Christoph Wulf
History and Theory of Anthropology ANTHROPOLOGY Geschichte und Theorie der Ethnologie OF EDUCATION
edited by/ herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Kopping (University of Heidelberg)
Volume/Band 2
LIT LIT Table of Content
lntroduction . - .... - ......
Part One: The Problem of Human Perfectibility
J. The Dream of Education ...... 9 Le 61-000 wtl 61 2. Perfecting the Individual Wilhelm von Humboldt's Anthropology of Education 25 3. Work as Gesture and Ritual .... 37
Part Two: Mimesis in Education, Culture and Anthropology Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheilsaufnahme 4. Mimesis as an Anthropological Concept ..... 51 Wulf, Christoph: 5. Mimesis in Education ...... Anthropology of Education/ Christoph Wulf. - Munster: LIT, 2002 . 77 6. The Mimetic Production of Gestures and Rituals (History and Theory of Anthropology /Geschichte und Theorie dcr Ethnolog1e ; 2) 93 7. Imagination ,md the l'v1irnc:,is oflmagcs .. ISBN 3-82.58-5681-x 103
Part Three: Global and lnterc11lt11ral Education
8. Youth Violence .. , ...... 115 9. The Other . .... 123 Jo. The Globalisation of Education . 139 © LIT VERLAG Munster - Hamburg - London Grcvcner Str. l 79 48159 Miinster Tel. 0251-23 5091 Fax 0251-2319 72 Outlook - Educational Anthropology: A New Pcrspecfr,:e on Education 149 e-Mail: [email protected] http://www.lit-verlag.de Bibliography . Distributed in North America by: 165 Acknowledgements 177
Transaction Publishers Tel.: (732) 445 • 2280 9 Rutgc rs Univcrsily rax: (732) .145.31,~ Transaction Publishers 35 Bcrruc Circle for orders (U.S. only); New Bnu1swick (U,S,A.) and Loodoo (U.K.) Pisca1away, NJ 08854 toll free (888) 999 • 6778 Introduction
Educational anthropology constitutes an important field in education today, one that is characterised by pluralism and diversity. No educational theory can claim to produce alone the basic knowledge necessary for education. The same is true in the realm of anthropology. There is no longer such a thing as a normative anthropology based on the universal truth of religions and ideologies. On the contrary, all anthropological knowledge is necessarily plural and heterogeneous. The field of educational anthro~ pology is therefore bound to be relative and fractional, provisional and limited.1 Anthropological knowledge plays an important role both in the realm of educatio nal science as well as in the field of practical education. 2 Researchers, educators and instructors possess a certain anthropological knowledge withou~ which they would not be able to work. In the different contexts, an implicit anthropological knowledge is at work. As is true for all implicit knowledge, anthropological knowledge seems to defy explicit thought, and only evolves gradually, in the course of a long process of work. Thus, it is necessary, both for those who deal with educational science as well as for the practitioners of education, that the anthropological premises on which their work is based be exposed and studied. In order to achieve this, the field of education must take on an anthropological stance.3 Educational anthropology functions according to a double historical and cultural contextuality: on the one hand for .those disclosing knowledge, and on the other hand for those relying on that knowledge produced in a particular context. This double historicity and culturality relativises the factual content of anthropology. At the same time however; the constant relation to time allows for new perspectives which under line the fact that there is nothing that is true in itself and alone, but that rather, knowl edge must always be considered in relation to a specific context.4 Anthropological knowledge is relative. There is no longer a guaranteed system of references; no longer any room for normative anthropology. Thus, anthropological Jmowledge can no longer expect to be acknowledged as any different from other disci plines relevant to educational science. This equality of position is all the more justified insofar as the link between educational anthropology and the other social sciences has become vague and uncertain. Anthropolo&ical knowledge is not connected to a fixed subject and can no longer be clearly defined. In addition, anthropology creates new questions, perspectives and themes within education. The end of an era in which the dominant anthropological systems were
I Wulfl997. 2 Wulf 1995. 3 Wulf/Zirfas 1994. 4 Kamper/Wulf 1994. - .: ,.1£@
closed upon themselves gives rise to new opportunities to produce new objects. Some examined under a new light which allow new po1·1115 t' - . r · . ' 0 re1 ercnce ,or thotial t d of the new perspectives that arise out of this crossing between anthropology :md the c d ucalronal act1011 to be drawn.9 · "' 1 an other disciplines connected to education are expressed in the following. 5 Anthropology of education includes ref1ection both ti h I. . r . on ic competence as well ·is Educational anthropology has become a historical and cultural anthropology of on t e 1mits 01 its own field of knowledoe It anal)'Ses th. 1·1·t- I · · ' '. - · . '° · ' ' c c 1 1cu ties mvolved 117 education that takes into account the historicity and culturality of the researcher as well Irnman se If-clcf1111t10n and education that arise from ti cl', . · f' . i· ' · ie isappearancc of urnvcrsal ;is his object. Historical and cultural anthropology of education still attempts to relate pomts o re erence. Anthropology of education shows ho., th, , · d . fl- , I · d, . . , \\ e consequences of these its perspectives and methods to the perspectives and methods of its object. I-Iowcver, 1 1cu tics cpend on the cond1t1ons of their production Jn otll, . d · ·. . . , ·r·h ., · fr . . · er\\ or s It 1s , eflcxrve its purpose is no longer to research say, the human or the child as universal beings, hut c ui ,crcnt d1sc11ss1ons that constitute anthropoloov of' . I 1· , · - . · , d · , ...... oJ ec uca ton arc sometimes to investigate real people and children in particular historic and social contexts. from contra 1clory. Dzscuss1011 1 eters hen: to the cons1stc t t- t· h . . . , n orms o t OllITht and lanouao. this point of view, the idea of a concept that could somehow encompass man as a that reveal particular educat10nal contexts. These contribut' t th 1° . ' c ''°c · 1 . c. o c s 1ap1ng of percep- whole loses its value. Historical and cultural anthropology of education is not limited t10n, to t 1e structures and concepts of education an·' re , · • . . . ' , u present an expression ot ti to certain cultures or certain epochs. In rcf1ecting its own historicity and culturality, the practices of power at work Ill society, in the ,vorld of science d · ·cl ' . . le . . . , · an m e 11cat1onal msti- discipline is able, in theory, to overcome the Eurocentrism of the humanities and the tutes. W 1th111 the framework of education anthropolo,, J 1· . · . o . o , , .. " • • . ' otca c 1scuss1ons contribute purely historical interests of history; it engages in the unresolvt:d problems of the pre queJt1011 .. , perspectJ\·eo and important rns10Jits ofrclevanc t ·d · I sent and the future. 6 ;iction. 10 "' e o e ucat10na thought and Educational anthropology aims, on the one hand, to criticise the fantasies of omni Anthropology of education is manifold. It is wary of too Ji ·t,, 1-., · . k . . ' as )- c1 conso 1uat10n or its potence or powerlessness of education, and, on the other hand, to reveal the tension nowlcdgc and rcmams open to that which is 'different' Tha k' t ti· . . . · ' 11 s o 11s p 1uralism (as between the possibility of hwnan perfection and the difficulty of human change. and opposed to an attitude that level thmgs out) a distinct open ... ,. ct · . .' . . - . . , . ness 1Cl\,ar s mter-d1sc1- therefore to show the possihilities and limits or education. These functions result in a plmary work allows rnterest to be shown m the complexit,, ra(h tl I . ·. . . · - ' er ian t 1c reductwn of cl:rtain concentration on human creations, which focuses on examining and exposing anthropolog1cal knowleclgc. Knowledge of education is const·t t'cl .' . . · . . . . i u c on t 11e basis of thl: biological, sucial aml cultural limits· of the human process of dc~'elopmcnt that ~pec1fic cond1t1011s that arc dictated by culture and lanouao. , · 11 , , · . . . . . · . "' i:,e, cspecia y dt d time when ccmstitutes education. Ill recent vears the limits of human creation have been rcve::tlcd mternat1onal1ty and rnterculturah(y are tnking on an iwr~·,51·11 al . · . , ,. ' v ~u O ) 1mpo1 tan[ TO 1e. more than ever, as is manifest in popular expressions such as 'the limits or growth', At present, much of the knowledge transmitted bv the educ"t· 1 . . . • " 1ona stem does not and 'risk society'. An increased humanisation of the world seems to nm parallel to the s, correspond to people·s expectations. This poses the problem of tl ..: 1• · , 7 ,ct · . ., . _. . . . ie ie at1011 between cbnger of its own destruction. e ucat1onal knowledge 311d social, mst1lutional and ccluc-itio 11 .,j 1·t . I . - • . . . , u rea 1 : . nso 1ar as eel u- Educational anthropology must involve an anthropological criticism of its own cat1011al knowledge contnbutes to thc formation and shc1p 1·11 o- f ti . . 1 . . , . . · , c o 1e next gcncrat1on 1 self~conception, which focuses on its competence as well as on its limits. This must, It must imply human selt-understancl111°, which it"elr is scrtit1· · · l d · · · . . . . . "' ~ · nisc;t an questioned b, for instance, work on the simplifications involved in the traditional anthropological the ptob!em of human pcr/ectzbzlity or 11011-per(cclibilirv fn 11 , . t . 1· . . ) . . . . . · 1e con ext o educational comparisons bct\vccn man and animal. It must also take into account mistakes result knowledge, this rrohlcm lies at the core of anthropological resnrch ing from tl1e popular distinction between nature and culture. Further, anthropological \Vithin the realm of educational anthropo!oo-v b~rdcrl· '. b t.. , 1 . -· r. . . . ·., • . . , . . . c., _ mes c \1;ccn t 1e d1/terc11t criticism must be dedicated to avoiding objectivist reductions of the human. Anthro .101 ms of knm1,/u:lge hc1v-: d1ssolvcd and new forms ot instruct· 1 b, cl ·· . . 1, . 10 n iave ccn eve! oped pological criticism examines the central concepts, models, and methods or educational Aesthetic eclucat1on - and mtercultura] education 13 are f · · · _ . . . , . ' o particu 1ar importance anthropology and reflects on the conditions of the legitimation or knowledge issued in anwngst t 1·,cse. The former 1s related to the emcrecnce of . . ct· ...... - nc\v me 1a and connected this realm. 8 :.oc1al consequences, the latter 1efer~ lo the new economic d d, 1 · · · - · an emograp 11c contexts Thl: task of educational anthropology is to analyse. organise. re-evaluate and charactenst1e of contemporary Europe. Out of this new c t 'Yt ,- ' · I . on c .. consequences emerge produce knowledge issued by the sciences of education, and to dccomtruct educational t mt are relevant to education and traininu to learniiio . ., · l . . · L . "" ' .,,. 'nu1 prac1 1ca experience 1.:, concepts from an anthropological perspective. This might involve for instance decon Anthropology ot education is pa11lv the result of .1 " ,. 1. 1- · .. , . . . . ·. , con,, 1 uc zve process. I his structing Rousseau's negative education, Pestalozzi's elementary education or Hum means that m its 1ctlect1on ,md research, it does not [Jre· su t b, , bl · . . , . . . . · , me o c c1 e to understand boldt's vision or the individual's general education. New anthropological perspectives human bemg. h.athe1, 1t realises thJt its co1iccption of' m· I· , cl · - ' · ,. r • . .· C • an c epen s on specll1c condi- may then reveal new dimensions to old problems. Thus, historical contexts can be llonJ ouch as histo11c und cultural facts, and c·m onl)' b, d, d . . · ' c un erstoo as a construetmn.
