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
Byrne, Richard, and Andrew Whiten (ed.). Machiavellian Intelligence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
Deacon, Terrence. The Symbolic Species. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1997.
Stringer, Chris. The Origin of Our Species. London: Penguin Books, 2011.
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Dumouchel, P. (2017). An Essay on Hominization: Current Theories, Girardian–Darwinian Approaches. In: Alison, J., Palaver, W. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_3
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