in hs as in cllecive persecuins bu in hs and nl in hs his sae vici resres herder sblizes and evn incaaes i.

Our speciaiss have n e gen ver his The ransgresrresres and even esablishes he rder he has sehw ransgressed inanicipain The greaes f a delinquens is ransfred in a pillarf scie In e hs his paradx is diinished censured rcauaged n dub he faihl wh i scandalizes as as


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44 H E C A E G A

Beyond a ceran hreshold obele he eec o he scapegoa s oreverse he relaonshps beween persecors and her vcms herebyprodcng he sacred he ondng ancesos and he dvnes The

vcm n ealy passve comes he only eecve and omnpoencase n he ace o a grop ha beleves sel o be enrely passve grops o people can as a gp become sc or reasons ha are obecve or ha conce only hemselves he relaonshps a he hear ohese grops can deerorae and hen be reesablshed by means o vcms who are nanmosly despsed obvosly hese grops wll commemorae hese socal lls n conormance wh he llsory le hahe scapegoa s omnpoen and aclaes he cre The nversalecraon o he person who cases he scess s replaced by nversalveneraon or he person who cres ha same scness

We can race n myhs a sysem o represenaon o perseconssmlar o or own b complcaed by he eecveness o he pcess opersecon We are no wllng o recognze ha eecveness becase

scandazes s on he levels o boh moraly and nellgence We areable o recognze he rs evl ransgraon o he vcm whch seemsnoal b we canno recognze he second benecen ransgraon; s nconcevable ha can ne wh he rs who desroyng a leas nally

People n grops are sbec o sdden varaons n her relaon

shps or beer or worse hey arbe a complee cycle o varaonso he cllecve vcm who aclaes he rern o normal hey wllnevably dedce rom hs doble ranserence bele n a ranscen-denal power ha s boh doble and wll brng hem aleavely bohloss and healh pnshmen and recompense Ths orce s maneshrogh he acs o volence o whch s he vcm b s also more

mpoanly he myseros nsgaor hs vcm can exend hs nes beyond deah o hose whohave lled hm he ms eher be resscaed or was no rly deadThe casaly o he scapegoa s mposed wh sch orce ha evendeah canno preven In order no o renonce he vcms casalyhe s brogh bac o le ad mmoalzed emporary and wha wecall he ranscenden and spearal are nvened or ha prpose3

3 R Gid, Ven an he S (Bim Jhs pis Uivsy Pr972 pp 8588 De hoe Ce u Ia fonaon u mone pp 3250


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CHA P T E R F OU R

Violence and Mic

IN ORDER T explan the sacred, I have compared persecutors' represen-tations o persecution which involve the sacred with those which do not.

I have examined what was specifc to mythological compared with

historical persecutions, but I have neglected the relative quality o thatpecifcity I have discussed historical distoions as i they had no con-

nection with the sacred. But they do. Although increasingly less appar

ent, the sacred still persists in medieval and mode texts. I have

mitted these instances o suival in order not to minimize the distancebetween mythology and my chosen texts. Reliance on appximate

milarities is all the more annoying in a context where a peect explanation or dissimilarities exists the scapegoat mechanism, the realrigin o the various kinds o distortions ound in persecution, th

unintelligible and intelligible, mythological or otherwise, according tohe order within which persecution is operating

Now that I have identifed this dierence in order, I can return to

he traces o the sacred that persist in intelligible distoions and conider whether they unction as they do in mythsH-plays aprominentroleinmedievalpersecutions, andit is

easytoseenothingbuthatred,especiallywheretheJeareconcerned.Duringthisperiod, however, Jewishmedicineenjoyedexceptionalpres-ge, which can be explained by the real superiority otheir practi-ners,whoweremoreopenthanotherstoscientifcprogress. But

inhepaicularcaseotheplaguethisexplanationisscarcelyconvincing.The best medicine is no more efective than the worst. Both theristocrats and the commonpeople preerred Jewish doctors becausehey associated their power to curewith thepower to cause sickness


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46 T H E C P E G T

Ths mdal pra thfr at b vwd as a xampl f -dvdals wh ar dstgshd frm thrs by thr ak f prdPrstg ad prd sm b tw fas f h sam atttd da-

g th sval f a prmtv frm f th sard. Ev r w tmth alms sard far sprd by dtrs s t altghr dpdf hr ahrty.

f a prs shws ll wl t th Jw h mght ft hm wth thpag. f th hr had h shws gd wll th Jw mght sparhm r v r h fh s alrady strk H s s thrfr as thlas rsr bas ad t spt h vl h a d r has a-rady d Th sam s t th as f Apll; f h Thbas bghm (rathr tha sm thr gd} t r thm f th plag hy d sbas thy hld hm ltmatly rspsb Apll shld t thr-fr b s as a palary bvt pal r sr gd thss Nzsh ad th ashtas gv t h wrd Aplla ks may hrs thy wr msld by h ltmat fadg f th Olympa

ds. Dspt apparas ad wakd thrs ths trag Apll rmas h mst abmabl f all th gds h frmla Plarprahd Hmr fr sg as f h pt had dgd a prsafatasy

Apar frm ra ts blfs th sapgat lgr appat b mry a passv rpal fr vl frs bt s rathr h mrag

f mptt mapar shw by mythlgy t b satdamsly by sty. O th sapgat s rgzd as th as f th plag th th plag bms hs t dsps f at whr as pshmt r rward ardg t hs dspasr rpasr.

Q Elzabh f Egads Jwsh dr Lpz was td a

th hgh fhs fr hs atmpts a psg ad fr hs pra-t f mag. Th slghts fal r dat a as a w-mr t fal far lwr tha h hghts h has lmbd Ths Odpsth savr fThbs ad a sd halr wh bars h sgs f a v-tm s shd drg tms f rbl st at th mmt f hsgratst g a vm f f th strypal asats w havdtd.

. oshua achtg Di an he J (New Have Yae Uivesity 943) 98 H. Michel J in Eay Engieue (Amsedam A. ais 1928 88 O the taya o the ew the Chis wod see the wos o Gavi . LgmuQut que juis sgiait u a s mdivae? i Nijni Gec Enis


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V I L E N C E N M G I C 47

The speatl aspect of the oense s copled wth a cme n

the moden sense esponse to the demand fo atonalty that shaactestc of a tme n whch elef n magc s dwndlng. The m-

poant detal s the fact that t s posonng a cme that depves the ac-csed of any legal ptecton st as lntly as any accsaton dctlynvolvng magc Posonng s easy to conceal especally fo a doctothat t s mpossle to pove the cme and thereore there s no toprove t

Ths ngs s ack to all of o examples at once It contans feates whch ecall the myth of Oedps othe whch emnd s of Gl-lame de Machat and all the pesected ews and stll othe whcha emnscent of the false myth concocted to "hstocze that ofOedps and demonstate that the decson to dene a text as hstocalo mthologcal s aay.

Becase of the hstocal context e atomatcally demyst t wtha psychosocologcal ntepetaton We sense a caal oanzed y eal-

os vals and we mmedately lose awaness of those aspects that -nd s of the saced n mytholo.

Lpez lke Oedps and lke Ap

Documents

Scapegoat, The - Rene Girard & Yvonne Freccero