Part I. Introduction: 1. Setting the archaeological scene Ian Hodder; 2. Introduction to the thought of René Girard William A. Johnsen; Part II. Violence and the Sacred: 3. Death in Çatalhöyük Wolfgang Palaver; 4. A Girardian framework for violent injuries at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in their Western Asian context Christopher J.

Knüsel, Bonnie Glencross and Marco Milella; 5. Ritual practices and conflict mitigation at Early Neolithic Körtik Tepe and Göbekli Tepe, Upper Mesopotamia: a mimetic theoretical approach Lee Clare, Oliver Dietrich, Julia Gresky, Jens Notroff, Joris Peters and Nadja Pöllath; 6. Paired leopards and encircled prey: images of rivalry and sacrifice at Çatalhöyük Mark Anspach; Part III. The Dialectics of Mimesis: 7. Mimetic theory, the wall paintings, and the domestication, de-domestication, and sacrifice of cattle at Çatalhöyük William A. Johnsen; 8. The ordeal of the town. Rites and symbols at Çatalhöyük Benoît Chantre; 9.

Stretching Girard's hypothesis: road marks for a long-term perspective James Alison; 10. Girard's anthropology vs. cognitive archaeology Jean-Pierre Dupuy; Part IV. Conclusion: 11. Religion as a factor in the development of settled life Ian Hodder.