9 Wulf 1996a. 10 Wult' 1997. 5 Wulf 1994. 11 Licbau/\Vulf t 996. 6 Schiifer/Wulf 1999; Bilstein/Miller-Kipp/Wulf 1999; Liebau/Miller-Kipp/Wulf 1999. 12 Mollenhauer/Wulf 1996; Schafer/Wulf 1999. 7 Liith/Wulf 1987. 13 Dibie/Wulf 1998; Hess/Wulf 1999. 8 Kamper/Wulf 1994. 14 Wulf 1998; Morin/Wulf 1997; Wulf l995; Sting/Wulf 1994.
2 To the ex1ent that the deductive/nonnative systems of acquiring knowledge in anthro Part two deals with the role mimetic processes play in consolidating culture. and pology of education have been surpassed, it is necessury to develop a historical and socicty. 17 It focuses on the importnnce of mimetic processes in an individual's up cultural anthropology of education that is shaped according to a constructivist and bringing and education, in his use of gestures, in the staging of rituals and the creation reflexive movernent. 15 of community as well as on their Junction in internalising the outer world in the form From an epistemological point of view, the following factors characterise therefore of images and their effects on the individual and his education. \Ve shall examine the the anthropology of education: corporeality, aestheticism, historiciry, plurality, c'.d question of the relation between inner and outer worlds since this relates to the primary turalitv, inlerculturalitv, multi- and transdisciplinarity, criticism and reflexivity, With task of education, which is to help the indi\'idual transform the outside world that is rcgiml to its content. there arc several problems within educational science that prove imposed on llim, and integrate it, make it coexist with the interior world of the individ the fundamental importuncc of anthropological research in the field. ual and vice-versa. The bridge between the inner and outer realms corresponds to the Part one of this book will have a largely historico-cultural stance. It will focus on human mimetic faculty. Thus, mimesis is defined as a conditio humana .18 Chapter four the tension between the goal of human perfection and the limits of change. The slurting provides a general overview of the history and contemporary relevance of the concept point is the dream of making humans perfect through education, a dream that is charac of mimesis. The analysis will show that mimesis is not only an aesthetic concept, but teristic of the modern era. A relevant question here is the significance of imagination, an anthropological concept focussing on the shaping of the body and its senses. Chap both for society and for the individual. Humans need dreams and utopias in order to ter five concentrates on the importance of mimetic processes for education and sociali evolve. In view of his elasticity, every individual needs to imagine ·what or how he sation. Mimetic processes do not only refer to humans but also to objects (in space). would like to bc. 16 Education has a decisive role to play in this process. At the dawn of How the child assimilates its environment though mimetic processes is examined in an the modern age_ Comenius created a utopia based on the goal of perfecting the human: analysis of the autobiography of Walter Benjamin. The importance of these processes The whole Art of Teaching all Things to all Men. Throughout the course of educational is revealed in the relationship between man and woman as well as in psychogencsis. hislorv this dream has been constantlv reverted to, even if the utopias of Rousseau, Mimetic processes arc conceived in their central importance to c:ducation. Chapter six Pestalozzi, Herbart and Schlcicrmache~ are all somewhat different. However important analyses the role of mimetic processes in the performance of body gestures and rituals; and necessary these utopias may seem, they have nevertheless sometimes degenerated il shows the central role of rituals in producing the social and the community. In inter into nightmares. The ditriculty involved in realising the dreams has shown that chang nalising images of performances, mimetic processes create a practical knowledge, ing the human is no easy task. I luman resistance and stubbornness constitute funda which is n prerequisite for adequate social nciing. Chapter seven deals with the role of mental clements in education. This fonns the st.ming point of Humboldt's anthro mimetic processes in the produt:lion of different types of images and the role of imagi pology. whose theory of education will be discussed in chapter two of this book. nation in this process. I\fonctic processes allow one to assimilate the visual content of I lumboldt aspires to perfect the individual. In his view, the unique character of the images and integrate it into one's own world of images and imagination. They give rise individual. due to its historicity and culturality, ought to be at the centre of modern to inner and outc1· images that play nn essential role in education, and socialisation, as cducation. In underlining the fact that each individual has his own personality that ht: well as in individual action. In the same way as the 1970s underlined the importance of cannot escapc, Humboldt con:;idcrs rrecdom and free will to be constitutive elcmeuts language in all realms of education, science and culture, at present we are beginning to in the educative process. J\t the centre of his theory of c 4' 5 ceived as an intcrcultural task that takes into account similarities and differences Part One between European nations and cultures. The way in which these differences are dealt ,vith will determine the future evolution of Europe. It is crucial that every individual learn to live with the other who is different. Yet this task will have failed if the number of racist, nationalist or xenophobic acts of violence continues to grow. 19 Chapter eight deals with the issue ofwliy violent acts of this kind arc often committed by youths and adolescents. In explaining the phenomenon of violence, we will stress the inadequate ness of many explanations. For indeed, there is ol!en an arbitrary element inherent to such acts, which it is imporiant to take into account in order to reveal the uncontrolla The Problem of Human Perfectibility ble and inevitable aspect of violence and thus uncover the complexity of the problem. Violence is often directed towards the other because the other's difference has become unbearable. Yet experiencing the other is a vital educational task which will be dis cussed in chapter nine. Confrontation with the other teaches us what is characteristic of ourselves, and allows our fixed principles to be shifted. Thus, we realise that the other ref1ccts what is foreign to us in ourselves and therefore expands our comprehension of Throughout modern history, visions of upbringing and education have been llccply ourselves. connc;lccl to tl1eories of human improvement. The programme of modem education, Chapter ten considers educational perspectives in the future. How arc we to foce challenging the limit to which humans can be perfected, is formulated in the words of the challenges of globalisation'.1 211 How docs reducing the importance of nation state~ Comcnius: 'The whole Art of Teaching all Things to all lvfen'. This dream of education and national cultures effect the results of education'! I-low are we to m::mage the ten is to overcome thal which cannot be improved or educated: the incorrigible strain of sions between the particular :md the universal? How are the two contr::idictory yet human nature. The utopi;:in character of the drcc1111 causes powerftll energies to be re intimakly connected tendencies of individualisation on the one hand, and globalisation leased that can sometimes lead to the lives of cl1ildren and youths being sacrificed to on the other dealt with in education'.! In the face of this evolution il is not sufficient to the desired vision, thus transfom1ing the drc:m1 into a nightmare. ldodern educational conceive education only in a global perspective, since this merely mnounts too easily discmirscs are intimatcly connected to the vision of education. Their c1irn is to improve to a generalisation of Eurocentric perspectives and to a reduction of the diversity of and perfect the individual. Various images of what it is to be human have resulted in cultures without however improving the quality of life on Earth'l21 various expressions of the dream and its discourses. Gradually, the cb1m that every The dream of education and of man's pcrfectihility, the issues related to mimetic individual's uniqueness should be the starting point and focus of cducntion has become processes in society and culture, education and soeialisaticin, issues of violence_ of the p::irt of the vision of education and it~ discourses._ Besi_des education, w~rk constitutes other and of glohalisation, inscribed in a new concept of intercultural education, high the second strategy for human pcrfcct1on. Its aim is to improve the condition of the m light the increased importance of :111thropological perspectives in education. This is all dividual and the species. Like in the case of education. our notion of work is rooted in the more so since the new developments imply new perspectives on an increasing a dream ofperfcclion and a desire to improve our conditions of!iie. The drc1stic human complexity of education in the New lvlillerrnium. The outlook of this book treats edu consequences of unemployment in contemporary societies highlight the deep impor cational anthropology therefore as a new perspective on t:ducation combining philo tance oCthe value orwork for life. sophical_ historical and cultural, as \Veil m transclisciplinary and transnational issues. 19 Dieckmann/Wimmer/Wulf 1997; Wimmer/Wulf/Dieckmann 1996. 20 Wulf 1998. 21 Wulf1995. ____ v < 7 1 The Dream of Education Research into sleep I has shown that dreams are necessary; without dreams the human brain would not function. Experiments have shown that when prevented from dream ing people start to laugh uncontrollably, show signs of irritability and eventually bcgin to hallucinate. Throughout the cyclic process of sleep, long dreamless phases are fol lowed by periods of intense dreaming that are characterised by rapid eye movement. Adults usually spend a fifth of their sleep in dream phases which occur at intervals of about 90 minutes and can last between l O and 30 minutes, or up to 60 minutes al the end of a night. If we are woken in a dream phase, we are usually able to remember what we were dreaming. The capacity to differentiate between dream and re:ility only corilt:s al a certain stage in the development ofa person's consciousness, a stage that the little boy Kaspar Hauser had not yet reached when, on 26th May 1828, he was found in a market place in Ntirnberg. Describing the boy, Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach recounts that 'bed was his most favourite of places ( ... ) Since sleeping in a bed he had begun to have dreams, which at first however, he die! 110t n:cognize as dreams and would recount to his mc1ster as real events, for only later did be learn the difference between being awake and dreaming'. 2 Throughout the ages, and in all cultures it has been known that the borderline between d~eam and reality, between fantasy and truth, defined by discursive reason is a :;haky one, in constant need of re-evaluation. A poignant example of this is Tschuang Tschau's dream and ensuing reflection in the Taoist books: 'L Tschuang-Tschau, once dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering here and there without a care or desire, oblivious of mv human being. Suddenly I awoke; and there I lay, once again myself. Now I do nm k~ow: was I then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly dreaming I am a man':' There is, between a man and a butterfly, c1 barrier, the crossing ofwhieh is c:-illed Change.'3 The borderline between dream and reality is unclear, and partially a product of social power m1d the prevalent discourse. Like speech and gestures, dreaming consti tutes an indispensable form of human expression, Novalis saw dreams as a protective mechanism against the regularity and normnlity of life, as free access to its connected fantasy, where all life's images arc jumbled up and the constant seriousness of adult- J Rorbcly 1938. 2 quoted from Horisch 1979 (trans. A. Lagaay). 3 quoted from JocJ.:cl 195 8 {trans. ,\, Lagaay). 