Rene Girard: “Culture always develops as a tomb. The tomb is nothing but the first human monument to be raised over the victim, the first and most elemental and fundamental matrix of meaning. There is no culture without a tomb and no tomb without culture; in the end, the tomb is the first and only cultural symbol.”
Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, 1987

Richard Koenigsberg: Girard was on the right track, but not correct. The fundamental victim is not an outsider (what Girard calls a "scapegoat"), but an "insider."
 
Below: Tombs of soldiers fallen in World War I--St. Roch cemetery. The First World War was fought in order to erect these tombs.
German Soldiers Image 1