{"product_id":"violent-origins-robert-g-hamerton-kelly-9780804715188","title":"Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, Rene Girard, \u0026 Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation","description":"\u003cp\u003eBurkert, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGirard 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 \u003ci\u003ejeu d'esprit, \u003c\/i\u003e that sacrifice originates with the domestication of animals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly, Walter Burkert, René Girard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0804715181\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780804715188\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/1988\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 292\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.28h x 5.56w x 0.78d","brand":"Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43947212996863,"sku":"9780804715188","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_46b7dd55-725b-4cf9-835d-a2cdcbbb341a.jpg?v=1681517394","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/violent-origins-robert-g-hamerton-kelly-9780804715188","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}