Avesta other general. The following categorization is as described by Jean Kellens (see bibliography, below). The "Yasna" (from "yazišn" "worship, oblations", cognate with Sanskrit "yajña"), is the primary liturgical collection, named after the ceremony at which it is recited. It consists of 72 sections called the "Ha-iti" or "Ha". The 72 threads of lamb's wool in the "Kushti", the sacred thread worn by Zoroastrians, represent these sections. The central portion of the Yasna is the "Gathas", the oldest and most sacred portion of the Avesta, believed to have been composed by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself. The "Gathas" are structurally interrupted by the
Violence and the Sacred Brown writes that Girard's purpose in "Violence and the Sacred" is to frighten people into returning to orthodox religion; Brown claims that Pope John Paul II liked the book. The religious studies scholar Catherine Bell writes that Girard uses "Freudian notions of desire, guilt, and an original murder at the hands of the group" to present "a theory of ritual sacrifice as the central act of a cultural system generated by primal violence." Bell finds Girard's views similar to those of the classicist Walter Burkert, as expressed in his book "Homo Necans" (1972). Chris Fleming writes that "Violence and the