Avesta people. The term "Avesta" is from the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian "abestāg", Book Pahlavi "ʾp(y)stʾkʼ". In that context, "abestāg" texts are portrayed as received knowledge, and are distinguished from the exegetical commentaries (the "zand") thereof. The literal meaning of the word "abestāg" is uncertain; it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of the suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The widely repeated derivation from *"upa-stavaka" is from Christian Bartholomae ("Altiranisches Wörterbuch", 1904), who interpreted "abestāg" as a contraction of a hypothetical reconstructed Old Iranian
Violence and the Sacred Sacred" has been seen as hostile to religion. Violence and the Sacred Violence and the Sacred () is a 1972 book by the French anthropologist René Girard. The book received both positive and mixed reviews. "Violence and the Sacred" was written while Girard was distinguished professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Girard was influenced by the work of Georges Bataille. Girard discusses the ritual role of sacrifice. He reevaluates Sigmund Freud's "Totem and Taboo" (1913), writing that while it has been widely rejected, he views the work differently. He notes that Freud's concept of collective murder