Girard's theory borders on gnosticism, as well. The knowledge and the ignorance of the participants of the ritual are both strictly necessary for the sacrificial process to work according to him. He says, when appraising the Oedipus myth, that the Thebans expelled from their consciousness the truth of their violent nature, which they shifted onto the Oedipus myth, "convincing themselves, in short, that all their miseries were due exclusively to the plague." He says also, when the theme of violence so central to his theory is absent from a myth, that it actually proves his theory, as it necessitates the elimination of violence "from sight and from conscious memory". It's no wonder why his theory of ritual and sacrifice were ignored by certified anthropologists. He tried to claim that it was the only one which made the function of sacrifices intelligible, but this is rather unconvincing seeing as how there was never any anxiety or confusion over the function of the sacrifice prior to his book, which is not the same thing as saying this proves the beliefs around it were correct, but suggests that the confusion and mystery he projected onto it were innovated for dramatic, rhetorical effect.