scapegoat ritual
Symbolic guilt transfer
A scapegoat ritual is a ceremony in which sins, guilt, or misfortune are symbolically transferred onto a person, animal, or object that is then expelled or destroyed.
The term derives from the ancient Hebrew practice of sending a goat into the wilderness bearing the community's transgressions.
Modern usage extends to any process of collective blame-shifting: The firing was pure scapegoat ritual—someone had to take the fall for management's failures.
- Day of AtonementSolemn Jewish repentance observance
- projectionSomething that extends outward
- blame gameCompetitive fault deflection
- fall guyOne blamed for others
- sacrificeGiving up something precious
mob mentality · expiation · blood sacrifice · burnt offering · purification · taboo · shamanism · groupthink · exorcism · tribal customs · Yom Kippur · ostracism · casting out · victimization · sacred rites · Barabbas · moral panic · public shaming
- Mosaic lawMoses, Mosaic law, Ten Commandments, tablets of stone, commandment
scapegoat ritualmea culpa
Acknowledgment of personal blame
self-accusation · taking responsibility · individual accountability · admission of guilt · confession booth
scapegoat ritualself-flagellation
Deliberately striking one's own body
fasting · mortification · pilgrimage · self-sacrifice · reparation
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