The Scapegoat Mechanism in Human Evolution: An Analysis of René Girard’s Hypothesis on the Process of Hominization

According to anthropological philosopher René Girard (1923–2015), an important human adaptation is our propensity to victimize or scapegoat. He argued that other traits upon which human sociality depends would have destabilized primate dominance-based social hierarchies, making conspecific conflict a limiting factor in hominin evolution. He surmised that a novel mechanism for inhibiting intragroup conflict must have emerged contemporaneously with our social traits, and speculated that this was the tendency to spontaneously unite around the victimization of single individuals. He described an unconscious tendency to both ascribe blame and to imbue the accused with a sacred mystique. This emotionally cathartic scapegoat mechanism, he claimed, enhanced social cohesion, and was the origin of religion, mythology, sacrifice, ritual, cultural institutions, and social norms. It would have functioned by modifying the beliefs and behaviors of the group, rather than of the accused, making the act of accusation more important than the substance. This article aims to examine the empirical evidence for Girard’s claims, and argues that the scapegoat hypothesis has commonalities with several other evolutionary hypotheses, including Wrangham’s execution hypothesis on self-domestication, Dunbar’s hypothesis on the role of storytelling in maintaining group stability, and DeScioli and Kurzban’s hypothesis on the role of non-consequentialist morality in curtailing conflict. Potential implications of the scapegoat hypothesis for evolutionary psychology and psychiatry are discussed.

Memory and Testimony in Extraordinary Times

This paper analyzes two parallel and opposed testimonies of mass annihilation in World War II: Primo Levi’s report of his gruesome experiences in Auschwitz, in The Drowned and the Saved; the testimony of the fire-bombing of Dresden, that killed 130,000 civilians in 1945, recorded by a young American POW, private Kurt Vonnegut Jr, in his novel Slaughterhouse-five. It is basically structured along the phases of the historiographic operation proposed by Paul Ricoeur – testimony and recording of testimonies; questioning of the records and written historical representation of the past – with the objective of drawing conclusions about the role of literature in keeping alive memories that might prevent further atrocities. Steppingstones include the urge to bear witness, the paradoxical links between victims and perpetrators and the choice of literary genders to convey messages. References are made to René Girard’s concept of the scapegoat mechanism as an explanation for the eruption of violence in social groups.

A Girardian Approach to LaVeyan Satanism: Theological Perspectives

This article addresses some convergences in Rene Girard and Anton LaVey’s understandings of Satan. Rene Girard understood Satan as the representation of both mimetic desire and the scapegoat mechanism, both of which have detrimental influences on human culture. In that sense, in continuation with Christian orthodoxy, Girard did not find any positive aspect in Satanism. By contrast, Anton LaVey had a more positive approach to Satan. LaVey was an unsophisticated Nietzschean, who nevertheless understood well that the German philosopher’s views were not dissimilar to what Satan represents. Rene Girard’s understanding of who (or what) Satan is, makes this clearer.

Girard's Optimism

This article contains a discussion on René Girard’s understanding of the positive sides of imitation—despite the ambivalent nature of desire. Historically speaking, the discovery of the scapegoat mechanism made a great contribution towards limiting violence. The decomposition of the scapegoat mechanism, and its power to find non-violent alternatives, has paved the way for a culture with numerous opportunities. Even if humans constantly rival one another, one must understand and define the close relationship between competition, cooperation, and rivalry. To be able to see the positive sides of mimesis, one needs to have a robust understanding of human nature as competitive and, thereby, see friendship and competition as closely related. Learning and creativity can actually become optimal when there is a high degree of competition. Fierce competition today is allowed because of the taboo against violence. The decomposition of myth has destroyed archaic societies but, at the same time, created problems of an apocalyptic kind. Increasingly, cultures are now de- veloping without the shelter that sacrificial society previously provided. Positive human development, as is evident in the demystifying of violent myths and the increased concern for victims, cannot stem the power of global terror. Despite greater pessimism in his later works, Girard’s hope is that, through the model of Christ, people will finally learn to love their neighbours as themselves. A change of heart is to a certain degree capable to lead people towards the same kind of non-differentiated love as God.

Tito Dorčić as a Forerunner of the Ironic Mode

According to Northrop Frye, 20th-century literature is marked by characters whose intelligence and capabilities are lesser than those of the average human. Typical such figures are the protagonists of Kafka’s and Beckett’s works, who lack even the most basic information regarding their own position – due to which the reader has the sense of looking down on scenes of bondage, frustration or absurdity. Vjenceslav Novak’s Tito Dorčić, from the eponymous novel, is a forerunner of this type of character. He is trapped by his own predisposition and social environment and becomes unhappy in the "better life" imposed on him by his father. He is utterly unsuccessful in his career as well as in his family life. 20th-century interpreters found the cause of Tito’s state, or the source for such a character, in Darwinist theories supposedly praised by the novel’s author; a more recent critic emphasises the psychoanalytic motifs. Both theories unconsciously bear witness to the reduced power of the action of the protagonist. The novel’s final scene, in which Tito Dorčić’s left leg is stuck in a crevice whilst the upper part of his body immersed in the sea is a metaphor of his entire life. The scapegoat mechanism, as proposed by René Girard, also explains the events in Tito Dorčić’s life: the social crisis is seemingly only slightly present, yet Tito is depicted as a person holding a position in the judicial administration which, because of his low intelligence, immorality and lack of cultural refinement, he does not deserve. He commits mistakes in his prosecutor’s work and is punished because an innocent person has been hanged. Tito had previously been marked by the collapse of his marriage. Eventually, he loses his job, falls into madness, which might also be an act of selfpunishment, and at the end, he dies. The text, or the narrator, kills him, in the last step in the long procedure of attacking the protagonist.

Mirror Image: A Study of the Power Politics of Mimetic Desire and Cinematic Confinement in Chloe (2009)

This study aims to analyze the power politics in the narrative of the film Chloe as addressed by the mirrored desire perceived in the film and to illustrate how this mimesis is communicated through the imagery of confinement that dominates the presence of the female protagonists. René Girard’s mimetic theory of triangular desire and scapegoat mechanism and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s conceptual image of a mad woman in the mirror are employed as the frameworks on which the analyses are based. The results reveal four paradigms of triangular desire, the last of which confirms the male hegemony that underlies the film’s narrative and that, subsequently, undermines the message of women’s empowerment suggested by the film’s emphasis on the female characters and their supposed bonding. The feeling of entrapment of the female protagonists is revealed through the ways in which they are framed cinematically and metaphorically. The desire to break free from this inhibition is realized through the image of a mad double who rebels against such male constructs as family, work and sex, and whose presence entails such anarchical chaos that she must be dispensed with so that the patriarchal order can be restored. This affirms the stronghold that patriarchy has over both the female psyche and the general public conscience. The findings also support the adaptability of literary frameworks in a cinematic investigation.

O pragnieniu Prawdy. Propozycja Platona a kontekst przekazu biblijnego w świetle teorii mimetyczno-ofiarniczej René Girarda

The paper discusses the issue of the desire for truth in Plato’s Republic, Book VII, and the Old and New Testaments with regard to Girard’s theory of mimetic desire, the scapegoat mechanism and the founding murder. Both Plato and the Bible describe outstanding individuals – Anax, Moses and Jesus – who attain truth. This causes communal envy, leading to the outbreaks of mimetic violence. However, neither Plato nor the Old Testament allow the founding murder to happen. Consequently, they depict communities which deal with strict laws and suppressed violence. It is only in the New Testament that mimetic violence fi nds its outlet in the sacrifi cial killing of Jesus Christ.