Violent origins / Walter Burkert, René Girard & Jonathan Z. Smith on ritual killing and cultural formation ; edited by Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly, with an introduction by Burton Mack and a commentary by Renato Rosaldo.

Contributor(s):

Material type: Text

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780804766265
0804766266

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Electronic books.

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Violent originsDDC classification:

303.6/2 22

LOC classification:

GN473.4 .V56 1987eb

Other classification:

11.09
73.57
BE 2500

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction : Religion and ritual / Burton Mack -- Generative scapegoating / René Girard -- The problem of ritual killing / Walter Burkert -- The domestication of sacrifice / Jonathan Z. Smith -- Anthropological commentary / Renato Rosaldo.

Summary: Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as such--the real record of working scholars engaged with one another's theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver. Girard and Burkert present different versions of the same conviction: that a single theory can account for ritual and its social function, a theory that posits original acts of group violence. Smith sharply questions both the possibility and the utility of such a general theory. Among the highlights of this stimulating interchange of ideas is a searching criticism of Girard's theory of generative scapegoating, which he answers with clarity and conviction, and a challenging of Burkert's theory of the origin of sacrifice in the hunt by Smith's argument, posed as a jeu d'esprit, that sacrifice originates with the domestication of animals.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Date due	Barcode
Electronic-Books	OPJGU Sonepat- Campus	E-Books EBSCO			Available

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-265) and index.

Print version record.

English.

Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as such--the real record of working scholars engaged with one another's theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver. Girard and Burkert present different versions of the same conviction: that a single theory can account for ritual and its social function, a theory that posits original acts of group violence. Smith sharply questions both the possibility and the utility of such a general theory. Among the highlights of this stimulating interchange of ideas is a searching criticism of Girard's theory of generative scapegoating, which he answers with clarity and conviction, and a challenging of Burkert's theory of the origin of sacrifice in the hunt by Smith's argument, posed as a jeu d'esprit, that sacrifice originates with the domestication of animals.