Mimism

Mimism is the foundational concept of Marcel Jousse’s anthropology. Jousse is one of the great discoverers of the world of oral culture in the 20th century and in a way the most radical and consistent—and, the most clearly convergent with the mimetic theory of Girard and Gans. For Jousse, we are mimers, or imitators, all the way down (our every gesture or reaction must be learned, and how else other than by imitating?) and all the way up (our “highest” intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual pursuits are also “mimisms,” the repetition—with variations, of course—of traditions that have been transmitted through imitation—how else?—for ages). “Mimism” allows us to replace questions about how people “think,” what are their “values,” what do they “believe,” and so on—that whole “inner” world—with questions regarding how one set of practices repeats, reproduces, revises and rehearses other sets of practices. If we keep in mind that “no imitation can ever be “perfect,” this approach enables us to account for the whole diversity of human activity and organization.