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Re: Cain a farmer?
ERIC SILVERMAN (ERICS@DEPAUW.EDU)
Mon, 18 Mar 1996 17:31:02 -0500
For those interested in Cain=farmer, Abel=shepherd, you might read
Girard, Violence and the Sacred (page 4-5), concerning the role of
sacrifice in establishing a moral order, and the fact that Cain (and
what he represents) did not have a sacrificial outlet.
Girard argues that sacrifice is a way of preenting what he calls "rebounding
violence" from effectively destroying society from within--in the absence of
a sacrificial victim, society destroys itself through a never-ending
spiral of violence; but, society can use that violence, through sacrifice,
to (re)establish itself.
Anyhow, this is a side note to the wider thread, but an interesting one
nonetheless (or so I think).
-Eric Silverman.
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