A MECHANISM OF A "SCAPEGOAT" IN THE OLD GEORGIAN SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM

Abstract

A topic of a “scapegoat” used to occupy an important and determining place in sacrificial systems of archaic societies of the world and in Georgian reality as well. This is directly or indirectly indicated in the written sources and ethnographic materials, as well as in the data, preserved in the form of rudiment during rituals.

  To clarify this issue, we mainly follow information of Strabo regarding sacrificial rituals performed in the vicinity of the border of Iberia, also descriptions of several recent rituals performed in Georgia, some components of which are either exact analogues of the rituals described by Strabo, or in some cases are essentially very similar to it.  Linguistic data analysis has also helped us to clarify the problem.

If considering an issue in a shallow manner, the mechanism of the "scapegoat" is an easily explained phenomenon, but the deeper we go, the more difficult it is to find an essence, because there are too many irrational motives in it. This has resulted in appearing of a number of theories about this phenomenon. But we mostly rely on the mimetic theory of the greatest anthropologist of the twentieth century, René Girard, however we use other theories as well or try to explain them ourselves, if we believe that the theory of the latter does not sufficiently covers the problem.

  It should be noted that in Georgian sources and historiography there are mainly descriptive references to sacrificial systems and we rarely find attempts to explain their essence and mechanism, to show the ethical or axiological side. In this regard, the present work is a kind of a novelty in our scientific circles.

  Sacrifice is a universal phenomenon not only in spatial but also in a sense of a time, so it used to be and continues to exist in both archaic communities and modern societies, mainly similar in content and more different in forms. In this respect, the "scapegoat" mechanism has appeared to be the most viable among other sacrificial systems, as it is still active today in all parts of the world, but not in brutal and explicit, but in latent forms. Therefore, understanding this phenomenon is very important in terms of researching the religious or ethical views of modern society.

Key words: Sacrifice; Scapegoat; Pharmakos; Ritual; Cult of the Moon; Feast Day of St. George; Girard; Mimetic Theory; Strabo; Aggression; Victim.