The
Human Scapegoat in Ancient Greece
From The Golden Bough (1890)
When we meet people from a different country, we are
usually surprised by how they speak and act. We may even be shocked by how
these people from another culture live. One of our natural responses to meeting
strangers is to start thinking in we/ they dichotomies. We eat with our hands,
but they eat with silverware. We worship
cows, but they eat hamburgers. We cry at the loss of our pet frog, but they
serve frog for dinner. When their way of life is so different from ours, it is
hard to avoid thinking that we are right and they are wrong.
Yet, as
we come to know these strangers (what some anthropologists call the other) we
begin to realize that they are not so strange after all. We all want to feel
safe and secure. We all want to be loved we all want to feel connected to our
culture, community, and family.
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