In Sacrifice, René Girard interrogates the Brahmanas of Vedic India, exploring coincidences with mimetic theory that are too numerous and striking to be accidental. Even that which appears to be dissimilar fails to contradict mimetic theory, but instead corresponds to the minimum of illusion without which sacrifice becomes impossible.
The Bible reveals collective violence, similar to that which generates sacrifice everywhere, but instead of making victims guilty, the Bible and the Gospels reveal the persecutors of a single victim. Instead of elaborating myths, they tell the truth absolutely contrary to the archaic sense. Once exposed, the single victim mechanism can no longer function as the model for would-be sacrificers.
Recognizing that the Vedic tradition also converges on a revelation that discredits sacrifice, mimetic theory locates within sacrifice itself a paradoxical power of quiet reflection that leads, in the long run, to the eclipse of this institution which is violent but nevertheless fundamental to the development of human culture. Far from unduly privileging the Western tradition and awarding it a monopoly on the knowledge and repudiation of blood sacrifice, mimetic analysis recognizes comparable, but never truly identical, traits in the Vedic tradition.
Sacrifice (Breakthroughs in Mimetic Theory)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
René Girard is a member of the French Academy, Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, and the author of several books that have been translated widely. He is the recipient of the Modern Language Association's Lifetime Achievement Award (2008).
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Henry Berry
Format:Paperback
In this diminutive-sized monograph in the publisher's series Breakthroughs in Mimetic Theory, Girard casts Vedic (Asian Indian) sacrifice into the perspective by which sacrifice in Western religion as recounted in the Bible has come to be understood. The religious grounds for such sacrifice in the Vedic religion are found mainly in the "Brahmanas," a "selective anthology" of Vedic writings ignored or scorned by most leading scholars of Indian religion when this became a subject of interest in the late nineteenth century. Because of this marginalization of writings dealing with Vedic sacrifice, the place of sacrifice in Indian religious practices and Indian society was not generally known by Westerners.
Vedic sacrifice, most importantly human but animal too, served the same purpose in Indian society as in Western society. Mainly, a scapegoat was sought for sacrifice to keep social cohesion and confirm community conventions and mores. In the Western tradition, as recorded in the Bible, Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial victim. His sacrifice however, as ultimately with Vedic sacrifice, meant to strengthen social cohesion resulted eventually in breaking up such cohesion and serving as a passage to a successive social form. Girard's focus is this ambivalence--or what he in places calls the "enigma"--of sacrifice by which it is at its deepest level an agency for social transformation.
Sacrifice is ambivalent because the sacrificer such as the Brahmins in early Indian religion know that sacrifice is murder. Thus elaborate ceremonies often involving drugs--the hallucinogenic "soma" for the Brahmins--and rationalizations such as the victim as the "other" or the "outsider" surround sacrifice. Some ceremonies call for apologizing to the victim before the sacrifice.... Read more ›
Vedic sacrifice, most importantly human but animal too, served the same purpose in Indian society as in Western society. Mainly, a scapegoat was sought for sacrifice to keep social cohesion and confirm community conventions and mores. In the Western tradition, as recorded in the Bible, Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial victim. His sacrifice however, as ultimately with Vedic sacrifice, meant to strengthen social cohesion resulted eventually in breaking up such cohesion and serving as a passage to a successive social form. Girard's focus is this ambivalence--or what he in places calls the "enigma"--of sacrifice by which it is at its deepest level an agency for social transformation.
Sacrifice is ambivalent because the sacrificer such as the Brahmins in early Indian religion know that sacrifice is murder. Thus elaborate ceremonies often involving drugs--the hallucinogenic "soma" for the Brahmins--and rationalizations such as the victim as the "other" or the "outsider" surround sacrifice. Some ceremonies call for apologizing to the victim before the sacrifice.... Read more ›
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Professor Girard shares his research in Mimetic Theory applying it to the Vedic Hindu tradition and comparing his findings to the Biblical accounts. He is able to show that the Vedic myths are very similar to the Biblical stories in revealing the scapegoat mechanism, yet they are different as the Vedic myths do not condemn the evil act in the process while the Biblical writers do. Quite enlightening!
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By matt
Format:Paperback
I have to say that after reading Stephen Finlan's works on sacrifice that this was a bit less engaging, both technically and in style, as it reads like a grad school paper. I was glad it was so brief. And before anyone thinks I am dissing, I fully acknowledge Girard's genius and influence in the mimetic realm. I found his comparison of certain Hindu texts to the idea of scapegoat sacrifice to be very informative, as I have no working knowledge of it beyond academics. His application of the mimetic concept was new to me as well, and for that I am glad to have read the book. I wonder, however, if he might not overplay his hand in casting the argument too narrowly along the scapegoat lines of sacrifice as if that is THE definitive model in Judaism, and by extension, Christianity, upon which a great deal of his thesis hangs. Sometimes to make all-encompassing generalizations for specific applications we paint with too wide of a brush. He does make the disclaimer that his thoughts, while not preliminary, are not as detailed as he could be. Perhaps I am asking too much.
I do have to say, however, that a book dealing with sacrifice in the Gospels, which concludes that Christianity has forever abolished blood sacrifice wherever it goes, seems a little off base when it fails to recognize the centrality of the Eucharist as an anamnesis, a making present, of the sacrifice of Christ. The very heart of the earliest Christian ritual was this participation in the sacrificed and glorified blood and body of Christ. (He mentions Celsus briefly, and could have worked this angle in here, as one of his the Roman arguments against the new faith was its supposed cannibalism.) Fertile soil there for planting was ignored I am afraid.
Not sure I would read this again.... Read more ›
I do have to say, however, that a book dealing with sacrifice in the Gospels, which concludes that Christianity has forever abolished blood sacrifice wherever it goes, seems a little off base when it fails to recognize the centrality of the Eucharist as an anamnesis, a making present, of the sacrifice of Christ. The very heart of the earliest Christian ritual was this participation in the sacrificed and glorified blood and body of Christ. (He mentions Celsus briefly, and could have worked this angle in here, as one of his the Roman arguments against the new faith was its supposed cannibalism.) Fertile soil there for planting was ignored I am afraid.
Not sure I would read this again.... Read more ›
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Mawdz
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Purchasers need to be aware that this book is very tiny... it will hardly make a contirbution to your bookshelf. Its content is Girardian theory, and if you subscribe to, or are curious about his thoeries then fair enough, but if you are on a budget the money spent may buy more value on other volumes.
