Negative Imitation
When a person tries to establish difference from the rival and takes the rival as a model but in a way in which imitation is inverted and becomes the mirror image of the model. For instance, if the rival wears black shirts, the imitator will wear white shirts. Most people think of imitation as doing […]
Mimesis
A sophisticated form of adult imitation in adults that is usually hidden. In mimetic theory, mimesis has a negative connotation because it usually leads to rivalry and conflict—that’s one of the main reasons why Girard referred to the phenomenon with the word mimesis (from the Greek, μίμησις mīmēsis, from μιμεῖσθαι mīmeisthai, “to imitate”) and not […]
Romantic Lie
The idea that our choices are completely autonomous, independent, and self-directed. Someone under the power of the Romantic Lie never thinks of their behavior as mimetic.
Model (of Desire)
A person, thing, or group that shapes and orients the desire of another. Because desire is not object-oriented but model-oriented, models perform the important role of generating and directing desire in human life. Models are dangerous because they easily become obstacles or rivals to a person who becomes fixated on a particular model, which often […]
Hierarchy of Values
A system in which values are understood as interrelated and seen as part of a logical hierarchal relationship in which some values are derivative or less important than others in a given context.
Meme (Memetic) Theory
The field of mimetics studies how information and cultures develop based on principles of Darwinian evolution. The term meme was coined by ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. It was meant to evoke the word gene (from biology) because a meme is the cultural equivalent—words, accents, ideas, tunes, […]
Mimetic Theory
An explanation of social and cultural phenomena based on the role of imitation in human behavior—particularly, the imitation of desire (mimetic desire) and its consequences. The foundations of mimetic theory were laid by the French polymath René Girard in 1961 in his book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, which described mimetic desire (what he usually […]
Desire
A complex phenomenon of human life involving emotions and actions which are part of the process of wanting something or someone
Memetic Theory versus Mimetic Theory
Anthropologists have spent decades trying to explain the enormous diversity between different groups of people. How did tipping twenty percent become the norm in the U.S. but not in Europe? Why do Japanese business people greet one another with bows instead of handshakes? Why do some organizations have cultural “lingo” and others don’t? (And why […]
The Meme Machine — by Susan Blackmore
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore is one of the best recent books on Richard Dawkin’s famous meme theory, which describes how culture is transmitted from person to person and down through history. Memes purport to explain the development of culture through the imitation of things. Memes are like genes: they are replicators, competing for […]