The scapegoat mechanism, according to René Girard, is a society’s method for dissipating tensions by redirecting violence to an outsider, sacrificing the outsider in order to maintain social stability. Building on a wide range of anthropological, historical, and ritual studies, Girard contends that the sacrifice of the innocent scapegoat (whether through death or expulsion) serves to hide and release the interpersonal tensions within a community wrought by mimetic desire.
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