scapegoat

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The Scapegoat (The Scapegoat)
William Holman Hunt (1854)

The scapegoat played a special role in the liturgy of the Great Day of Atonement until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 AD) : symbolically laden with the sins of the people of Israel, it was sent into the desert and served the annual reconciliation between God and man.

Both the term “scapegoat” and the expression “sending [someone] into the desert” have found their way into our everyday language as pictorial forms of expression. In addition, the term “scapegoat” is also used in group dynamics , sociology and organizational theory .

Origin of the term

The German term “scapegoat” was coined by Martin Luther's translation of the Bible and goes back to the biblical goat for which the lot was drawn ' for Asasel ': On the annual Yom Kippur , the day of atonement in Judaism , the high priest committed the social sins of the Israelites Nation publicly known to the congregation while symbolically holding his hands on a male goat determined by lot ; People in the congregation could confess sins individually. The goat was then sent by the high priest into the wilderness of the desert wasteland. To prevent this billy goat from returning from the wilderness 'for Asazel', it was brought to a high cliff in the practice of the second temple outside Jerusalem and pushed over its edge. Contrary to the Western colloquial use of the German pejorative term “scapegoat” from the Luther Bible, the goat “for Asasel” is not really blamed for misfortune or even sin, because sins in Judaism are not transferable or inheritable (cf. “ Original sin ”) and the original notion required the community to confess their own sins in public. Atonement begins with the confession of sin before God and occurs through moral repentance (to God). The spiritual and moral aspects outweigh the ritual, and the saying that "repentance, prayer, and good deeds can transform the harshness of our destiny" was included in the Jewish prayer book ( eighteen supplication ).

The sacrifice procedure is prescribed to Moses by YHWH as follows: “He should mark lots for the two goats, one lot 'for the Lord' and one lot 'for Asazel'. Aaron is to bring about the goat for whom the lot comes out 'for the Lord' and offer him as a sin offering. The goat, for which the lot comes out 'for Asazel', is to be placed alive before the Lord to serve for the atonement and to be sent to Asazel in the desert. ... Aaron is to put his two hands on the head of the living goat and over him confess all the sins of the Israelites, all their iniquities and all their faults. After he has loaded them onto the goat's head in this way, he should let a man drive him into the desert and the goat should carry all its sins with him into the wasteland. "( Lev 16.8-21  EU )

The text and the ritual behind it presumably have grown in several stages. In the final version, the goat 'for Asazel' is sent into the desert wilderness, which is archaically symbolized by Asasel and is considered a place of impurity, and the other goat 'for YHWH' is ritually sacrificed. Similar rituals are known from Mesopotamia and Anatolia.

There are various hypotheses about the etymological derivation of the name Asasel. Both Akkadian, Ugaritic, or Egyptian roots are suggested. Lev 16 is the only passage on Asazel in the Bible. Only later in extra-biblical literature (Qumran and 1st Enoch) does he become an ally of the accuser angel Satan . Theologically, this extra-biblical picture corresponds to a dualistic understanding of God. In the animism of ethnic religions, harmful spirits are appeased through certain ritual acts. There is a parallel in the Canaanite pantheon. In a Ugaritic representation, Baal-Hammon is the god of fertility and the yam (Lothan) of the floods and the sea god who fights against him . The Greek area knows this duality as Herakles and the serpent Ladon, which he defeated .

Role of the scapegoat

In group dynamics , the scapegoat is an expression of the omega position in the group. The scapegoat has both an assigned function and a role .

Sociological relevance of the term

The social role of the scapegoat can also be assigned to a whole group of people by attribution . When people are frustrated or unhappy, they often direct their aggression towards people or groups who are unpopular, easily identifiable, and powerless.

This can also be done by means of an ideology spread by the power elites, which consciously develops an enemy image with the aim of making certain social, ethnic or political minorities the scapegoat for current crises or to divert attention from their own lack of or dwindling legitimation (see for example Holocaust ). Such a projection onto a scapegoat can have an identity-forming function for the majority of the population.

In 1964, the sociologist Lewis A. Coser used the term “scapegoat” in Sociological Theory to refer to the shift from not directly feasible social conflicts (realistic conflicts) to more abstract, but feasible levels (unrealistic conflicts) .

The religious philosopher René Girard made in his anthropology from him so called "scapegoating" (English. Scapegoating feels Used is the scapegoat if the community is torn internally or threatened by a disaster) a basic hypothesis about the origin of human culture . By creating a false causal link between the threat and the chosen scapegoat, the evil can be dispelled and the community reunited and stabilized.

Organizational theory

In organizational theory , one knows the congruence principle of the organization . It states that tasks , competencies , responsibility and information must be transferred to subordinate bodies congruently. If this does not happen and if the competencies are too great compared to the tasks and the responsibility, then someone has to take responsibility for issues for which they have no competencies and which are not part of their tasks. Then one speaks of a “scapegoat” with the responsible party .

literature

anthropology

psychology

  • Gordon Allport : The nature of prejudice . Addison-Wesley 1954.
  • Gary Gemmill: The dynamics of scapegoating in small groups. Small Group Behavior 20, 1989, pp. 406-418.

theology

politics

  • Lutz Brangsch, Martin Wolfram: Emancipation instead of scapegoat. A political conversation against hatred of others. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-8311-1783-7 .

Novels

Web links

Commons : Scapegoats  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: scapegoat  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b W. Gunther Plaut (ed.): The Torah in a Jewish interpretation . With an introduction by Walter Homolka. Authorized translation and editing by Annette Böckler. 3. Edition. tape 3 : Wajikra, Leviticus . Kaiser, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-05491-9 , pp. 152 ff . (1st edition of the special edition).
  2. ^ E. Aronson , TD Wilson, RM Akert: Social Psychology. Pearson study. 6th edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-8273-7359-5 , p. 448.
  3. ^ René Girard: Generative Scapegoating. In: R. Hamerton-Kelly (Ed.): Violent Origins. Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1987, p. 103.
  4. ^ Daniel Kneubühl: Organization - Management - Basic Competence. 2012, p. 58 ( [1] ).