Aborted Gesture of Appropriation

This is one of the founding concepts of Generative Anthropology. According to Eric Gans’s concept of the originary event, the gesture of aborted appropriation is the first sign, which is to say, the first use of language. With all of the members of a group moving and reaching towards some central object, the pre-human pecking order breaks down and, with appetite intensified by mimetic desire, a violent conflict threatening the survival of the group is imminent. One member, then another, aborts the move towards appropriation. This aborted move converts appropriation into a gesture signifying a renunciation of appropriation. All language, and all rituals and human institutions follow from this gesture, and are therefore something like this gesture. A more radical way of putting it is that all of human life and culture is a continuation of that gesture.