And they all gently nodded. -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 06:28:46 02/05/08 Tue
Author: j.jackson
Subject: And they all gently nodded.

I'm a bit worried about the reception of yesterday's lecture regarding prohibitions and rituals. There were no confused looks. Everyone just kind of nodded with a quiet acceptance. This worries me. A couple of rhetorical questions:
1) Do you understand the relationship between antimimetic prohibitions (a fear of transgressed boundaries and violence) and rituals which seem to violate these very same prohibitions? Are you simply not moved by the profundity of this revelation (perhaps I've spent too much time reading structural anthropology)? Violence expelling violence is the key here for Girard, and he sees this mechanism as the foundation for all primitive religions. Chapter 4 in _Violence and the Sacred_ will take you through various examples (these are the readings I promised Jon in class).
2) Do you not understand the relationship between the two and thus are missing Girard's key insight to the foundation of religions? Are you nodding so as not to hurt my feelings (everyone knows how sensitive I am). If you're still not getting your head around the structural paradox, please reread pages 18-23. The second full paragraph on page 28 gives a nice succinct definition of the relationship between prohibition and ritual.

We can stage the process in class if you like, but it could get messy.

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