With deep anthropological insight and vigorous literary grace, this book emerged in the early 1970s to disturb our perceptions of the formation of primitive, as well as human society in general.

Electively related to the work of Bataille and Freud’s "Totem and Taboo," it will highlight the foundational violence that underpins rituals and regulatory norms, the violence that as "mimetic desire" triggers conflicts among people, the violence invested in the "scapegoat" in order to maintain social order. The same violence that religion and sacrifice expel from the community, thereby defining the notion of the "sacred."

To this end, René Girard "unlocks" with acuity cognitive areas ranging from ancient Greek tragedy, ethnological findings, the Oedipus complex to famous anthropological motifs and symbols (mask, twins, doppelgängers, incest).

"[...] Oedipus has a double connotation. On the one hand, he is a wretched figure, an object of ridicule burdened with guilt. On the other hand, we see him surrounded by an aura of respect, becoming an object of worship. [...] The victim attracts upon itself the violence that struck the primal victim, while with his death transforms this poisonous violence into a beneficial violence, into harmony and abundance." (Rene Girard, from the presentation on the back cover of the book)