How did mimetic desire form culture?
According to Girard, over a period of hundreds of thousands of years, hominids were caught up in endless cycles of mimetic conflict as they imitated one another’s desires. These conflicts led to multiple accusations against multiple people and chaotic violence. Under these conditions, culture had no chance of forming. Soon, one of the accusations attracted imitators. More and more hominids focused their accusations on a single person. On their way to becoming humans, they unconsciously discovered that unanimous convergence against a single victim brought relief to their mimetic conflicts. The victim was a scapegoat who was alleged to have started all the problems of the community. The unanimity against a single victim eventually created a strong enough bond to create culture. Girard hypothesizes that culture is based on the violent scapegoat mechanism. The mimetic rivalry that people naturally fall into produces scapegoats and a culture of sacrifice. Once we understand the process of m