9 hood interruplcd by happy children's play. He pointed out how dreams keep us young the vision of a better social condition, of a better life. Think for instance of the Garden and considered the dream as, if not directly a gi!i from God, then u precious and deli of Eden, the Phaiaken Island of the Odyssey, of Plato's Po!itcia. Augustin's Divine cious task, and a friendly companion on our pilgrimage to the grave. State, Thomas More's Utopia, Campnnelln's City of Sun, or Fouri~r's lesigns. Among According to Gehlcn, the origin offantasv, or of what he calls 'primal imagination' Such utopias is the dream of education, which, as the vision of total educabilitv and lies 'in the d~tritus ot· our dn:an;s, or in the. periods of concentrated vegetative proc formation can be tractcd to the beginning of historical societies, and has reached (l-i lull esses' .4 Psychoanalysis is more boldly unequivocal: in our dreams, we experience who clevclopmcnt since the start of the modern era. we arc. Dreams open a way to the unconscious, and reveal information about a per The Llrcam of education arises as an answer to the following anthropologic condi son's dc:epest structure, which it is other.vise extremely difficult to know. Yet dreams tion described in 1929 by Heidegger: 'No other epoch has accumulated so great and so n::vcal nothing directly: whmever the manifest Llrcam-content, there is ;-ilways a laknt Vnried a store of knowledge concerning man as the present one ... But also, no epoch dream-though~ implie~I. which according lo Frtcud, is what carries the core of lhc mes is less sure of its knowledge of what man is than the present one. ' 7 sZ1gc of every dream. Dn:am-thoughts mid dream-content me conceived as 'two ver Following Nietzsche. humans have been described by Gchlcn as 'theorcticallv in sions of thr.: same subject-matter in two different languages'. Dream-thoughts arc at <::oncr.:ivahle', and by Plessner, as that which 'cannot be explained in thought'. -One first however inaccessible to consciousness and revealed in the course of dream-work. C:ondition of man's theoretical ungraspableness is his relative openness to the world. Thus, 'the dream-content( ... ) is expressed as it ,vere in a pictographic script, the char ·I'his is related to the 'extra-uterine springtime' (Partmann) resulting in the reduction of acters of which have to btc transposed individually into the language of the dream l1uman instincts tu mere rcsiJues of instincts. ivlax Sche!er referred to this in his 1929 thuughts. 1f we allempted to read these characters according tu their pictorial v~lue :,hort publication entitkd /I.Ian's Place in Nature. The reduction of human instincts. inste;d of according to their symbolic relation, we should clearly be led into error·.) .:\nd a certain ·freedom of environment' resulting from the absence of a milieu specific Through dreams and davdrcams a person's everyday experiences arc worked lo the species (Uexkiill), make education a necessity for lrnrnans. However, definim: throu[!h a1;cl restructured, wisl1cs are fulfilled and life is made colourful and lively. No lhe anthropological condition does not help determine what kind of social and !if~ one li~,cs without them, 'but it is a question of knowing them deeper and deeper ,md in <.::ontlitions are desirable. What exactly the dream of education should be remains an this way keeping them trained unerringly, usefully, on what is right. Let the daydreams r..'Jpen question. Attempts \vithin educational anthropology to draw conclusions from the 2row even follcr, since this means they arc enriching themselves around the sober ~eneral anthropological condition have not been convincing.8 Plcssner's dictum from ;lance; not in the sense of clogging, but of becoming clear. Not in the sensr.: of mer_el! lhc point of view of l211ma11 ecce11/ricity can be held against thcm: 'As a being exposed contemplative reason, which takes things as they arc and as they stmJ, but of partici lc, the world, man remains concealed from himself - Homo abscnnditus. '9 Jn this pating reason. which takes them as they go. and therefore also as they could g? better. :~tatcment. one might say the second commandment, originally related to God, is re Then let the davdrcams crow rec11ly fuller. that is, clearer, less random, more lamilwr. lc11cd to man: thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image nor likeness. 10 more clcc1rJy u;clerstoocl and more mediated with the course of things. So that the Time and again, education has clashed with this prohihition of images and imira wheat whicl~ is trying to ripen can be encouraged to grow and be harvested' 6 fi011. For the sake of education. many an image of man has been devised and manv a \Ve pbn our lives in tlaydreams, anticipate both what we fear and hope for, dream clrcam designed. Whilst some have been forgotten. others Jre still current. and so;ne up alternatives and live beyond the given. ln daydreaming we come across that which l,,we tcnclccl to recur - some only in the shaduw of accepted beliefs. Evcrv historic is 'not yet conscious' or 'has not yet occurred m become': in dreams we :irticulate our <.::poch brings its own taboos and prohibitions that occasionally the dream (behind the hope l~r a better lilc, not in a utopian past but in the foture. This drcametl future_is lhe backs of those that hold power) manages lo overcome. background that enables every present step to be achieved. Daydreaming allows !or the possibility that the natural course of things may be changed for the better. Fantasy and imagination open up and develop in dreams :md daydreams; our ca ('__::omenius pacity to picture cannot but imagine the fulfilment of wishes, think up ant.! p];:in alter native actions ant.! better conditions oflife. In dreams we anticipate new life forms and C.:: 0 menius · dream of education is one that throughout modern historv has never ceased actions. Our desires and their distorted images arc mimircd in the world of fairy mies, t,) recur. It represents in many ways the visionary beginning of tl~c modern a2e. In in which all forms of transformation arc displayed, involving clothes, masks am! "harp contrast at the time to the contemporary horrors the Thirty Year War, Com~nius' magic. ln the fantasy world of fairy tale, all that in everyday life is impossible or for <.::(.)nception of education. rooted in the harmonious vision of his pansophy and his in bidden is suddenly made possible. Similarly, theatre and film provide dream-like alkr <:::rcdible optimism, stands out as the dream or a better world. On the title page of his natives thal increase life's variety. Most utopias can be conceived of as dreams, like -~-.______1 Heidegger 1962, p. 216. 4 Gehlen 1988, p. 3 I 6. ~ J 11 Didactica Magna, 11 printed in Czech in 1628 and in Latin in 1637, the following pro gramme is laid out: I. God 11. The interior decoration 2. The World 12. Ways of travelling and movinl!,. 'The Great Didactic. The whole Art of Teaching all Things to all Men 3. The Heaven 13. Intellectual activity . Or . A certain Inducement to found such Schools in all the Parishes, Town, and Villages of every Christian 4. The Elements 14. Schools, Theories, Kingdom, that the entire Youth of both Sexes, none being excepted, shall Lessons Quickly, Pleasantly, and Thoroughly 5. The Earth 15. Social Behaviour Become learned in the Sciences, pure in Morals, (manners) trained to Piety, and in this manner 6. The Plant World 16. The Citv instructed in all things necessary 7. The Animals 17. Games and Entertainment for the present and for 8. Human Beinl!s 18. Politics . the future life, 9. Human professions and 19. Religion in which, with respect to· everything that is suggested, activities. Its FundamentafPrinciples lire set forth from the essential IO. Houses. What they are 20. The Last Judgement13 nature of the matter, made of and how (the parts of · Its Truth is proved by· examples from the several mechanical arts, a house). · Its Order is clearly set forth in years, months, days, and hours, and, finally, · An Easy And Sure Method is shown, by which it can be pleasantly brought into existence. The pictorial representation of the world sphere begins and ends with. God. (God~ the L~t ·,he main object of this, our Didactic, be as follows: To seek and to find a method of instruction, by which teachers may tei;ch less, but learners may learn more; by which schools may be the scene of Last Judgement). The world is seen as a circular pattern of·connected meaning with a less· noise, aversion, and useless ·1abour, but of more leisure, enjoyment, and solid progress; and beginning and an end, in between which nature on the one hand and human achieve through which the Christian community may have less darkness, perplexity, and dissension, but on ment on the other unfold. The picture book is encyclopaedic, but it does not present the other hand more light, orderliness, peace, and rest.' things individually. Nothing is without connection: The classification of words and· things/pictures, and the alphabetical order indicate · an ordering principle that it is It. is hard lo think of a clearer expression of the modern educational programme, de nowadays virtually impossible to think without. Comenius' general purpose was that spite the deep embedment of Comenius' thought in the Christian teachings of the each thing and each presentation should be perceived in its connection with the order · Middle .Ages. Comenius had no doubt that the world was created in a certain order ac of humans and their lives. Whereas medieval Latin schools had focused on speaking cording to God's desire and that man's task is.to progress though life's confusion to and remembering and not on looking, Comenius, taking the advantage of the expansion wards eternal bliss .. Of course Adam had sinned; but: Christ's ·.suffering brought of book printing, drew attention to realia and the objects of the world. The principle of redemption to all. Thus, man's good nature could be developed through upbringing and looking, founded in the Orbis pictus and which has been integral to education ever · education. Comenius opens his explanation of pansophy in the Lexicon reale pan since, paved the way to a new vahiation of perception, which was further influenced by sophicum with the words 'Pansophia. est sapientia. universalis'. Pansophy stands for the English'sensualists. general wisdom, universal wisdom, but also, all encompassing wisdom, which, rooted The Orbis pictus constitutes an attempt to present children with a picture of the in God's created world, the· Bible and human conscience, leads the way to recognition world as a significant whole.14 What matters in the Orbis pictus is that the world be· and piety. In Comenius' mind there was no difference between recognising the world shown in a particular way, with a particular educational intention. The images and con and recognising God, both were directly related to each other. Thus, the driving force cepts presented do not introduce things as they are but rather show a relation between of Comenian education was the .desire to see through the order of things and thus gain them. Children are presented with a pre-conceived construct of the world, education better knowledge of God's Work. 12 . . . . . ally prepared according to particular educational intentions, a construction made to ac · . The concept no doubt involves an encyclopaedic element. A good illustration of company or indeed replace other visions of the world. The question as to which this is the Orbis pictus, probably Comenius most famous work, which Goethe.was still segment of the world is presented irf which way by the older generation introduces an given to read in his childhood and which was reworked by Gailer. in 1835 as Neuer unstoppable development which, according to Foucault in The Order of Things, con Orbis pictus far die Jugend (The New .Orbis Pictus for Children). The Orbis pictus tributed to the foundation of modem education;15 To express· it pointedly, the Orbis · presents the 'visible world'. pictus constituted the beginning of a development that has now gone so far that one :I ,, 13 Comenius 1942. 11 Comenius 1910, p. I. I 14 Mollenhauer 1983. 12 Schaller I 962. 15 Foucault I 970. 12 I 13 could speak. of simulation with educational intent. 