A hermeneutic of deep-rooted conflict: An exploration of Rene Girard's theory of mimetic desire and scapegoating and its applicability to the Oka/Kanehsata:ke crisis of 1990.
Creators: name: Redekop, Vernon W. Neufeld.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1998
Subjects: subject: Theology.

description: The hypothesis being tested has been that Rene Girard's theory of mimetic desire and scapegoating is a highly appropriate schema for understanding the dynamics of violence in deep-rooted conflict between identity groups. Chapter one explores a number of approaches to deep-rooted conflict. A variety of approaches to human identity needs are presented in order to flesh out the basic notion of identity-based conflict as a function of a threat to needs satisfiers. Other theoretical approaches are synthesized. Despite the heuristic potential of these different approaches, they do not adequately describe the dynamics by which these conflict are generated and violence is introduced. Chapter two presents Rene Girard's definitions of mimetic phenomena and many examples of mimetic desire, mimetic rivalry and mimetic doubling as Girard develops them within the domains of literature, anthropology and psychology. These examples draw out the inner dynamics of each type of violence. Chapter three is about the phenomenon of scapegoating, examining the classical structure of scapegoating with the stereotypic patterns Girard has synthesized. Examples are used to develop the characteristics of scapegoats and those who scapegoat. An interpretative narrative of the Oka/Kanehsata: ke crisis is presented chapter four as a test case for the usefulness of the new hermeneutic. This presentation recognizes the existence of a pre-contact aboriginal settlement of Kaneshsata: ke and traces the development of Oka and historical relationships between Mohawks and Eurocanadians from the arrival of the Sulpicians in the 1720s until the crisis. Beginning with the decision in 1989 to expand an existing golf course, events leading up to and during the crisis are described in detail. Of critical importance is the raid on the Pines on July 11, 1990, the event that sparked the crisis itself. Chapter five presents an interpretation of the crisis in terms of mimetic structures of violence. A large number of mimetic rivalries are presented along with examples of scapegoating. The power of mimetic structures of violence becomes particularly apparent as one enters into a very real deep-rooted conflict, raising two theological problems as the basis for a theological reflection in chapter six. First, how are these structures to be stood theologically---is it possible to develop an interface between this discourse and the discourse of theology? The second has to do with deliverance from these structures to something else. Regarding the first, insights of a number of theologians help to make the connections between mimetic structures of violence and discourse around victimization, sin, and Satan. The second issue introduces the concept of reconciliation. The reconciliation of deep-rooted conflicts is presented as the process of moving from mimetic structures of violence to mimetic structures of blessing. The conceptualisation of what might be entailed in reconciliation, from a theological perspective, is rooted in Christology. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)