Violence and the Sacred

•®N RENE GIRARD

Violence and the Sacred •"©VJj Translated by Patrick Gregory

The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore and London

This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. Originally published in Paris in 1972 as La Violence tt le sacri ©1972 By Editions Bernard Cirasset Fnglish translation copyright € 1977 by The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America The Johns Hopkins University Press 701 West 40th Street Baltimore, Maryland 21211 The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London Originally published, 1977 Second printing, 1979 Johns Hopkins Paperbacks edition, 1979 Sixth printing, 1989 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Girard, Rene, 1923Violence and the sacred. Translation of La violence et le sacre. Bibliography: p. 319. Includes index. 1. Rites and ceremonies. 2. Sacrifice. BL60O.G5413 291.3'4 77-45 39 ISBN 0-801&-1963-6 (hardcover) ISBN 0-8018-2218-1 (paperback)

I.

Title.

Contents Acknowledgments

vii

/

One

Sacrifice

Two

The Sacrificial Crisis 39

Three

Oedipus and the Surrogate Victim

Four

The Origins of Myth and Ritual

Five

Dionysus 119

Six

68 89

From Mimetic Desire to the Monstrous Double 143 169

Seven

Freud and the Oedipus Complex

Eight

Totem and Taboo and the Incest Prohibition

Nine

Levi-Strauss, Structuralism, and Marriage Laws 223

Ten Eleven

193

The Gods, the Dead, the Sacred, and Sacrificial Substitution 250 The Unity of All Rites Conclusion

309

Bibliography 319 Index

32 5

214

Acknowledgments My thanks are due to the Guggenheim Foundation for the fellowship, and to the State University of New York at Buffalo (Faculty of Arts and Letters) for the sabbatical leave that enabled me to complete the present book. I wish to express my appreciation to Martine Bell, not only for typing and proofreading but also for her thoughtful examination of the manuscript and bibliographical materials and a careful preparation of the index. My gratitude also goes to all my friends, and especially to Eugenio Donato and Josue Harari, whose constant collaboration and numerous suggestions have been extremely helpful.

Vtl

VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED