Imitation, Mimetic Theory, and Religious and Cultural Evolution
Principle Investigator: Dr. Scott Garrels
In June of 2006, Fuller’s Graduate School of Psychology, sponsored by the Travis Research Institute, was awarded a Templeton Advanced Research Program (TARP) for a three-year-study entitled “Imitation, Mimetic Theory, and Religious and Cultural Evolution.” The project was one of 11 selected from over 400 qualified proposals to receive the TARP grant. Awarded to help further scientific understanding of religion and spirituality, the grant is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and administered through the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science. The overall objective of this project is to commence a research program that will pioneer interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars of the mimetic theory of culture and religion and imitation researchers concerning the core motivational aspects of imitation in human relations and their powerful implications for the study of religious and cultural evolution.
Several prominent mimetic scholars have participated in this project, including cultural theorist and pioneer of mimetic theory René Girard (Stanford University), social and political philosopher Jeanne-Pierre Dupuy (Stanford University), philosopher Paul Dumouchel (Ritsumeikan University, Japan), anthropologist Mark Anspach (École Polytechnique, Paris), pastor and theologian Robert Hamerton-Kelly (Stanford University), and psychiatrist Jean-Michel Oughourlian (University of Paris).
Andrew Meltzoff (University of Washington), the internationally recognized expert on infant imitation has also participated, as well as Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma, Italy), one of the pioneering discoverers of mirror neurons, and developmental psychologist Ann Kruger (University of Georgia). Finally, several prominent interdisciplinary scholars and researchers also participated, including physician and bio-ethicist William Hurlbut (Stanford University), anthropologist and biologist Melvin Konner (Emory University), and neuroscientist Warren Brown (Fuller Graduate School of Psychology).
Project Details
This project involved three international meeting with the above participants. The primary goals and activities of these meeting have been:
- to present and discuss the latest advances on imitation research from developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, evolutionary theory, and related disciplines in the humanities represented by mimetic scholars,
- to develop various core topics, hypotheses, and research questions to be investigated by each participant that will be reviewed and integrated as chapters to be published as an edited book, and
- to develop additional research questions, methodologies, and grant proposals for continued collaborative work between scholars and institutions.
As Principal Investigator, I was very pleased with the contributions that all participants made at the meetings and even more impressed with the collective sense of good will, thoughtfulness, and commitment that came out of such a
diverse group of scholars and researchers. The proceeding from these meeting are in press and will be published in early 2011 as an edited book with Michigan State University Press in their book series Violence, Mimesis, and Culture.
For more information about this grant project, its objects, and participants, please visit www.mimetictheory.org