So sacrifice and scapegoating are two different expressions of the same reality, the victim mechanism by which human societies have typically operated. The mechanism is the origin of human culture, or "founding murder." A tremendous number of myths portray this founding murder, although the human reality is usually disguised and distorted. For example, in the ancient Babylonian myth of the origin of the world the god Marduk defeats Tiamat, the goddess of the salt water, splits her body, and places half of it over the sky and half under the earth. He kills Tiamat's consort, Kingu, and makes
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