Sacrifice and the Scapegoat

Walter Burkert and René Girard, publishing independently in the same year, 1972, both placed violence at the origin of sacrifice: Burkert in the ritualised killing of prehistoric hunters, Girard in a founding scapegoat murder that channels a community's violence. Their theories converge on violence but differ on its mechanism, as their 1987 exchange explored.

Walter Burkert, Homo Necans (1972); René Girard, La violence et le sacré (1972); Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly (ed.), Violent Origins (1987)