Sir James Frazer's The Human Scapegoat In Ancient Greece
Posted by anjila | Posted in Culture , Summary | Posted on 6:17 AM
The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Greece is an extract from "From The Golden Bough(1890)" written by Sir James Frazer(!884-1941). Below is a thorough summary of the text.
Custom of sacrificing scapegoat seem to be originated as precaution of possible calamity, crisis and danger but the scapegoat was likely to come from the poorer class. Modes of sacrificing scapegoat differs from culture to culture. But the underline objective/purpose of sacrificing in every culture is same i.e purification of sin. Other objectives of scapegoating were to prevent calamity, disasters, starvation, suffering, tragedy and so on.
It was believed that scapegoating helped regain the fertility of the soil and vegetation(crops) yielded as expected by husbandsmen. Similarly practitioners of scapegoating believed that their offering of scapegoat would herald (to bring something surprisingly) good fortunes and happiness. Besides, tradition of human scapegoating was widely practiced in different parts of ancient Greece with an aim of averting evil spirit and malignant force. Though rational behind offspring scapegoat cannot be justified, it is deeply rooted in various cultures as an essential part of culture.
Sir Frazer concludes that through scapegoating, it practised with specific mission, ultimately it is nothing but search of power or search of support of super power. He also concludes that tradition of scapegoating shows that there is abundant use of power. It is the fact that the one who is made a scapegoat come from socially outcast group or from powerful class of people. At the same time it is noticeable that powerful ones offered powerless as scapegoat with an expectation of having good fortune and success.
Custom of sacrificing scapegoat seem to be originated as precaution of possible calamity, crisis and danger but the scapegoat was likely to come from the poorer class. Modes of sacrificing scapegoat differs from culture to culture. But the underline objective/purpose of sacrificing in every culture is same i.e purification of sin. Other objectives of scapegoating were to prevent calamity, disasters, starvation, suffering, tragedy and so on.
It was believed that scapegoating helped regain the fertility of the soil and vegetation(crops) yielded as expected by husbandsmen. Similarly practitioners of scapegoating believed that their offering of scapegoat would herald (to bring something surprisingly) good fortunes and happiness. Besides, tradition of human scapegoating was widely practiced in different parts of ancient Greece with an aim of averting evil spirit and malignant force. Though rational behind offspring scapegoat cannot be justified, it is deeply rooted in various cultures as an essential part of culture.
Sir Frazer concludes that through scapegoating, it practised with specific mission, ultimately it is nothing but search of power or search of support of super power. He also concludes that tradition of scapegoating shows that there is abundant use of power. It is the fact that the one who is made a scapegoat come from socially outcast group or from powerful class of people. At the same time it is noticeable that powerful ones offered powerless as scapegoat with an expectation of having good fortune and success.
Comments (0)
Post a Comment