Re: How is the Victim Chosen? -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:32:01 02/10/08 Sun
Author: Hwaet!
Subject: Re: How is the Victim Chosen?
In reply to: Kiernan 's message, "How is the Victim Chosen?" on 07:54:06 02/08/08 Fri

It certainly can be hard to see why some primitive societies require a pure victim; it immediately makes more sense when a ritual forces a king to commit incest with a tribal sister, bathe in blood, and eat feces, in order that the tribe may eventually sacrifice the king. In such a ritual, performed by one unnamed �important group, situated between Egypt and Swaziland,� the sins of the king are obvious (sins which the tribe made him commit), and it is clear that the sinful king should be the victim (Violence 104). Girard does say earlier, though, that rituals which require a pure victim do so because the primitive society wants to kill someone or something that is not already engaged in a blood feud or other mimetic crisis. While this doesn�t change the apparent arbitrariness of the victim in our eyes, it does at least provide a reason for pure victims. As Dunn suggests, it seems that the tribe is concerned less about developing a logical proof for why its victim is guilty than it is with moving forward with the ritual so it can prevent retaliations. The truly arbitrary victim has no one to retaliate on its behalf, so, problem solved.

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