But Girard suggests that, at the height of communal violence, many cultures took an alternative route, a tragic but effective route. For some reason, different at different times and places, the ire of the group fell upon a certain person or subgroup. A scapegoat for the collective misfortune was identified. And in that moment of identification, group solidarity miraculously reappears.
This is what Philip Jenkins says happened in the 12-13th century.
