How we became human Mimetic theory and the science of evolutionary origins

Book - 2015

"Since his groundbreaking Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, Rene Girard's mimetic theory has elucidated "the origins of culture." Girard posits that archaic religion (or "the sacred"), particularly in its dynamics of sacrifice and ritual, is a neglected and major key to unlocking the enigma of " how we became human." French philosopher of science Michel Serres states that Girard's theory provides a Darwinian concept of culture, because it "proposes a dynamic, shows an evolution and gives a universal explanation." This claim, however, has remained underscrutinized by scholars, and it is mostly overlooked within the natural and social sciences.... Joining disciplinary worlds, this book aims to explore this ambitious claim, invoking viewpoints as diverse as evolutionary culture theory, cultural anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, ethology, and philosophy. The contributors provide major evidence in favor of Girard's hypothesis. Equally, Girard's theory is presented as having the potential to become for the human and social sciences something akin to the integrating framework that present-day biological science owes to Darwin - - something compatible with it and complementary to it in accounting for the still remarkably little understood phenomenon of human emergence." --Back cover.

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Subjects
Published
East Lansing : Michigan State University Press [2015]
Language
English
Physical Description
liii, 351 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781611861730
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Part 1. Questions of Methodology and Hermeneutics: Mimetic Theory, Darwinism, and Cultural Evolution
  • Coevolution and Mimesis
  • Genes and Mimesis: Sttuctural Patterns in Darwinism and Mimetic Theory
  • Maladaptation, Counterintuitiveness, and Symbolism: The Challenge of Mimetic Theory to Evolutionary Thinking
  • Part 2. Imitation, Desire, Victimization: Examining Mimetic Theory on the Evidence
  • Convergence between Mimetic Theory and Imitation Research
  • The Deepest Principle of Life: Neurobiology and the Psychology of Desire
  • The Three Rs: Retaliation, Revenge, and (Especially) Redirected Aggression
  • Part 3. Violent Origins Revisited
  • Violent Origins: Mimetic Rivalry in Darwinian Evolution
  • Mechanisms of Internal Cohesion: Scapegoating and Parochial Altruism
  • A Mediatory Theory of Hominization
  • Part 4. Interpreting Archaeological Data: Mimetic Readings of Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe
  • Animal Scapegoating at Çatalhöyük
  • Self-transcendence and Tangled Hierarchies in Çatalhöyük
  • Rethinking the Neolithic Revolution: Symbolism and Sacrifice at Göbekli Tepe, Paul Gifford and Pierpaolo Antonello
  • Part 5. The Evolutionary Hermeneutics of Homo Religiosus
  • Intrinsic or Situated Religiousness: A Girardian Solution
  • Homo religiosus in Mimetic Perspective: An Evolutionary Dialogue
  • About the Authors
  • Index