16 With this idea in mind, the afore ful future of mankind, ever since the question of the future of new generations has he !llrntiom:tl semc11i.;es from the tith: page of the Creal Didactic, that charncterisc the come connected to the !earfi.JI question of the future of the human species altogether, modern ecluc::ition::il dream gain significance: The comph:te art of teaching everybody despite the tact that the question is constantly present in educational science. it seems e,·erv!hilw. nowadavs that no ckar answer will ever be found. This ~,ision of complete education involved the highest educational utopia: in learn Cor1;enius' vision that one could improve humanity through education was never ing all that encompasses the world created by God, it was thought that man himself realised. Moreover, the reality of school, according to the education system defined by became God-like. All that was needed was the right method. By following the right the ruling powers of the 18th and 19th centuries, was to paint a very different picture path, man could be led beyond himself and made into a true human. Educatio11 was a or the experience of learning than what Comenius had intended in his optimistic vision task set by God: cducation, a service to God. No longer should only a few chosen of the educated person. The shining dream of education that sought to determine the people he taught, but all people. for all are God·s creation and therefore have a right to procedure of teaching so that 'the educator teaches less. yet the pupil learns more', this cduc;:ition. This is the founding principle of the Christian expansion of education !Cl dream is deformed into a procedure that determines a precise order of the learning encompass ·all youth of both sexes'. Educators at the time wen; euphoric: the business processes, a procedure which shows up 'truth by examples drawn from the rnechnnical of learning should be swift, pleasant and profound. The fact that the process might also Jrts' and which shows in its realisation 'the foundation in the nature of the object it be difficult and involve overcoming oneself w:1s forgotten or repressed. Comcnius · self, in such a way thilt the emerging education system becomes an institution which new all-encompa:;sing mdhod was designed in the hope of getting around the must al least be judged as controversial. unplcasant side or learning. The self-delusion and over-estimation of education at the It is clc~r th:it the over-optimistic, utopian content of' Comenius' dream resulted in time and the educators' conception of omnipotence were of' course, in time, bound to pcopk foiling to consider the obstacles that were in its way. Thc following reasons lead to disappointment and disillusion. suggest that ;it the time of Comenius. any element that was at odds with the idea of C:omenius \Vas convinced that proper education shDu!d not simply involve acquir hu7,;,m educability was systematically suppressed: ing scientific k.no\\lcdgc, but also teach 'good manners' and 'piety'. in other words its business wJs also to teach the right values. The youth should acquire the appropri;ite The fact lhat the awful ,uffering experienced throughout the Thirty Year War seems knowledge, values and attitudes lo accomp,rny them through both this Jifo as well ,ls to have hacl no negative inl111cncc of Comcnian anthropology strongly suggests that the ·after-life'. With this emphasis on necessary knowledge fnr rhe future, the theory or Comcnius' dream of education constituted the unconditional fulfilment of a deep education took on two criteria, which have remained v,ilid until now. Children must be wish. /\!though man was seen 10 carry the burden of original sin. this negative taught the knowledge they need for both their present as well as their future lives. The image was not sustained. hut sublimated hy the dream of a better humanity. notion or neccssitv here is intimately connected to the choice of the right contcnt and Altl;ough education was seen as a duty towards Goel, God was only really present at valucs of cclucati~n and therefore co1u1ci.;tcd lo the criteria involved in this choice~ a the ma;gins of the educational process. Comenius · vision was in fact already the question that the cd11c:1tional and curriculum reforms of the J 970s \Vere much con drt'.am of a self-empowered human, capable or bt:ing completed through education. cerned with. 17 Anything related to the experience of unconsciousness or the k.nowlcclgc of human Comcnius' concern was to convey the order of things. With a rather questionable inadequacy when it comes to sorting out affairs was suppressed. distinction between 'everything' and 'all'. he tried to define the principles thal underlie - To doubt God's design or the meaningfi.1lness of the order of things in the world was all krnnvledge so as to reduce the qu;mtity of what in principle could be considered not tolerated. Neither was tl1ere to be any doubt in man's capacity to recognise him possible knowledge. Later, Pcstalozzi was lo take up this idea in hie conception of self and the world. Thus. knowledge of the limitations of a human ·s ability to learn clemcntarv knowledge that has been Cunclamental to educc1tion ever since. Comcniu,;' was suppressed ,me! sacrificed to a vision of complete educability. other crit~rion, th:-il ;hildren 's future should be taken into account in their education. has proved to be equally important. Y ct how exactly can education be related to the Jt is clear that these suppressed ;mthropological and political clements of relevance to future':> Ever since the dawn of the modern era this question has been of constant rele education were to gain considerable inllucm:c and, throughout the development of the vance to education. In the days when it was generally believed that Ciod determined the cducati0n system tn the following centuries, came to overlay the utopian aspects of lives of humans for all time, this question rnJ)' have seemed relatively easy to answer. Comcnius· dn;am. The following five theses outline this development: This may also have been the case when later, at the time of I lcgel and lvlarx, history WJS seen to follow a particular path in which at least the future of hw,1an kind seemed _ 1-hanan sclt~crnpowerment aml a growth in human :rntonomy were the aims of the tu be pre-determined. But ever since the emergence of a rndical doubt in the meaning- dream of education: l1rst it was seen as ::i service to God. later it was to contribute to 1-Jis effacement. This process was accompanied by an increase in rationality. mod ernisation and civilisation, which led to a deeper separation between 'inside' and I 6 Baudrillard 1993. 17 And especially since S.B. Robinson's short paper Bildungsreform als Revision des Curriculum 'outside' that allowed for an expansion of the interior realm as well as psychic dif and Ein Stn1k1urkon::ept fiir Curriculume111wick/u11g, Neuwied/Bcrlin. 3rd edition I 971. ferentiation. Functional Reason was seen to direct human affections and demanded 14 15 to be cbssified within the increasingly economically calculable patterns of life. This In contrast to Comenius, this is a pess1m1st1c anthropology. As a result of inherited development went so far as to result in the ex-territorialisation of affections and original sin, which is not revocable through good work but through belief itself (sole consequently to a certain training of the bodv. _lid;), every child is considered bad by nature, th:it is. equipped with an evil mind of its - One effect of education was to~ make hum;ns more disciplined, and consequently own. which education is designed to break, in order to achieve examination of the more economically productive. People acquired new roles and modes of behaviour; • inner-self and to develop 'real piety of the heart'. The development of 'piety of the an increasingly high degree of synthetic achievement was valued. Education con heart' and 'deed Christianity' became the main task or education. Praying and work tributed to the functionalisation of man. School taught people to keep to particular ing, a ban on playing, and severe punishments for absence became the means of edu timetables and remain within certain spaces. Gradually, disciplined behaviour was cation in order to strengthen the spirit against the impulses of the body. Education adapted to natural processes; the reduction of any opposition to discipline contrib became education with a view to asceticism and the fulfilment of duty; it became pro uted to making it more effective. fessional education according to Luther. Graf Ludwig von Zinzendorf: a student of The emerging division of labour corresponds to the development of rational modes Hermann Francke and founder of the Hcrrenhuter pietism, formulated the following of behaviour. R.1tionality, prudence and measure have become increasingly valued aim of life: 'We do not work in order to live, but rather we li-ve for the sake of v,1ork, modes of behaviour. They go hand in hand with a more differentiated capacity to and when there is no more work we suffer or die.' 19 On the basis of this attitude, the perceive, and, for an increasing number of people, a training of the mind and a ca dailv routine of the I-lerrnhuter orphanage consiskd of three hours practice at silent pacity to abstract thinking. The organisation of school education and the expansion nrzi~er, six hours of phvsical work and five hours of lessons. of compulsory schooling contributed greatly to these developments. · ·The pietistic educ,;tion theory and the 'industrial school' movement. whose central The obligation to self-control, which - supported by corresponding school practices educational aims were diligence and 'industriousness', have some points in common - has increasingly replaced external control, has developed alongside people ·s in with the notion of educati;n with a view to work. Here the emphasis is on the eco creasing dependency on the f'unctioning of the society as a whole. There arc signs of nomic use or learning. The Gulsherr Rochow von Reckahn schools also implemented a tendency to independence from the control which eliminates the connection be this idea that pupils should acquire skills relevant to the rnral sphere of life. tween emotions and behaviour. The regulation of sex drive, also enforced by tbc framework of education and the resulting extension of emotional life, is accompa nied by an increasing satisfaction of needs through fantasies and stories resulting in Rousseau a 'disembodying' and 'dcscnsual ising · of experience. The gradual change in the inner structure of humans, throughout the course of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, published in 1762, introduced a vision of education civili:;ation process, has given rise to social contradictions, which are increasingly without which modern education would be unthinkable. The great innovation or Rous finding a place within humans themselves. People increasingly have to take a criti seau's thought was that he did not view education as a merely a means to the achieve cal look at themselves. ;\ sense of shame emerges when reople encounter internal ment of hi~hcr objectives, but instead questioned the aims of education itselL In his contradictions and arc seized bv the fear of no longer bcin>! ahlc to mediate hctween opinion. cducatio1; should no longer be an instrument of normative guidelines but their needs and the social non;1s. This is a concr;te expr:ssion of the now broken should respect and develop the child's self This, he thought, ought to be the founda relationship of the human with himself. tion and legitimation of education. Accordingly, the maturity, independence and dis cernment of an educated person arc not revealed in tbat as an adult he corresponds with This analysis, whic/1 brings into view the excluded clements of the dream of education, the ideas ,mcl judgements of thi: educator, but in that he has acquired a position of his mGy have points or common with ideological criticism, hut it is different insofar as it own. Rousseau's harsh criticism of an education, which is not derived from the child docs not suppose tlrnt the Comenian dream or education is ideology according to false and its own right to education, is based on the recognition that every socialised life in consciousness. There arc also similarities with Roland Barthes' myth analyses. in volving the development or some human possibilities will exclude others. This stance which he distinguishes between a primary object-linguistic system ;md a secondary could not be formulated in a more radical way than on the first pages of Emifr: 'God scrniologic, meta-linguistic system positioned above it. 18 makes all things good: man meddles with them and they become evil.