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The '''Originary [[Scene]] (or Originary [[Scene|Event]])''' describes a hypothetical historical event where language emerges in order to [[Deferral|defer]] violence via representation.


== Introduction ==
== Origin ==
The '''Originary [[Scene]]''' or Originary Event is the central concept of [[Generative Anthropology]]. This hypothetical historical event is the origin of the human and simultaneously the origin of language. Eric Gans, the founder of Generative Anthropology, articulated the first version of the Originary Scene in his 1981 book The Origin of Language. Gans referred to the Originary Scene as the "little bang" of human culture, analogous to the "big bang" of the Universe.
On the Originary Scene, intense [[Mimetic Desire|mimetic desire]] overrides the existing hominid pecking order, and the members of a not-yet-human group converge symmetrically on a central object of desire (likely a food object), collectively reaching out in a gesture of appropriation. One of the hominids, out of the [[Originary Terror|originary terror]] of incurring the aggression of the other members of the group, instinctually aborts his gesture of appropriation.      


== Freud, Girard, and Gans ==
The other hominids see this hesitation and are similarly compelled to imitate and deliberately repeat his [[Gesture of Aborted Appropriation|gesture of aborted appropriation]]. The mimetic acceleration towards the central object becomes a mimetic deceleration as the gesture of appropriation (a kind of "grabbing") is converted by the group one by one into a [[Gesture of Aborted Appropriation|gesture of aborted appropriation]] (a kind of "pointing"). This [[Gesture of Aborted Appropriation|gesture of aborted appropriation]], once issued and recognized by the group, becomes the first [[sign]].       
Eric Gans was one of the first PhD students of René Girard and the Originary Scene is modeled on Girard's Scapegoating Mechanism. Girard in turn modeled his mechanism on Freud's description the father murdered by his sons''.'' Gans recognized the shared core of these scenes that purport to describe the origin of the human social order as "the designation of the central figure by a [[sign]]".       


Generative Anthropology's Originary Scene, unlike that of Freud, Girard, and all other theories of the origin of language focuses on the paradoxical emergence of this first sign.  
For the first time, the serial animal pecking order has been transcended by the collective designation of the central object via a sign. A new kind of social order is born: a human community, organized around a shared central sign that each is able to refer to. The first sign is [[ostensive]] and it functions as a collective interdiction of the central object, deferring the [[Originary Violence|originary violence]] which otherwise could have ensued. The purpose of that first sign, like all signs after it, is the [[deferral]] of violence through representation.  


== Setting the Scene ==
After the succesful issuance of the sign, the object at the center does ultimately need to be consumed, and this happens in the [[sparagmos]] where the sign would be issued again as a reminder of the communities collective limits and would make the peaceful consumption of the object possible. Following the sparagmos, as the members of the community face each other over the remains of their victim/meal/deity, the sign would be issued once again, this time pointing to the remainders and mementos of the sacred being, marking the first [[ritual]].     
The Originary Scene is a hypothesis about what must have been an actual historical ''event''. We will likely never find out exactly where or when the Originary Scene took place, but something ''like it'' must have taken place in order for us to be using language right now. Without a shared origin of human language, communication would be impossible, and so the Originary Scene is a hypothesis about that first shared scene of language origin.     


Specifically, the Originary Scene is an attempt to hypothesize how it is possible that a community of hominids ''without'' the capacity for representation can become capable of representation. We cannot take the common but absurd position that pre-linguistic beings already had something like "ideas" they wanted to "express" because that would entail assuming in advance the very thing we want to explain. Instead, the Originary Scene is an attempt to articulate a minimal account of the origin of something radically new, a sign, from a community that does not yet have this ability.  
== Characteristics ==
Eric Gans articulated the first version of the Originary Scene in his 1981 book ''The Origin of Languag''e where he referred to the scene as the "little bang" of human culture, analogous to the "big bang" of the Universe.    


The Originary Scene shares the same starting point as Girard: human beings are the most mimetic species, and [[mimesis]] leads to rivalry and conflict. Language comes into being to defer violence only when our hominid ancestors became ''too mimetic'' and their existing animal mechanisms to withhold their potential violence are in jeopardy.   
The issuer of the first [[Aborted Gesture of Appropriation|aborted gesture of appropriation]] didn't ''intend'' for it to become a sign, and yet it did. The hominid group didn't ''intend'' to create a community, and yet they created the first human community via the issuance of the sign. The [[center]] both compelled them to issue the sign and the center was created when the sign was issued. This is the [[paradox]] of signification that first emerges on the Originary Scene and is constitutive of the human.    
 
== The Originary Scene ==
The Originary Scene begins when a group of proto-humans, possibly a hunting party, kill or come across a source of food. This food object of would become the [[center]] of their attention and the hungry hominids would encircle it and attempt to consume it as they had done many times before.   
 
