Class 20: Analyzing Culture and Social Change PDF
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Institut de formation paramédicale Orléans
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This document analyzes culture and social change using the lens of mimetic anthropology by René Girard. It explores the concepts of mimetic theory, scapegoat mechanisms, and the role of the victim in social dynamics.
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CLASS 20 / Part IV: Analyzing culture and social change Ø SUMMARY: Ø Analyzing culture and social change: Ø Rene Girard and mimetic anthropology: Ø 2nd pillar of mimetic theory Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic the...
CLASS 20 / Part IV: Analyzing culture and social change Ø SUMMARY: Ø Analyzing culture and social change: Ø Rene Girard and mimetic anthropology: Ø 2nd pillar of mimetic theory Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The scapegoat mechanism: Ø Desire can be frustrated and the triangles of desire can escalate in mimetic violence which takes the role of a foundational event Ø the origin of culture is traced back to a collective murder or expulsion of a victim, a sacrifice that in turn is signified positively as the founding act of this community. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The paradoxical nature of the scapegoat victim - it has a double function: Ø 1. the victim is identified as a source of all the evil that afflicts the community. Ø 2. once the crisis is overcome through the sacrifice of the victim, the victim is venerated as the source of all the good, cohesion, peace. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø However, how do we know this? How come we understand the scapegoating mechanism and the sacred function of the victim? Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The centrality of the Gospels as a text and as a civilizing force: Ø Girard argues that the Gospels are the most important and determinant single text in uncovering, deciphering, and analysing the mimetic mechanism. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The centrality of the Gospels as a text and as a civilizing force: Ø Girard reads the Bible not as a theology or a theory of God, but first and foremost as an anthropological theory of humanity whereas humanity is clearly mimetic. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The centrality of the Gospels as a text and as a civilizing force: Ø Myths / Mythology vs. Gospels: Ø the distinction is founded upon the different nature of interpretation of the original murder. Ø The disciples dissented from the majority opinion and diffused this message by ritually commemorating the innocence of the victim. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 2nd pillar of Girard’s mimetic theory Ø The centrality of the Gospels as a text and as a civilizing force: Ø Myths /Mythology vs. Gospels: Ø Telling the story from a victim’s perspective prevents a mythology from being established Ø In other words, whereas pagan rituals considered the sacred as an apology of violence, Christian sainthood relies upon the revelation that victims are innocent. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 1. mimetic theory shows that the origins of power and political order historically speaking lie in the scapegoating mechanism Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 2. mimetic theory contributes to our understanding of what is a social crisis, how it is formed – it explains in other words also international wars and conflicts: Ø social order vs. social crisis Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø social orders are so many ways of keeping under control the triangles of mimetic desire. Ø social crises: moments in which imitative desire spills completely out of control; mimetic rivalries are formed in which the rivals become mimetic doubles to each other, with each rival being a model-obstacle to be overcome. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 3. mimetic theory is a powerful critique of the understanding of contemporary politics / society: Ø a. methodological individualism in the sense of the autonomy of the individual is a central paradigm in social and political science: Ø individuality is predetermined by our preferences and desires, which are essentially ontologically stable Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø 3. mimetic theory is a powerful critique of the understanding of contemporary politics / society: Ø b. mimetic theory: Ø there is no authenticity, no individuality without prior models mediating our desires; Ø Becoming a person relies on the mobility of desire, i.e the space between individuals; who is your model? Ø All communication processes rely on forms of “interdividual psychology” Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø QUESTION: Can this explain how modern capitalism and modern democracy work? Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 4. mimetic theory provides a better understanding of globalisation processes Ø the immediacy of information facilitates practically limitless diffusion of images, imitation, and reciprocity. Ø This intense connectivity also reinforces the awareness of differences and otherness. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 4. mimetic theory provides a better understanding of globalisation processes Ø Yet, processes of differentiation are underpinned by a desire for similarity and sameness Ø reciprocity/communication processes at a global scale increases mimetic creativity but also diminishes protection against mimetic rivalry Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø 5. mimetic theory explains the new types of global conflicts based on narratives of victimhood Ø This is an effect of the secularization of Christianity Ø The status of victimhood can become sacred in the sense of an aspirational model of identity formation. Ø Competitions for victimhood have proliferated and become truly global. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø examples of conflicts based on narratives of victimhood: Ø 1. After 9/11: ‘we are all Americans’; after Paris attacks: „JE SUIS CHARLIE HEBDO“ Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø examples of conflicts based on narratives of victimhood: Ø 2. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: the mimetic spiral of vengeance is fed by the selfpresentations of the rivals as victims + defenders against aggression. Ø Inside perspective (difference) Ø outside perspective (mimetic doubles) Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Sketches of a Mimetic Anthropology of Society and Politics: Ø examples of conflicts based on narratives of victimhood: Ø 3. the escalation of global terrorism: antagonists legitimise their acts of violence and retaliation by their own position as a victim. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø The paradox of the modern world: the attention to the victim + the growing tendency to see oneself as the victim lead: Ø 1. modern world being deprived of sacrificial protection (protection of the victim + human sacrifices are rightly blamed) Ø 2. but is also more and more exposed to violence: no sacred mythology can be established Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars: Ø Argument: the polarity (conflict) in ‘lowintensity’ new wars is driven by selfrepresentations of collective victimhood mobilizing social emotions Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars: What does this mean? Ø social representations of collective victimhood—of one’s ethnic group, nation, culture, religion etc.— have been increasingly used to initiate and justify warlike acts. Ø What appears asymmetrical from the inside view— each rival has the impression that the other has attacked first (difference of actors)—is revealed as symmetrical from the outside view (doubles in a mimetic rivalry) Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars Ø Mechanism: Historical shift from suspicion towards trauma, to authenticity of trauma: victimhood becomes sacred Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars: Genealogies (sources) of sacred victimhood: Ø 1. Psychiatric and psychological definitions of trauma: dealing with survivors of accidents, victims of sexual abuse and torture (late 19th – late 20th century) Ø 2. Trauma neurosis: the collective process by which a society applies the status of victimhood to categories previously not thought as victims Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars: Genealogies (sources) of sacred victimhood: Ø 3. Moral factors: the mass slaughter in the two world wars shifted the moral centre of gravity in warfare from triumphant and heroic sacrifice to cultural traumas and victimhood. Class 20: Analyzing culture and social change Ø René Girard and the study of modernity – mimetic anthropology / mimetic theory: Ø Victims and new wars – Conclusion: Ø conflict narratives usually emphasize agency, intentions, individual identities Ø mimetic theory shows that competing sacred representations of victimhood have been a nonagentive, unconscious force of globalization. Ø Mimetic theory: the identity of conflict emerges from the mimetic contagion according to which selfattributed collective victimhood provides a moral right for the initiation of hostilities against others. CLASS 20 – Analyzing culture and social change Ø Bibliography: Ø René Girard and mimetic theory Ø Girard’s books (1961; 1972; 1982) – see class “19” Ø Harald Wydra (2008) “Towards a New Anthropological Paradigm: The Challenge of Mimetic Theory”, International Political Anthropology, 1(1):161-174. Ø Harald Wydra (2013) „Victims and new wars“, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 26:1, 161-180