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Re: Mimesis and Alterity jargonR. C. Alvarado (rca2t@FARADAY.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU)Sat, 8 Oct 1994 11:36:18 -0400
>>The advantage of the word "mimesis" is that it has a precise meaning and long, >>long history in the human sciences. > Do you mean sociocultural anthropology when you say "human >sciences"? I ask, not out of rhetorical bluster, but because I'm a graduate >student in biological anthropology (which fits the definition of a "human >science") and have never heard of mimesis. I've read papers on mimicry and >its relation to evolutionary theory, but don't recall that term. Have I >missed or forgotten something? Or were you using "sciences" in its most >general and imprecise meaning (which is okay by me)? I refer to what are called the social and behavioral sciences by the term "human sciences," those that deal with the specifically human phenomenon of culture and which overlap somewhat with what are called the "humanities." Philosophers and sociologists have made use of the term mimesis for some time. Interesingly, though, my "Little Oxford Dictionary" defines mimesis as follows: "n. *Biol.* close external resemblence of an animal to another that is distasteful or harmful to predators at first." Apparently, classically trained biologists drew an analogy between the human faculty and the more limited animal one to imitate, in this case in order to dissimulate. --
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