( ... ) We are born weak, wc need strength: helpless, we need aid: foolish. we need reason. All that we lack ;:it birth. :ill that we need when we come to man ·s estate, is the gift of education Pictistie Education and the 'Industrial School' Movement ... ,ell Rousseau recognizes the anthropological dependence of humans on education: the dream of education as 3 necessity for life. But he also emphasises the inadequacy of Following Comenius, the idea of the compulsory education of Christ's rcoplc was education~] reality in comparison to the educational dream. On the one hand he thus continued in the 18th century with the Pietislic education of A.ugusl Hermann Fr:mch:. 19 Ludwig von Zinzendorf as quoted in Blankertz 1982, p. 53 (trans. A. Lagaay). I 8 Barth es 1997. 20 Rousseau 1993, p. 5-6. 16 17 abstractness of modem life in the 'Disciplinary Society' (Foucault) with its subjects, suggests the possibility of improvement in principle and is in this respect optimistic for self-controlled, identical-to-themselves, colonised subjects in the process of self education. On the other hand however, he recognises the negative effects or power, empowerment, whose badly healed wounds are still hurting with fantasy memories of which are unavoidable in social situations,· and which continue to counteract human improvement. other ways oflifo. . . , . . Many of Rousseau's ideas were adopted m Basedow_ s mo_del scho~l m~tttute, the For Rousseau, education must stimulate those streneths in humans that allow them to satisfy their own natural needs. Thus, the creation ~f 'artistic', not independently Philantropinum, founded in Dessau in I 774 as w~ll as m philanthrop1sm mg~neral. One example here is the idea of the child's own nght to the dev~lopment ~t his own achievable needs should be avoided since it interferes with the contentment of the child or the human. Love for a child becomes the principle of education. Through love, an spectrum of possibilities. This is accompanied by, with the exceptmn o~ Latm schools, atti tudc towards the child can be developed which. does not sacrifice present content rigid in verbalism, the attempt to includ~ mod~rn Ian~ages, _mathem~t1cs and nat~ral ment to the future by subsuming the child's present under aims to be achieved in the sciences in the curriculum and to provide children with a hbera!-mmded educat1o_n. future. Games for instance, which exercise a child's physical and mental functions, and The reference of education to the world of work and to the respective level of the chil constitute an essential element in the fulfilment of a child's present life, whilst at the dren is also allocated importance. The aim is to establish a balance in young people as same time providing important experience for its future, come to play an important role a precondition for a useful life. at the c:ntre. of education. Children's enthusiastic about games can also be projected onto ob1ects m the learning process. A child is indirectly educated through its environment, though this is educationally Humboldt arranged. He should also learn to work in this·way. 'Never let his work be judged by The Gemrnn classic period provided the backdrop for t~e ne~t ~eat vision of educa any standard but that of the work of a master. Let it .be judged as. work, not because it is his. Ifanything is clone well, I say, "That is a good piece of work", but do not ask tion. The driving force of this period was New Humamsm with its aesthetic an? ph1- who did it. If he is pleased and proud and says, "I did it", answer indifferently, "No lological concern. Winckelmann's Geclanken ubcr die Nac~ahr:zung der griech1sch~n matter who did it, it is well done". ' 21 Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (Ideas on the Im1tatJOn of Greek Works m ·. Rousseau's educational ideal also includes discovering the significance of youth as Painting and Sculpture), published in 1755, can_ be regar~ed as t_hc b~ginning of the a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. Here the accent also lies on the aesthetic orientation towards an idealised Cireek image agamst which Nietzsche was to ~articular life conditions brought about by puberty, the discovery of the youth's own heavily inveigh a hundred years later. The philological _element gr~w above all out of nght, and the significance of the teenage soul for human development. All in all, this the new study of Classics, which involved a new valuatton of the Greek language as a. period _of life is about establishing the balance between wanting and being able to, historical phenomenon. Although New Humanis111 did not develop an education in the ow sense it did elaborate its own theory of educat10n. Humboldt saw an .educa wh 1ch 1s so central to the feeling of contentment. ·Rousseau's dream of the self aims of education, and of the self of each child that ~~:al value i:i classical studies insofar as they help the individual to find himself._ The . of practical usefulness, which had still been considered a central educational education should stimulate, is reminiscent of Holderlin's conclusion: 'Man is a king not 10n . d · · 1· "".hen he dreams. a beggar when he reflects'. Despite growing awareness of the artifi task by Comenius, the pietists and the philru:1thropists, was rcJecte as a cntenon ~ ~ially constructed nature of education and the human character, which has led to education. Now the vision was of an education that transcends usefulnes_s: reason 1s '.nc:easmg doubt in the existence of the 'self, Rousseau's postulates continue to be cultivated in the study of languages and Antiquity: This_ kind. of e~u~ation 1s pr~sumed 1~d1~pcnsable components of modem educational reflection. Although dreams often to result in an all-round human development, which, s1nc~ 1? prmc1plc unach'.ev_abk; ,1ins a life-long task. In the education process, a person s mner strength assimilates signify an awakenmg, Rousseau's educational dream presupposes that the awakening re rn, · b · Ed · has not yet taken pince. To quote Benjamin, 'awakening is a grndual process that the objects with which he is dealing .and makes th~m ?~rt of Ins own cmg. uc~tio_n unfolds throughout the life of an individual, as well as of a generation. Sleep is their therefore takes place in an encounter between the rnd1v1dual and the worl_d. The aim 1s primary starting point. A generation's youth experience has a lot in common with the an education which develops the individual as a whole and ~qually. While the educa experience of dream. Its historical body is a dream hotly. Every epoch has this drcam bility of the individual is viewed as a_ form~! capac_ilY,_ Classics represent the material onented side, this child side'22 • Rousseau's Emile is most definitely a dream that is in side of the education process, on which this capacity 1s based: As Rousseau portrays conflict with its epoch, in which reason demands to seize power, yet in which, in the nature, in the same way Humboldt portrays Classics, as the ongms of Occ1de1t1l c_ul name of reason, others are· excluded. Denied nnd clevnlued in this process is the auton tun:, as the reference point of education. Greek studies offer an ~lcmentary exp anat1on omy of nature, dreams, the divine, as well as that which is inaccessible through lan of the human constitution and are therefore particularly well smted to a general educa- guage, and secrets. Such is the cost of standardisation, universalisation, and the tion This vision of education was severely criticised in th~ sixties and seventies of the 20th century, particularly since it was perceived as causing a withdrawal o:the subject 21 Ibid., p. 197. into inwardness. In Cierrnany in particular, due to the effects connected with the Prus- 22 Benjamin 19~2. p. '190 (trans. A. L3g;iay). JC) l ,,(' sian educational reform, this was held responsible for the withdrawal of the intellectual thev distort. Were this gap to collapse, were dreams and their realisations to coincide, bourgeoisie from politics and the ensuing political consequences. The criticism is cer the)' would implode, and cause perhaps the encl of education altogether. tainly partially justified. However, it disregards the critical content of a position, which, whilst emphasizing the importance of the subject in education, wishes to resist the demands of the society with regard to human usefulness and fi.mctionality. 23 In Nightmares addition, for civil democracies, the aim of a comprehensive general education c~ntains an indispensable contra-factual point of orientation. This point of orientation was inci The Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries produced nightmares of education as well as ~entally also indispensable in the former German Democratic Republic in the cduca dreams. Katharina Rutschky's text collection Schwarze Padagogik (Black education) t10nal ann of an all-round educated socialist citizen. provides clear evidence of this. These nightmares form the ever pres~nt other side of An analysis of Comcnius' dream to achieve complete human education, Rous education. The educator's repressed emotions, suppressed by educational censorship seau's dream to realise the child's own right to development in an environment deter and onlv slowly registering in consciousness are evident here. Gradually the claim to mined by love, and Humboldt's dream to free people from the narrow considerations cliscipli;1e, rationalisation and subjection openly articulaks itself. In the_ face of these, of usefulness and educate them with the help of Greek culture, gives rise to the ques fantasies, education became a means of producmg the cl11ld, above all with the help ot tion as to whether the realisation of these dreams would not be more likelv result in schools, which were increasingly clevelopccl into total institutions. In the course of this, nightmares. The literal realisation of the Comenian dream could lead to a ~omplctcly the educ:nor's duty was to push the victim througl1 the civilisation process, which pedagogised world in which the univcrsalisation or knowledge would result in a com dem:inded c1 domestication of the child's teelings. No doubt the educator also experi prehensive uniformisation and levelling, into whose framcwo;k the unknown would be enced himself as a victim of his education in this fiel 24 Oest/Campe, Vollsta11diges System zur Verhiitung der Selbstschwiichung ( I 787), quoted in Rutsch 23 Heydorn 1970. ky 1977, p. 304 (trans. C. Shail). 20 2] . . · · le and make it more conscious. In Schleiermacher's opinion, educa- the holes which were still bleeding, the same procedure as with ear lobe holes. With r~ahty m p_nnc1p t be broken down and understood like a text according to a her~ie the help of healing balsam, which he was give by a surgeon, both wounds gradually tton~l real~tydm.; theoretical assumptions at work in the reality must be recogmsed healed, and two holes remained through which the thread ran. Through these he then neutic met o . e E . h Wen·1ger took up this thought and distinguished what d d"fied if necessary. nc h poked a piece of brass wire, which he bent slightly in the middle where it hung over an mo. I ade theorv - one at work in the practice, often unbeknown to t e the gland so that it would not press. After that, he bent the ends of the wire with a he cu_ll_-:d a first gr a· d theory which encompasses the behav10ur of the t t10ncr - from a secon gra e . . . . h d small pair of pliers so that they would cover the small area of foreskin above each hole, prac '. . . . ot alwu s resent but often latent. Finally, Wemger d1stmgu1~ e a and keep the wire there. '25 pract1t1oncr, yet is n h ~b~ect 'is the relation between theory and practice m the The various detailed fantasies of punishment of children and teenagers belong to third grade t~c?ry, w o~ebl. ~ l~ifying relations between theory and practice in the practice'. Tlns 1s respons1 c 1or c . the nightmares of education. They reveal the completely sadist fantasies of the educa 28 . 