An Essay on Hominization: Current Theories, Girardian–Darwinian Approaches

  • Paul Dumouchel
Chapter
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Abstract

The main advantage of the explanation for hominization put forward by mimetic theory is precisely that it comes as part of a package, one that intimately relates the origin of symbolic thought with the origin of religion (or the sacred), rituals, myths, rules, moral distinctions, and indeed all basic human institutions. That is its greatest strength, because all these things are common to us and to us only.

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Further Reading

  1. Byrne, Richard, and Andrew Whiten (ed.). Machiavellian Intelligence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.Google Scholar
  2. Deacon, Terrence. The Symbolic Species. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1997.Google Scholar
  3. Stringer, Chris. The Origin of Our Species. London: Penguin Books, 2011.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Paul Dumouchel
    • 1
  1. 1.Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier SciencesRitsumeikan UniversityKyotoJapan

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