Scapegoat Mechanism Research Articles

The Cursing Practice in Sri Lanka as a Religious Channel for Keeping Physical Violence in Control: The Case of Seenigama

This study deals with the cursing services in Sinhala Buddhism in Sri Lanka which some gods offer to the people. The author, who is using the mimesis and scapegoat mechanism theory of Girard as a point of reference, concentrates on the god Devol in the hamlet of Seenigama on the south-west coast. Why do people ask gods to harm or even kill their adversaries? Why is cursing on the increase in the country, and how does Buddhism, a religion preaching "ahimsa" (non-violence), cope with the cursing practices? The author dissociates himself from the idea of some writers, that cursing is identical to black magic. Cursing is certainly a form of violence, but because it stops at one incident, without triggering endless cycles, it can traditionally be seen as a religious channel for violence, that helps to keep it in control, according to the author.

The Cursing Practice in Sri Lanka as a Religious Channel for Keeping Physical Violence in Control

AbstractThis study deals with the cursing services in Sinhala Buddhism in Sri Lanka which some gods offer to the people. The author, who is using the mimesis and scapegoat mechanism theory of Girard as a point of reference, concentrates on the god Devol in the hamlet of Seenigama on the south-west coast. Why do people ask gods to harm or even kill their adversaries? Why is cursing on the increase in the country, and how does Buddhism, a religion preaching "ahimsa" (non-violence), cope with the cursing practices? The author dissociates himself from the idea of some writers, that cursing is identical to black magic. Cursing is certainly a form of violence, but because it stops at one incident, without triggering endless cycles, it can traditionally be seen as a religious channel for violence, that helps to keep it in control, according to the author.

Holy Communion: Altar Sacrament for Making a Sacrificial Sin Offering, or Table Sacrament for Nourishing a Life of Service?

Holy Communion: Altar Sacrament for Making a Sacrificial Sin Offering, or Table Sacrament for Nourishing a Life of Service? Paul J. Nuechterlein Emmaus Lutheran Church, Racine, WI The title spells out the alternative I would like the reader to consider: Is Holy Communion more appropriately considered the "table sacrament" or, as is more commonly accepted, the "altar sacrament "? I will make my preference clear. In Holy Communion, I believe Jesus Christ to be offering nourishment for a different way to live —namely, the way offreely chosen service to others, as opposed to violent domination over others. "Table sacrament" more appropriately conveys the sense of nourishment toward a new life. I will support this positive reasoning in favor of "table sacrament" through an appeal to Christian scripture. I will also suggest a negative reasoning against "altar sacrament," by questioning whether the very reference to "altar" betrays a link to violence, with its base in the blood ofsacrifice. For this negative argument, the support will come primarily from the brilliant and far-reaching theories ofRené Girard regarding the relation between religion and violence. I would like us to consider whether the most obvious point of the relation between religion and violence—namely, rituals ofsacrifice—has been precariously intermingled with the church's practices and experiences of the "altar sacrament." Girard's theories force us to ask: Is not the altar ofsacrifice essentially the site for a ritualized form of collective violence? 202Paul J. Nuechterlein Girard contends that there are overwhelming cultural and anthropological forces that make it difficult for religions to free themselves from such violent underpinnings. He considers that all religions, in fact, are cultural manifestations ofa generative mimetic scapegoating mechanism, a natural human/social mechanism which contains an all-against-all, communitywide violence by means ofan all-against-one act of violence, i.e., a scapegoating . Religion is, according to this theory, the primary cultural institution that forms in the aftermath ofwhat Robert Hamerton-Kelly summarily calls the "Generative Mimetic Scapegoating Mechanism, or "GMSM" event (1994). Institutionalized religion fortifies the relative peace that the event has accomplished through a three-fold structure: (1) laws and prohibitions , established to prevent further outbreaks ofmimetic violence; (2) mythical stories of the GMSM event, told from the perspective of the perpetrators as a means to justify their violence and disguise it behind the veil of the sacred; and (3) ritual reenactments ofthe GMSM event, most commonly in the form of blood sacrifice, that channel any continuing violent impulses into structured, contained releases. We must be bold to ask of each religion, then, the ways in which it manifests and perpetuates the GMSM. This includes Christianity. To the extent that Christians practice religion, we can expect to find effects ofthe GMSM in essential aspects of the church, such as its practice ofthe "altar sacrament." Girardian support for my argument, however, does not end with this negative thesis regarding the "altar sacrament." Nor does Girardian criticism leave us with a wholly negative assessment of the Christian tradition. In fact, Girard himself experienced a conversion of sorts (see Golsan 129-30), as he began to see his basic premises and theories already revealed in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, especially the gospel narratives of Jesus Christ. He came to view the Christian faith—in spite of its susceptibility to the violent forces of religion—as unique in its core message ofrevealing the one true God. Contrary to the gods ofmythology, the Christian message, through Jesus Christ, reveals the true God to be on the side ofthe GMSM's victims. As such, the Gospel ofJesus Christ stands in opposition to the three-fold structure of religion: (1) it frees people from the oppressive systems oflaws and prohibitions;1 (2) it demythologizes the mythical stories told from the perspective of the perpetrators;2 and (3) it 1 A theme of St. Paul and his criticism of the Law? (see Hamerton-Kelly 1992). 2 A theme of St. John's emphasis on Jesus, the Lamb of God, as bearing witness to the Truth? Holy Communion203 makes obsolete the need for rituals of sacrificial violence.3 The Gospel opens up the way for new life, and for rituals that nourish the new...

