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== Theoretical Origins ==
[[Generative Anthropology]] primarily draws on the thought of two French theorists: René Girard and Jacques Derrida. Eric Gans, the founder of Generative Anthropology, was a student of René Girard and he first conceived of the Originary [[Scene]] as a revision of Girard's [[Scapegoating]] Mechanism. For Girard, the [[Mimetic Crisis|mimetic crisis]] that gives birth to humanity is resolved by the violence and catharsis of the killing of an innocent victim. For Gans, [[deferral]] (an anthropological grounding of Derrida's [[wikipedia:Différance|différance]]) is the origin of the human. Our ability to use language, or signs, is a uniquely human capacity that resolves potential conflict via the [[Deferral of Violence|deferral of violence]].


== Development of Generative Anthropology ==
Gans first articulated the [[Originary Event]] in his 1981 book The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation.


== Origins ==
The term Generative Anthropology was first used in Gans' 1985 book The End of Culture: Toward a Generative Anthropology.
The philosophers who inspired Eric Gans to conceive of [[Generative Anthropology]] can primarily be accredited to french philosophers René Girard and Jacque Derrida. Having been colleagues for a semester with René Girard in 1978, Eric Gans conceived of the originary hypothesis when adapting René Girard mimetic scapegoat hypothesis with his own theses on the [[declarative]] sentence being arrived from a more primitive [[ostensive]]. When those ideas were combined with Jacque Derrida's notion of [[deferral]] and différance, [https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/gaintro/ Generative Anthropology was born].


== Early days ==
== Generative Anthropology Today ==
The notion of the originary event was first publicized in Eric Gans' 1981 book The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation, where he would posit that the human and human culture was generated from an event so mortally violent that it threatened to consume our nascent human ancestors in existentially threatning in-group violence.
Eric Gans was an early adopter of the internet and in 1995 he founded the online journal [https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology] with Tom Bertonneau, Matt Schneider, and Richard van Oort. In addition to Anthropoetics, Gans has been continuously writing on his blog the [https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/category/views/ Chronicles of Love and Resentment].  


Generative Anthropology was first named so in his 1985 book The End of Culture: Toward a Generative Anthropology, which would develop on the ideas of his first book.
In 2005, Adam Katz started writing on the [http://gablog.cdh.ucla.edu/: GA blog] he would begin to develop an [[anthropomorphics]] that diverged from more traditional GA.
 
== The Internet ==
Eric Gans became an early adopter of the internet, in 1995 founding the online journal Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology in which he simultaneously attaches his own blog Chronicles of Love and [[Resentment]] which he's been continously writing since then.

Latest revision as of 14:36, 23 April 2023

Theoretical Origins

Generative Anthropology primarily draws on the thought of two French theorists: René Girard and Jacques Derrida. Eric Gans, the founder of Generative Anthropology, was a student of René Girard and he first conceived of the Originary Scene as a revision of Girard's Scapegoating Mechanism. For Girard, the mimetic crisis that gives birth to humanity is resolved by the violence and catharsis of the killing of an innocent victim. For Gans, deferral (an anthropological grounding of Derrida's différance) is the origin of the human. Our ability to use language, or signs, is a uniquely human capacity that resolves potential conflict via the deferral of violence.

Development of Generative Anthropology

Gans first articulated the Originary Event in his 1981 book The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation.

The term Generative Anthropology was first used in Gans' 1985 book The End of Culture: Toward a Generative Anthropology.

Generative Anthropology Today

Eric Gans was an early adopter of the internet and in 1995 he founded the online journal Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology with Tom Bertonneau, Matt Schneider, and Richard van Oort. In addition to Anthropoetics, Gans has been continuously writing on his blog the Chronicles of Love and Resentment.

In 2005, Adam Katz started writing on the GA blog he would begin to develop an anthropomorphics that diverged from more traditional GA.