La barbarie come polarizzazione degli affetti: Jules Henry e il popolo Kaingáng

This article examins the case of the Kaingáng population, studied at the beginning of 1930 in Brazil by the anthropologist Jules Henry. The Kaingang was a society that, precisely because it had another radically negative concept, was condemned to destruction. This group has built its opposition to “his” barbarians so strongly that they are victims of a self-destructive spiral of violence and hatred. Referring to the fate of the Kaingáng, René Girard shows the consequences of a society that no longer has any means to resolve confl icts within the group. According to Girard, the example of the Kaingáng shows the fate that can touch every human group that loses the ability to regulate revenge through a sacrifi cial system.