Weirdly, Girard’s ideas call to mind the story of the Fall envisioned in An Archaeology …
God’s curse on the serpent fits Girard’s model of “scapegoat”: “Her seed” tracks the history of human conscious awareness and “the serpent’s seed” tracks the history of reified human unconscious desires.
The victim (who is sacrificed) substitutes for the guilty one, the one who strikes at the human’s heel; that is, the concupiscence that exploits human weakness.
The guilty one is the one who sacrifices the victim and in doing so, strikes at the head of the serpent’s seed; the concupiscence that exploits human weakness.
Humans (in justificationself) sacrifice a substitute in order to satiate humans (in concupiscence).
Does this “stem the spiral of concupiscent violence”?
Yes, by offering concupiscent cravings a scapegoat – a substitute – for the real thing.
No, when the spiral can no longer be contained.