Abstract

Despite the process of secularization and modernization, in contemporary societies, the role of sacrifice is still relevant. One of the spaces where sacrifice actually performs a critical role is the realm of modern economy, particularly in the event of a financial crisis. Such crises represent situations defined by an outrageous symbolic violence in which social and economic relations experience drastic transformations, and their victims end up suffering personal bankruptcy, indebtedness, lower standards of living or poverty. Crises show the flagrant domination present in social relations: this is proven in the way crises evolve, when more and more social groups marred by a growing vulnerability are sacrificed to appease financial markets. Inspired by the theoretical framework of the French anthropologist René Girard, our intention is to explore how the hegemonic narrative about the crisis has been developed, highlighting its sacrificial aspects.

Highlights

  • Debt and Sacrifice: The Role of Sacrifice performed an important role in agrarian societies and in their religious and cultural practices, acting as a gateway between the realms of the sacred and the profane (Mauss 1979) and being relevant for soteriology

  • 1977, 1986, 1987, 2001, 2003), we present an analysis of the crisis as sacrifice, linking these arguments to the important disciplinary role played by the crisis in societies

  • The crisis of the Great Recession is a good example of the increase in liberal biopower, because, as well as codifying an entire new subjectivity around mercantile individualization, it represents the reinforcement of all the financial powers over and above any public, social, communitarian or cultural value

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Summary

Introduction

Debt and Sacrifice: The Role of Sacrifice performed an important role in agrarian societies and in their religious and cultural practices, acting as a gateway between the realms of the sacred and the profane (Mauss 1979) and being relevant for soteriology (see, e.g., Eberhart and Schweitzer 2019). The unilateral gift of grace is recognized with the sacrifice, with immolation making the offering irreversible. This recognition goes beyond the animal world to involve the entire world around us, and the concept and practices of sacrifice experience a metamorphosis, adopting an increasingly metaphorical form (Hénaff 2012; see Beriain 2017)

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