Ordinarily, like all higher primates, the Alpha would eat first, then pass the remainder to the Beta, and so on down the serial "queued" hierarchy. However, our hypothesis entails that the mimetic capacities of these hominids had progressed such that their normal serial pecking order would have been under threat of breakdown. All of the hominids, given their highly mimetic capacity as they all start to model one another increasingly precisely, would have begun to simultaneously approach the object instead of one by one. This new kind of mimetically enhanced fearful symmetry would be a sort of mimetic acceleration towards the object from all sides. We are no longer dealing with just animal appetite, but desire, a social phenomenon, where each one wants the object more because their mimetic model also desires the object.   
 
The Alpha, normally the first to appropriate the food object, is now facing the entire group. It is not just the Beta, or an individual rival, that the Alpha needs to contest, but the entire mimetic group as a whole.   
 
Each of the hominids would be getting closer to the central object and reaching out their hands in something like a "gesture of appropriation".  Like hands of children at a party for the last peace of cake, one of them hesitates, and their a gesture of appropriation becomes a gesture of aborted appropriation. Something like a "grabbing" becomes something like a "pointing" and others hominids recognize this hesitation. First one, then two, then each one in the group imitates this new aborted gesture of appropriation which becomes the first sign. 
 
It would have been only momentary, but this sign would have to have been enough to begin a kind of mimetic deceleration.   
 
For the first time, the hierarchical and serial animal pecking order has been transcended and a new order is born: a social order, with a center, and a human community capable of using signs. The first sign is [[ostensive]], and it signifies the sharing of joint attention of everyone on the scene with the object at the center. The first sign, like all signs after it, defers violence through representation. 
 
The object at the center does need to be consumed, and the emergent community does need to put its new sign to work to ensure this can be done in a communal and non-violent (or, sufficiently non-violent so that the [[Mimetic Crisis|mimetic crisis]] is not re-activated) manner. In the [[sparagmos]], the tension generated by the prior restraint is released, and so this danger does present itself as the community attacks the meal in this unprecedented manner. [[Resentment]] at the object itself, for imposing restraint and refusing itself, intensifies the devouring of the body. The only thing preventing each member from overreaching his bounds and turning on his fellows is the sign itself, which we can imagine working within the sparagmos as a kind of reminder of the collective limits making this peaceful consumption possible. Following the sparagmos, as the members of the community face each other over the remains of their victim/meal/deity, the sign would be issued once again, this time pointing to the remainders and mementos of the sacred being, marking the first [[ritual]]. 


=== References ===
=== References ===
Gans, E. L., Katz, A. L. (2019). ''The Origin of Language: A New Edition''
Gans, E. L., Katz, A. L. (2019). ''The Origin of Language: A New Edition''


http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/gaintro/
Katz, A. (2020). ''Anthropomorphics.''

Latest revision as of 18:31, 9 April 2023

The Originary Scene (or Originary Event) describes a hypothetical historical event where language emerges in order to defer violence via representation.

Origin

On the Originary Scene, intense mimetic desire overrides the existing hominid pecking order, and the members of a not-yet-human group converge symmetrically on a central object of desire (likely a food object), collectively reaching out in a gesture of appropriation. One of the hominids, out of the originary terror of incurring the aggression of the other members of the group, instinctually aborts his gesture of appropriation.

The other hominids see this hesitation and are similarly compelled to imitate and deliberately repeat his gesture of aborted appropriation. The mimetic acceleration towards the central object becomes a mimetic deceleration as the gesture of appropriation (a kind of "grabbing") is converted by the group one by one into a gesture of aborted appropriation (a kind of "pointing"). This gesture of aborted appropriation, once issued and recognized by the group, becomes the first sign.

For the first time, the serial animal pecking order has been transcended by the collective designation of the central object via a sign. A new kind of social order is born: a human community, organized around a shared central sign that each is able to refer to. The first sign is ostensive and it functions as a collective interdiction of the central object, deferring the originary violence which otherwise could have ensued. The purpose of that first sign, like all signs after it, is the deferral of violence through representation.

After the succesful issuance of the sign, the object at the center does ultimately need to be consumed, and this happens in the sparagmos where the sign would be issued again as a reminder of the communities collective limits and would make the peaceful consumption of the object possible. Following the sparagmos, as the members of the community face each other over the remains of their victim/meal/deity, the sign would be issued once again, this time pointing to the remainders and mementos of the sacred being, marking the first ritual.

Characteristics

Eric Gans articulated the first version of the Originary Scene in his 1981 book The Origin of Language where he referred to the scene as the "little bang" of human culture, analogous to the "big bang" of the Universe.

The issuer of the first aborted gesture of appropriation didn't intend for it to become a sign, and yet it did. The hominid group didn't intend to create a community, and yet they created the first human community via the issuance of the sign. The center both compelled them to issue the sign and the center was created when the sign was issued. This is the paradox of signification that first emerges on the Originary Scene and is constitutive of the human.

References

Gans, E. L., Katz, A. L. (2019). The Origin of Language: A New Edition

Katz, A. (2020). Anthropomorphics.

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