Flesh becomes word : a lexicography of the scapegoat or, the history of an idea

221 Pages·2013·1.195 MB·English

by  Dawson, David

F
lesh
B
ecomes
W
ord
Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture
SERIES EDITOR
William A. Johnsen
Th e Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture Series examines issues related to the nexus of
violence and religion in the genesis and maintenance of culture. It furthers the agenda of the
Colloquium on Violence and Religion, an international association that draws inspiration
from René Girard’s mimetic hypothesis on the relationship between violence and religion,
elaborated in a stunning series of books he has written over the last forty years. Readers
interested in this area of research can also look to the association’s journal, Contagion: Journal
of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Rebecca Adams, Independent Scholar Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California,
Mark Anspach, École Polytechnique, Paris Santa Barbara
Ann Astell, University of Notre Dame Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Shaw Divinity School
Cesáreo Bandera, University of North Carolina Michael Kirwan, SJ, Heythrop College, University
Maria Stella Barberi, Università di Messina of London
Benoît Chantre, L’association Recherches Paisley Livingston, Lingnan University,
Mimétiques Hong Kong
Diana Culbertson, Kent State University Charles Mabee, Ecumenical Th eological Seminary,
Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan University Detroit
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Stanford University, École Józef Niewiadomski, Universität Innsbruck
Polytechnique Wolfgang Palaver, Universität Innsbruck
Giuseppe Fornari, Università degli studi di Bergamo Martha Reineke, University of Northern Iowa
Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan
Sandor Goodhart, Purdue University Th ee Smith, Emory University
Robert Hamerton-Kelly, Stanford University Mark Wallace, Swarthmore College
Hans Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark Eugene Webb, University of Washington
F B
lesh ecomes
W
A LEXICOGRAPHY OF
ord
THE SCAPEGOAT OR,
THE HISTORY OF AN IDEA
David Dawson
Michigan State University Press · East Lansing
Copyright © 2013 by David Dawson
i Th e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-
1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
pMichigan State University Press
East Lansing, Michigan 48823-5245
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Dawson, David.
Flesh becomes word : a lexicography of the scapegoat or, the history of an idea / David Dawson.
p. cm.—(Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
isbn 978-1-60917-349-4 (ebook)—isbn 978-1-61186-063-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Scapegoat (Th e English word) 2. English language—Etymology. 3. English language—Religious
aspects. 4. Scapegoat in literature. I. Title.
pe1599.s33d39 2013
422—dc23
2012028339
Book design by Charlie Sharp, Sharp Des!gns, Lansing, Michigan
Cover design by David Drummond, Salamander Design, www.salamanderhill.com.
Cover image of “Th e Goat” is a relief engraving by Barry Moser from the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible,
1999, page 90, and is used by permission of the artist. All rights reserved.
G Michigan State University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative and
is committed to developing and encouraging ecologically responsible publishing
practices. For more information about the Green Press Initiative and the use of recycled paper in
book publishing, please visit www.greenpressinitiative.org.
Visit Michigan State University Press at www.msupress.org
For Clive and Silas

Contents
ix Preface
1 chapter 1. Rites of Riddance and Substitution
9 chapter 2. Ancient Types and Soteriologies
23 chapter 3. Th e Sulfurous and Sublime
33 chapter 4. Economies of Blood
49 chapter 5. Th e Damnation of Christ’s Soul
63 chapter 6. Anthropologies of the Scapegoat
77 chapter 7. Th e Goat and the Idol
89 chapter 8. A Figure in Flux
99 chapter 9. Early Modern Texts of Persecution
121 chapter 10. A Latent History of the Modern World
131 conclusion. Th e Plowbeam and the Loom
135 appendix. Katharma and Peripsēma Testimonia
143 Notes
185 Bibliography
Preface
For it should be obvious that all that matters to a psychologist of morals
is what has really existed and is attested by documents, the endless hiero-
glyphic record, so difficult to decipher, of our moral past.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
Th ere is a not yet conscious knowledge of what has been: its advancement
has the structure of awakening.
—Walter Benjamin, Th e Arcades Project
N
ew evidence suggests the English word “scapegoat” was a portent
of epochal passage in the dawn of the modern age, a sign in whose
semantic evolution we may read the demise of religion and the
advent of the secular world. By religion we understand an older, collective
form of social existence and its metaphysical economy of propitiatory sub-
stitutions, something that begins to break up with the emergence of more
democratic ideals (personal accountability, equality under the law, etc.) that
are today so widely deemed to be self-evident their late historical emergence
can pass unnoticed. To define religion in this way is to insist on an anthropo-
logical common denominator uniting pagan cult and Christian theology in
a millennial process of religious efflorescence and collapse, a process that the
history of our word serves to illuminate.
ix