Mimesis: Anthropological and Cultural Dimension of Doubling

The article deals with the historical, cultural and anthropological aspects of the notion of mimesis. It is often considered to be an aesthetic phenomenon and a signified imitation or a doubling. However, such simplification cannot be justified in all instances. Something is always lost when trying to reduce mimesis to simple mechanical imitation. In antiquity, mimesis was not confined to aesthetics but acquired anthropological significance and had an impact on social or pedagogical processes. In this study, mimesis plays, primarily, an anthropological function. It means that, like many other cultural phenomena, mimesis is most ambivalent, as it is capable of leading to conformism, or vice versa, it can have a powerful heuristic potential for a certain experience. Plato and Aristotle looked at art through the prism of mimesis and contrasted it with such types of cognition as science and history, since they were associated with truth and reality. However, Stagirite criticizes Platonism. In his view, mimesis does not radically confront the mind. Mimetic processes allow us to connect different worlds with the ability to imitate and to be different. Such diversity is formatting the core of social life. People can use the imagination and the ability to create their own worlds, which allows them to join the society. Varieties of mimesis are performance, ritual, and gesture. They all allow us to play different types of behavior, similar and at the same time different. Mimetic processes help to reach beyond the world, to recognize others, to realize their aspirations, and to re-build experience. However, sometimes a person is not used to certain forms of imitation. Then there is a desire for weak reproduction and simulation, and then mimesis degenerates into mimicry, which is expressed in the form of adaptation. Thus, mimetic processes are not only connected to the ability of copying but also reveal rational patterns of thought. Finally, mimesis helps a human to expand himself/herself.