1 t xt of educational practice. tor. At the same time this implies a tendency to depart from the physical reference of bcha:11oura con: himsdf developed a series of aspects which can be used to ~e1:e- the punishment and to use punishment forms which penetrate the child's emotional in trat;~::~~:;~~:a~l)~rthe historical education reality. The following aspects arc d1stm- terior.26 guished: 'direct (positive) educati~n and indirect (negative) edl1cation, Schleiermacher receptivity and spontane1ly support and opposition, . . . In contrast to the education concepts of Comenius, Rousseau and Humholdt, who . d l ment of conscience and the unioldmg of skills, countered educational reality with a dream of better education, by principally better - the eve op . . ., 9 formal and material education'.- people, in a better world, Schleiermacher chose a different approach, which therefore m:e ,\II titles by Humboldt as well as quotations in this chapter have been translated and adapted by A. Laoaay ex~cpt quotations from The Sphere and Dwies of Gorernment, trans. Joseph Coulthard, 32 Benjamin 1982. p. 19 (trans. A. Lagaay). Th~emmes Press 1996 (reprint of London Chapman ed. 1854). Notes and bibliography refer to 33 see note 17. German editions. 25 Humboldt's Reception Comparative Anthropology Alongside these texts hy the young Humboldt, which arc decisive for the above-men What exactlv is Humboldt's 'comparative anthropology'? 'Its unique character con tioned themes, 1 would like to refer to a series of important analyses of his work with sists in the particular way in which it appronches empirical matter speculatively, his much influence on further un 2 Titles translated by i\. Lagaay. Sec bibliography for full original references. J Wulf,'lirfos 1994. (i J-1uml1lJidt 1960. V,,I. L p. 35'.'. 4 Kamper/Wulf 1982; Gebauer et al. 1989; Kamper/Wulf 1994, 7 Humboldt 1960, Vol. I, p. 337. 5 Wulf 1994; Wulf/Zirfas 1994; Mollenhauer/Wulf 1996; Liebau/Wulf 1996; Liebau/Miller-Kipp/ 8 Humboldt 1960, VoL I, p. 339. Wulf 1999; Bilstein/Miller-Kipp/Wulf 1999; Schafer/Wulf 1999, 9 Humboldt 1960, Vol. I. p. 453. 26 27 The task of comparative anthropology is to reconstruct the 'character' from the tween anthropology and educational theory is contingent. This means that there are 'expressions of the human as a whole'. Here it is more important to capture a person's several possibilities to define this relationship and to realise a possibility by means of a individual characteristics, the relationship of the powers propelling him, his 'inner decision. nature and perfoction', than his 'suitability for external purposes'. A decisive factor in Contingency signifies the connection, characteristic of anthropological research, investigations of this kind is to separate the essential from the coincidental, to see the between availability and unavailability in recognising and acting. 'Contingent is that individual in his temporal genesis and to comprehend his historical limitation and which is also possible otherwise, and it is also possible othenvise because it has no openness to the future. Finally, the great diversity of appearances must be gathered into necessarv rcnson for existing.' 12 Contingent, on the one hand, is what escapes planning the 'highest unity· possible. Anthropology thus takes on the task of 'researching the :me! is th~s recognised as unavailable. Aristotle introduced the category of coincidence extent of possible differences within the human species, without infringing the ideal' 10 • to describe this. His 'to occur by chance' was transl;-itecl as 'contingcre' in the Middle This assignment is supplemented by the challenge to 'measure the possible variety of /\ges. On the other hand, however, everything that is rccognisabk ,md subject to human natures according to their ideals; or in other words, to study the ways in which de;ign is also contingent. In contrast to relationships, which are seen as unambiguous, the human ideal, which can never be encompassed by One Individual alone. is repre the t~rm refers to a contingence of possibilities, which have to be sckctcd or rejected. sented in the multitude '. 11 therefore, within the scope of recognition and action. If the relation between anthro The :-iim of :-inthropological research is therefore lo recognise diversity and bring vology and education is understood as contingent, its diameter must !hen be oprn and the various elements together into a complex understanding of humans without elimi chanaeable which gives rise to the need to specify it in detail each time. For the rela nating contradictions through simplification and abstraction. Anthropology attempts to tion betwc~n anthr~pological research and cducation::il theory to be contingent. both form a complex view of humans. It is thus directed towards the differences between ,mthropology and educational theory must be open with reg.ire! to their possibilities of cultures, ditforent historical eras, groups and individuals. Its task is to mune, bring out, recognition ::md action, which must. according to each specific historicul situation. he and conceptualise these, without however losing sight of their common aspects, which limited hv decisions. arc what allow for differences in the first place. Anth;·opological knowledge is acquired through research into different cultures. Central to anthropology is the study of individuality and the differences intrinsic to groups and individuals. This knowledge also contributes to an improved underst,mding this. The follov,ing points are considered: of euch individual culture, group or person. Recognition of similarities fuels our knowlcdce of contingencies and therefore also of the possibilities of self-knowledge. differences bet\veen humans with regard to tl1eir occupation, the results of their dili Efforts t; understand~ the other further our understanding of the self and its possibili gence and their ways of satisfying their needs, ties. Each individual has hut one rnoulciing, which can however be understood to he in differences in appearance, body build and behaviour, physiognomy, lunguage and a contini2ent relationship to that which is simil:-ir as well as foreign. The experience of gestures, continge~1cy between the individual sdf and the other marks a l'unclarnental moment in differences between the sexes wilh rcgan.l lo body build, intellectual capabilities, the education process. for Humboldt, anthropological recognition is not only knowl aesthetic character, will and the ability to feel or sense. cui2c for the sake of knowledge but also for the initiation of education processes, wl;ose aim is to perfect and fulfil individuality. Despite its focus on individual character, anthropological recogmt1on strives for a Jn understanding anthropology as 'comparative'. Humboldt created an interest in synthetic comprehension of humans as a whole. Three methods serve the task of an difference and thus conlingenc)' between that which is respectively individual. This thropology. In the first. the human is seen as an object, which is to be empirically fc;~us led to the recognition of historicity and the culture specific moulding of the in researched. The spectrum of methods applied to natural science research lends itself to dividual. from that perspective. 1-Iumbolclt can be understood as a forerunner of his this. The: second method i, aimed at the research of hum:m history and society. His /orirnl unrliropolngy and cu!mral anthropology. His effort lo reach beyond his interest tnrico-lwrmcneutical procedure plays a decisive role here. finally, philosophical in individuality, to a complete underst;-inding of humnns. which would include differ reflection and aesthetical _judgement fom1 the third anthropological method. The link ences and contingencies, constitutes a major challenge for hislorical and cultural ing of these different methods is of decisive importance for the fruitfulness of anthro ,mthropology. pological research. For Humboldt, language, and its manifestation in a multitude of languages, later becomes a model for anthropological research. I-I um boldt sees a close connection between human recognition and education. Ellucation nnd the Limits of the State Without human recognition and anthropology, human education is impossible. An thropology. for its part, aims at the education ol' the human race. The relationship be- One precondition for Humboldt's educational theory is the disco\·ery of the individual as initiator, bearer and point of rdcrcncc of education processes, This value of lhc in- IO Humboldt 1960, Vol. I, pp. 354-355. 11 Humboldt 1960. Vol. I, p. 350, 12 Makropoulos 1994, p. 278 (trans. A. Lagaay). 28 29 dividua/ with its diversity is also present, as we have seen, in JJ11mholdt's anthropol scribed by the eternal and immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested hy vague ogy. It is also clearly artic11lated in llumboldt's early text, The Sphere and Duties of and transient desires, is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to Government ( I 792). Herc Humboldt develops his view of ihc necessary !imitation of a complete and consistent whole. Freedom is the grand and indispensable condition Srate power, which is formulated against the background of his experiences with the which tlir.; possibility of such a development presupposes: but there is besides another Absolutist State and with the French revolution. Although Humboldt greets these as essential - in1imately connected with freedom, it is true-, a variety of situations. Even 'historical signs', he assesses them as ambivalent because of their cruelty. Humboldt's the most free and self-rcli,mt of men is thwarted an 30 Ed_ucation means 'the connection of our "I" with the world in the most general, tion of the world into the inner world of the individual. Whereas the. receptivity most lively and most free mutual interaction'. 19 required ensures proper assimilation, the active side of mimesis ensures the individual character of the process. Mimetic processes are not merely ·processes of imitation; something new always emerges in their course. In every mimetic approach to the Education as Mimesis world, something new is created because every individual is different. The difference of individuals thus also ensures the diversity of mimetic processes. Freedom, inde Education processes conceived in this way are mimetic. Here mimesis does not just pendence and self-design are therefore imperative conditions for mimetic education mean 'imitation', but also 'simulation', 'representation' and 'expression'. Ifwe talk of processes. th~ ~imetic character of many education processes then mimesis is not limited to art, Education processes always take place in specific historico-cultural contexts, wntmg · and aesthetics; According to Humboldt, mimetic capabilities play a role in which themselves do not lack preconditions but are linked to precedent models, Lan ~early ~II areas of human imagination, thought, speech, and action, and represent an guage learning,. for example, is to a high extent a mimetic process involving a. model 1mperat1ve condition for the 'connection of our I with the world'. Mimesis assists in that one must imitate, copy, and assimilate according to one's own individuality. For the !nd!v~dual's exte~si?n into: and assimilation with the outer world. This capacity of many of these learning and education processes, the idols targeted by young people are t~e md1v1dual to. ass1mtlate with worlds outside of himself creates the energy which, of decisive importance. It is their 'individual originality' that particularly invites emu d1rected towards the outside; is characteristic ofhuman life. For Humboldt, creation of lation. 