How We Became Human

From his groundbreaking Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, Ren Girards mimetic theory is presented as elucidating the origins of culture. He posits that archaic religion (or the sacred), particularly in its dynamics of sacrifice and ritual, is a neglected and major key to unlocking the enigma of how we became human. French philosopher of science Michel Serres states that Girards theory provides a Darwinian theory of culture because it proposes a dynamic, shows an evolution and gives a universal explanation. This major claim has, however, remained underscrutinized by scholars working on Girards theory, and it is mostly overlooked within the natural and social sciences. Joining disciplinary worlds, this book explores this ambitious claim, invoking viewpoints as diverse as evolutionary culture theory, cultural anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, ethology, and philosophy. The contributors provide major evidence in favour of Girards hypothesis. Equally, Girards theory is presented as having the potential to become for the human and social sciences something akin to the integrating framework that present-day biological science owes to Darwin - something compatible with it and complementary to it in accounting for the still remarkably little understood phenomenon of human emergence.