A Group's Bad Self in Papua New Guinea: A True Home in the Modern World?

In an analytic research group with young males and females from the Sepik area in Papua New Guinea, the group's bad self is projected onto a member who has left the group. This is not just another case of the scapegoat mechanism. These adolescents, who have just stepped out of an ethnic culture and `stone-age economics', identify with the whites, their individual freedom and choice. However, white culture destroys traditional ways of bonding which give the individual some security. The phantasy of black magic being used against the group must be seen as the symbolic key to an unconscious inner image of the self, while the person or the group is under threat of cultural loss.1

Syndebukkemekanismen i nilotisk kongedømme

Den bristede og den opskærne mave.In a structural analysis of the ritual in the treatment of the stomach of the dead king (or queen) in some Upper-Nilotic societies, the role of the kind a a "rain maker" (or the opposite) is demonstrated. Furthermore, the king is the point around which social tensions and rivalry is concentrated, either to be solved by him or be acted out with the king as a scapegoat. Girard's "scapegoat theory", while basically affirmed, is criticised on some important points: especially, the efficacy of the scapegoat mechanism does not seem to be dependent on the ignorance of the real psycho-sociological forces which are in play. To some informants, the treatment of the king assumes therefore the contours of an inescapable and therefore tragic necessity.

Revealing the Scapegoat Mechanism: Christianity after Girard

The philosophy of religion, as commonly understood by Christians in both the Catholic and Reformed traditions, whether they think it a worthwhile enterprise or not, begins with arguments for the existence of a deity, proceeds to show that this deity is necessarily unique, eternal, and suchlike, and leaves it to reflection on divine revelation to consider whether this deity might be properly designated as ‘three persons in one nature’. Much later, after discussing the metaphysical implications of the incarnation of the second person of the triune godhead, one would arrive at theories about the death of Jesus Christ as putatively redemptive, and describable as sacrificial, atoning and the like.

The Invisible Worm: Ancients and Moderns in "The Name of the Rose"

It is a curious but incontrovertible fact of cultural history, common to other cultures as well as our own, that when human groups reach a new level of development, they find it necessary to distort and magnify the shortcomings of their previous mode of existence. The formation of what Thomas Kuhn has called new paradigms does not come cheap: it rises from revolutions that involve the denigration and destruction of the previous order. 1 As Rend Girard has argued in great detail, we rely on scapegoating to overcome the periodic cultural crises that mark our history.2 The immediate past is not merely a rose that has lost its bloom; it is a dark flower, a poisonous growth that will kill us unless we manage to destroy it first. The previous order must be characterized as absolutely evil, the very cause of all our present difficulties, the quintessential obstacle to our survival and progress. Girard takes pains to demonstrate that the scapegoat mechanism is intellectually dishonest and extremely dangerous. It is at most a provisional means for temporarily tricking ourselves out of a crisis; but crisis will come again, and we seem constrained to repeat