'The exceptional people who serve here as models( ... ) always have a decisively· t~e outer realm means simultaneously creating the inner world, and constitutes there original individuality .'20 The sense of superiority and difference inherent to this origi fore education. Education is mimetic insofar as it does not strive to control but to form nal individuality induces mimetic potential. The young person wants to be like his fa~ individual strengths in a control-free encounter with outer worlds. In taking on outer vourite model. This mimetic drive is so compelling that he cannot resist it. This is .why wor!ds, · ~-i~esis leads to the assimilation of the foreign. An individual uses his mi~ for Plato the choice of idols must be carefully controlled. Humboldt is similarly con met1c ab1httesto extend towards the unfamiliar and incorporate it into his world ofims vinced of the importance of idols for education and the self-:education of humans. The ages, sounds and imagination. Outer world thus becomes inner world. This transfor~ 'individual originality' of exceptional humans informs the individual of his own pos mation, which constitutes ;the education process, is accomplished through transmitting sibilities - not that one might become like them, but idols appeal to the capacities con ~he. o~ter world in pictures; and through adopting it into the inner image world of the tained in every human and invite the individual to develop these. md1~1dual. The power of imagination then connects these images with the person's in The mimesis of a model or idol involves the creation of a contingent relationship , ner image ~-orld of memories, desires and other ideas. Visualising that which is foreign between the model and the person mimetically related to it. The result ofthis relation-. and unfamiliar helps the outer to become part of the inner sphere of the individual and ship depends on the respective conditions of both the model and the individual. caught thus· furthers the. individual. In this mimetic association the world is disclosed to the in mimesis, and is thus only inadequately predictable. Although the mimeticrelation is indivi~ual and vice-versa: The assimilation of intellige~ce and world constitutes the determined by reference to something that is already given (i.e. the model), its result educallon of the individual. cannot be pre-defined, for this is no purpose-means-relationship, in which the .aims · ·Through mimesis; through assimilation with-the outer world, with objects and other predetermine the results. Mimetic processes are realised with 'broken intentions', They h~mans, a person experiences the difference of the outer world, its .non-identity with take place without it having been clear initially, in which direction they will develop his own world. Assimilation with the outer does not lead to an annulment of this dif and what their results will be. Their undefined character distinguishes them from more fe~e~ce b~tween inner and outer. If this were the case, mimesis would degenerate into target and results-orientated imitation processes. In mimetic processes, an individual m1m1cry, mto conformation to an. outer world, with disregard for the creative strengths allows himself to be put under the spell of an object or other people, to be drawn into. a a?d e~ergies ~f the individual. The individual character of these energies ensures the process of simulation, and can even risk losing himself in the idol or .the world of ref d1vers1ty of mimetic processes and their results. Its mimetic abilities lead the individual erence. This drive to 'become Uke' shows the strength and power of mimesis with its to get in~olved in the world, to be fascinated by its novelties and unfamiliarity, to take far-reaching effects on the individual. pleasure m the process of internalising the outer and to experience his own self in this Humboldt understood education to a large degree as mimetic, that is, as non-tele-. pleasure. · ological; undetermined and uncertain. Education is aimed at the reconciliation between Miinetic processes are sensory. They are realised via eyes, e~s, touch, smell and outer historico-social :µid inner individual .conditions. The success of this process re taste. However, they can "lllso.be geared towards imaginary worlds and make use of the quires individual freedom and a variety of socially created education opportunities. powers of imagination. Mimetic processes are aimed at the unknown· the encounter Only in this way, can the claims and conflicts connected with aiming for the 'best', with this gives rise to new experiences, in which unknown becomes k~own. Mimetic 'all-round', 'well-proportioned' education be dealt with. The results of these education behaviour involves both an active approach to the world and a rather passive absorp- processes are open to the future. Op_enness to the future means: the unknown and un- · 19 Humboldt I 960, Vol. I, p. 235. 20 Humboldt 1960, Vol. I, p. 512. 32 33 certuin nature of the fi.tture, and the incompletability of human education are included the Greeks ancl the peculiarity of their language. In his fragment On Thinking and as constitutive elements in the education process, and efforts are made not to conceal Speaking, he emphasises tlie c:011nectio11 bctwec:11 language and individuality. Hum these insecurities with illusions of security. bolclt perceives a difference between the act of thinking and the object of thought and recognises the specific of thinking in reflection. In reflection. the thinker confronts objects, sums them up as entities, and names them. Humboldt sees language as that Self-Mimesis which defines the inescapable human condition of being in-reference-to-the-world. This is what makes rhe differences between different languages and their respective The mimetic movement of the individual is not directed only towards the outside, nor worldviews irreducible. Every language must be llllderstood in its own particular his is it solely aimed at assimilating the outer world. In his early text On the Human_ Spir!t, torical and individual character. To disregard this is to deny the individuality of each Humboldt emphasises the central significance of the individual and of the suh1cct tor language. A multitude of l,mguages guarantees the diversity of cul lures ,md indiviclu anthropology and educational theory. According to these considerations, the key t_o als. lt is a precondition for the diversity and shapeability of indivichrnl characters and human definition lies in the humun self. Education is understood as a self-related mi thc:ir cduc:ation processes. metic movement of the individual. Humboldt defines its aim and :;tructure as follows: Language is the ability to produce thoughts and link one's understanding and 'lvlan must therefore find something that he can, like a final goal, subordinate every ccnscs. 'Language is therefore, if not above all then ,1t least sensually, the means thing else to, and according lo which, as an absolute measure, he can judge everything. througl1 which man crates simulta11eu11sly himself and the world or rather becomes This is to be found nowhere but within himself: for as in the essence of all being, eve :1ware of himself by cutting a world away from himsclf.'23 According to this, language rything is related only tu him: but he can neither rely on his momentary pleasme nor on is not merely a sign or means of communicating, but far more a means of developing his lrnppiness at all, for it is far more a trait of his nature to spurn pleasu!e and do ~1; th- thoughts, onc·s self and the world. Thoughts origin:ite in the connection of senses and out happiness: it can therefore only lie in his inner value, in his highest fulfilment: understanding. The production, expression and re-perception of a thought arc only Only in free independence and autonomy can an individual uchicve his 'lu~hest possible because it is created in words. 'To this encl, language is indispensable. For, in completion': only in this process can each person realise his uniqueness, and _fin_ 23 Schiller/1-lumboldt Vol. ll, p. 207, quoted in Trabant 1990, p. 38 (trans. A. Lagaay). 21 Humboldt I 960. Vol. I, p. 507. 24 Trabanl 1990, p. 42 (trans. A. Lagaay). 22 Hermann 1994, p. 145. 25 Trabanl 1990, p. 42 (trans. A. Lagaay). 34 35 The anthropological and educational significance of language can he outlined m 3 key word form as follows: It is through language that humans become human. lleing human cannot be sepa rated from linguistic competence. Claims that humans invent language, and solely through language achieve perfection fall sho11. Work as Gesture and Ritual Language makes human expression and human community possible. Without it humans would lack a fundamental means of expression and would not he social beings. . Every language constitutes a specific view or the world; this vinv of the world. 15 ineluctable. the individual cannot find a viewpoint outside of this language and its viewpoint. ·Language constitutes the transmission of world and individuality. Methodology Language is a precondition for education and makes it possible for one to master the world and be mastered by the world. It creates an individually specific world and As we have seen, the ultimate aim of education is to perfect and folfil the individual. self-understanding. This was already clear in Comcnius' vision. and took on a new quality in Humboldt's Language is the strength that creJtes the individual and the world. It is ~onncc'.cd concept of the individual's general education as the best qualification for a productive with 1he spontaneous and creative energy of the individual and makes ind1v1duatwn workin" world. As humans rely on education so too do they rely on work in order to possible. develop society, the community and themselves. Tl1is has held true since the beginning Insofar ;is human reflexivity and thought are connected lo language, yet humans of occidental culture, in the Greek and Christi all trauilions in which work was always cannot be equated to their li;iguislic being, the inexplicable nature of humans is also considered an anthropological necessity for human existence. Thm, work and educa experienced in language. . tion czin be conceived as the two most csscntial strategics of human pcrfcction and The openness and incxplicabk nature of human cxistcnce, ,vhich is expcnence fulfilment. whose success or failure can be reconstructed in an analysis of the civilisa through language, is a constitutive element of any historico-educational anthropol tion process. This assumption gives rise to two methodological steps. In order to com ogy and subsequent educational theory. prehend the aims towards which work and education arc geared_ as stratcgi_cs of perfec tion, it is necessary to make both a historical and an cthno/ogzcal analysis of tl1e two strategies. From the point of view of content, work and education difler from each Outlook other GS strategics of fulfilment depending on the respective culture and historical pe riod. In this respect, nowadays, we are more interested in understanding the differences ln J-Jumboldt's view, 1:-mguilge, education and anthropology arc closely connected. hctwcen cultures and historical periods than in holding on to supposedly universal, Being human means being linguistically able and educable. In an anthropological re Eurocentric, unhistorical statements. Concepts such as work, education arid perfection spect_ it is decisive how whiclz language educates which people. It is not the ascertam mean clifkrcnt things in different cultures and historical periods. Using these concepts im1 of a general linguistic capability and educability which is important but the rcspec in different situations gives rise to the danger of assuming reference to the same thing ti,':'e hist;rico-cu]tu;al moulding of language and education. To analyse this i: the task when in fact something different may be meant. It is the particular tflsk of historical of linguistic anthropology and educational anthropology. Despite his pioneering mter anthropology lo uncover the differences concealed under a conceptual term and apply est in the individual and the inherent differences with other contemporary thought, the them to the concept. limitations of Humboldt's attitude, from today·s perspective, can be identified in three main factors. Firstly, in the idectlness of humans and their education, second!~'· _in ltne_ with the spirit of the period, the continued helief in the cert1inty of the perfect1hJl1ty ot Expansion and lnc,·casing Shortage of \York: An Antinomie Development the individual and the human race, and thirdly, the confidence in the agreement of both_ aims in view of a nature necessary for their realisation. ln the light of the events 01 The intrncluction of the four-clay week without full pay by the Volkswagen group in 20th century, the view of the impcrfectibility of human existence has gained mtercst, October 1993 was a clear indication that work was running out in the work society. but calls foi the radicalisation of Humboldt's thought in this respect. This had been predicted long before. As Hannah Arendt wrote with prophetic foresight in I 958: 'ln store for us is the prospect of a work society in which the only remaining activity that defines the society, work, has run out. What could bi: more disastrous?' 