Ren Girard, Scapegoating at atalhyk (COV&R, 2008) Summary by Martin F. Reichert [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtuvv-5RQVE [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klwew8gh_G4 [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=WSdlj_ygz2s [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhNjMvRmHfo [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRJNd5Z7P4A [6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbHt9cJx_kY [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT7JU2_ablI [8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs2iQBwiCuY [9] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDOx44To7vs [14:00] Neolithic: permanent housing, open areas but no central square, no central administration, no streets # map lots of Neolithic establishments in Turkey, only recently discovered one of the oldest and best known is Jericho 1958 James Mellaart (Cambridge) discovered one of the biggest: atalhyk houses were always rebuilt on the ruins of the preceding houses inhabited [7500-5700]: 1400 years houses built of mud lasted 60-70 years; many decorations inside were kept (we don't really know how) and repainted 18 levels of occupation; at one time 80,000 people others, larger and older sites, were discovered James Mellaart: flamboyant cut through very fast to find spectacular things [8:15] very sophisticated paintings: not as sophisticated as the Paleolithic paintings of Spain and France, but the art seems more natural, more spontaneous What people don't realize about Paleolithic art is that the paintings of Lascaux and Chauvet are exactly the same, though thousands of years have passed. [2] # Catal Huyuk ruins most important Neolithic settlement in the world no excavations from 1965-1993 after Mellaart was expelled from Turkey (he was accused of stealing stuff) Ian Hodder (Stanford) took over, wanted to survive excitement, but more scientific [22:05] 18 levels: blessing and cursesometimes impossible to keep apart

Turkish government is getting mad: fundamentalist area; Turkish prehistory and Islam are getting mixed up Ian Hodder, The Leopard's Tale (2006) original images in bad condition > drawings made by Mrs. Mellaart, a Turkish woman

# color3 Catal Huyuk in spring (before it was covered by dirt) amazing that it survived with all that water around [25:00] the image makes it seems as though there were streets: wrong totally compact (cf. beehive) but the houses had separate walls [26:00] # BW (Mellaart p.94) (drawn by Mrs. Mellaart) now extinct aurochs (extinct through excessive hunting: today's fashion is to blame hunting) difference between cave painting and wall painting (in private [?] houses) no temples; every house was a shrine: north wall was sacred; but exceptions under the bench of the north wall the bodies of ancestors were buried # color (p.15) (original) [3] was this done by outlining an animal that was present? wild animals cf. Paleolithic would be hard to bring in through the roof maybe by tracing the hide time when animals were domesticated for the first time: sheep we found heaps of bones, the animals were presumably eaten hunting [31:40 ?] # [32:25] BW (p.31) (stag) same as the other: human mob around an animal, more or less circular pattern they're disorganized problems with their only garment: a leopard's skin leopards were there Hodder spent a lot of time looking for bones, skin cf. two leopards facing each other: violence held in balance here: imbalance, turmoil Hodder: baiting the stag sexual element: penis animal lost balance people seem to be pulling the animal's tail, tongue, and snout some seems to throw objects at the animal # [35:50] BW (p.197) seems very similar; but the horns are very different

second picture of boar: shift hackles are visible; signs of irritation in the animal: concern for realism a smaller group of people are mocking the animal: archaic scapegoating [37:10] in MT we think it's the beginning of religion evidence of animal scapegoating without MT it might not make sense [38:25] some people are visibly damaged: missing limbs; one not visibly human animal's erect penis [4] the animals are never females: an object of contention some argued that CH was an example of female religion bottom right: ppl teasing each other; wantonness taking over; sexual [41:15] What does it mean? # first picture: most unarmed the one at the tail seems to have a sheath for a knife only had obsidian knives: very sharp but short # this may be the reason for the severed legs of the animal in the second picture in the first picture he may be cutting off the feet this was a technique not for teasing, as Hodder claims, but for killing the animal I'm certain the technique was highly ritualized first picture represents an earlier part in the stage (maybe part of the hunting of the animal) second picture: mobbing of the corpse, the first form of ritual sacrifice [45:30] animals eaten in big festivals: the only times venison was eaten; at other times they ate sheep and goats festivals: a passion of the past, looking back to the Paleolithic time when people were hunters, since domesticated animals were excluded from them [47:30] the problem that domesticated animals solve (?) => teasing and baiting cannot explain this, but hunting [5] consider the technological aspect: on some of the pictures you see bows, but you never see arrows probably not strong enough to kill an animal of this size, so you had to have physical contact with them this was not simply an economic occupation: festival were very important (?) if the pics can be read in sequence, it's because they were ritualized: it's not a joke, as Hodder has it the people looking at this pictures would no doubt recognize what the man in the first picture was doing to the front legs of the animal [52:35] now the horns of the animal: depicted twice in both pictures: after the animal's death they are transported elsewhere

# [53:50] BW (p.10) bench on north wall horns of big animals mystery: how can you shift from image of animal as an enemy that you persecute to one where the animal is inside the house? # interior of house with scary horns seems like this might be a scary religion, but not at all: once the animal was dead, its significance changed completely: it became "divine" [56:24] mimetic reason: scapegoating unites the mob against the animal limbs and heads of people are neatly cut off purpose: animal is vanquished with great difficulty finally peace comes back with the help of the animal the animal (stag, aurochs) could not have bitten off the arm of a human mythical: headless people continue to hunt [58:05] reality: there were problems there was violence in this society, but this violence is shifted through ritual onto the animal which was divine [6] cf. bullfight: teasing and baiting the bullinitially not deadly for the bull, but to get him tired to make it possible for the matador to kill the bull in the appropriate, ritual fashion; killing as conquest cf. Goya's bullfighting pictures: close to Neolithic art # [61:50] leopards (color p.10 BW p.10 BW p.142 BW p.250) Ian Hopper: they touch; they don't fight, they're in balance; contrast to other pics of emotion, destruction represent an older religion in conflict with the new one (bull) these pictures can only be read with MT, which Hodder doesn't know [end 64:00] Hindu veneration of the holy cow: Vedic offering of the bull => veneration of the cow [65:30] transformation from offering to holy Is there a woman on the right? Durkheim: the image of the animal is more sacred than the animal