1 J Arendt 1981,pp. ll-12(trans.A.Lagaay). 36 37 All industrial nations define themselves largely as work societies. Work is the 'only Thcsi.; include values such as motivation and commitment, rationality and precision, remaining activity that defines the society'. Since the beginning of the 15th century, conscientiousness and the fi.tltilment of duties, creativity and willingness for innovn ;ind above all since the ernernencc of the mouem aoc and industrialisation. work has tion. These values arc encouraged in childhood and later continuously developed aml increasingly become the defi;ing characteristic of life. It also plays an imp.ortant role practised. The ·world of employment is finally rhe social institution per se for impreg in individual and societal self-perception. A shortage ,ir absence of work inevitably re nating these values in the body of the worker. sults in crises of purpose for the individual and societv. \Vork challenges competitiveness, secures existence, and helps the individual to For this reason, um;mploymcnt is the 'basic sca~dal of our society'; it withholds find purpo.,·e and idenlity. 1f society runs out of work or can no longer afford to pay for the human from what he: re4uircs for a minimal existence. 'Unemployment is an act of it. then new decisions must he made as to the social function of work and its redistri violation. an ilSs,rnlt 3g:-iinst the physical, mental and spiritual integrity and intactm:ss bution. Forms of shortening working time have to be analysed in connection with these of the pnson afflicted. ' 2 Four million people in Germany, twenty million in the Euro decision processes. The tendency that has lead to a halving of weekly working time pean Union and thirty-five million in Europe are arfectcc! by unemployment today. The from 70 to 35 homs and ol' life working time from 1 l0000 to 55 000 hours in the 20th harboured hope of generating sufficient jobs through economic growth, to overcome century is not expected to change. The invention of new technologies creates an in firmly established u11emp!oyme111 ha:; provc:d lo be an illusion. The explanation of mass crcwsing shortage of work. While these technologies lead to economic growth, they unemployment as a result of excessive salary costs and a rigid payment system foils also give rise: to a decrease in work wvailable in society due to the accompanying ra short. Further reasons are: tionalisation and progress in efficiency. The reduction of employment opportunities has affected the branches of agriculture and industry in particular. But i:vcn the rapid the conversion of the East German plan economy to a free enterprise economy. expansion of the service sector. today employing more than 50 per cent of the work !he world economic situation, force, cannot compensatt: for a redueliun of employment as a rcsult of raliom1lisatior1 the technological revolution. i11 th,: course of" v,foch the techno]oov-conditioned rntc ond th,: progn:ss in efficiency. of productivity exceeds the growth rJtc, leJJing to the lo:;s of mo~~ jobs than cJn be Ecu110111isrs have suggested the partial separation of-working time and ,~omprmy created through growth. working time as an important measure for the increase of f1exibility. This measure should be tlrns equalled so that companies can connect longer company working times Although the phenomenon of long lasting unemployment is in fact acknowledged by with more flexible individual working hours. Depending on legislation. Saturday could the economic 3nd politiC3l world, a political attack on unemployment is consistently then be converted back into a normal working day. There should also be opportunities avoided. Rather, it is maintained th~t this form of unemployment is also surmountable for capacity-orientated variable working time comprising part time work, alternating with the tried and tested measures aimed at growth put forward by politicians and work weeks, sabbaticals and longer company working time. Finally, it would be neces economists. J\t the s:1me time, the following facts arc deliberately overseen. The sary to relieve the externalisation of many comp:my f\.mctions with the help of work eighties saw the emergence of strong economic growth with a considerable increase in contracts. hired work fore,: and subcontractors. The economist and financial expert dispos::iblc income. Yet this economic growth was only partially effective for generat Bert Rurup concludes from such considerations: 'With regard to content. work of the ing employment ilnd led to a division of society into two parts: one largely participat future will be more qualified, more complex and orientated towards information proc ing in economic growth and the other increasingly excluded from economic growth. essing. This transformed work content will be canied out by a workforce that is in The social and political consequences of this development into a two class society with creasingly 'female', 'old'. ·small' and 'immigrant', in less ,veekly work honrs, but a rapidly increasing number of people affected by poverty. including the unemployed. over a longer life working time and in more flexible organisation forms which will he social benefit claimants and the homeless, are inestimable. Political rndicalisation and increasingly directed towards the individual requirements of specific companies. an increase in violence are the visible expressions of increasing social conflicts. Moreover, it is certain that the futur,: of work will no longer be characterised by our Alongside family and soci::il life. work is the aspect of life through which most contemporary time culture of free weekends and the dominance of the 'normal work people in our society determine their purpose. Material requirements can be satisfied, circumstances· or the industrial law basis of the · fulfilled work life'. ·3 social and personal recognition gained through work. Participation in socially organ The problem with these ideas is that they are exclusively oriented towards the ised work secures the social recognition of the individual. Work takes on a social and company and its competitiveness. They also pay less attention to the individual person, subjective significance. Neither s;ciety nor the individtrnl can freely enjoy the different for whom the loss of work is often connected to guilt assignment and a sense of cle meanings of work and its transformation. For the individual, the purpose of his work is valu:ition. For the individual, work means considerably more than the securing of ma formed throughout the course of his life. The process of establishing one's purpose via terial existence; it provides a feeling of personal and social security, and transmits rec work begins in 1he family, is continued in school and increases in the ·world of em ognition, self-respect and self~rcalisation. ployment. Life is structured ,md shaped by the values and norms connected with work. These considerations give rise to many questions: 2 Negt 1984, p. 8 (trans. A. Lagaay). 3 Riirup 1994, p. 49 (trans. A. Lagaay). 38 39 How can the association of prosperity with social security be prevented from de There is an irrevocable difference between the gesture of work as a physical represen slroying competitiveness? tation and form of expression, and its linguistic meaning, conveyed with the help of How can the gulf between the employed and the long-tem1 unemployed be pre interpretations. Gestures of work contain real content beyond their intentionality. vented from leading to social crises, which put democracy at risk? Gestures are attempts to step out of the condition of merely being-in-body, and How can work be distributed and organised so that, despite high personnel costs, make use of the body. A precondition for this is the eccentric position of humans. This competitiveness, also in comparison to countries with lower wages, remains intact? is what supcrst:des the animal in humans and allows humans to emerge from them Could a 'second employment market' be created with tax money for the larger selves and react with the world and themselves. The gesture of work is also based on groups of the population between the work market and unemployment? this human capacity, which is closely related to language, imagination and action. - Could remunerated employment be stretched so that m;w employment sectors such 1n contrast to mimic bodily expression, gestures arc separable from the body and as house\vork, nursing of the elderly, and voluntary activities be identified? from spcci fie social situations and can thus be shaped and learnt. While expressions Are fom1s of limited subsistence economy conceivable, in which for example rural and feeling, form and content, emotional content and physical forms of expression households produce part of their mm food? cannot be distinguished from one another in mimic, in gestures these different aspects Could new forms of work and ways of life be created by the development of a are apparent, which allows for gestures to be designed intentionally. Since humans quantity-neutral ecological lax refo~m, within \Vhich the productivity of energy is perceive gestures as an expression of their self from inside and outside, gestures are increased instead of the productivity of work? among the most important forms of human expression and experience. Humans are embodied in gestures and they experience themselves in thi, embodiment. Social hc h3viour, involving gestures. rill13ls and roles, transforms physical being into a form of Gestures of\Vork asset. This transformation process, in which work plays an important role, makes human existence po,sihlc. This outlining of the current social situation of work shows that gestures and rituals of Gestures have an impmi::mt function in the process of hmmm self-domestication. In work, us they have developed in civil, capitalist organised industrial society, are in a them, interior and exterior are one. At the same time, th,rnks to the human quality of state of crisis. Nol only arc new strategies of creating and organising work necessary, being open-to-the-world, gestures limit this inner/outer condition of human existence but alsn a new horizon for the understancline of the relation between work and life. Tf through concrctisation. Furthermore, the significance of gestures ch:mgcs according to throughout the civiiisation process in Europ;, work has become the determining factor space~ an time. Differences can be recognised with regard to gender :mcl class. Tvlany for the meaning or life. this valuation of work must be subjected to examination, gestures arc gender specific; others have no gender specific differences. Gestures of yielding new perspectives for the relation of work aml education. On the agenda is a ~vork, howc\'cr. arc gender and class specific. They arc oHen linked to social spaces, relali ,·isation of the meaning of vmrk for the human finding of purpose as well as. a points in timt: and institutions. Institutions achieve their claims to power via the prac rndical pluralisation of life-relevant values, which are incidentally already evident 111 tice of institutionally specific gestures. Work can also be understood as a social insti parts of the younger generation. There arc possibilities available to encourage a tution. the claims of which arc carried through a variety of mechanisms. stronger pluralisation of life-relevant factors. One of these lies in the historical recon Among the sustained strategies of imposing work as a dominant life form is the struction of our rc]3tionship to work, within the context of which work can be recog instirntionalisation of the gesture 1f doing and of work in the human body. In a phe nised as a socw/ construction. Emphasis on the historical conditioning of work reveals nomenological approach. Vilcm Flusser attempts to detem1inc the gesture of doing. its constructed character. It also however points to the historical changeability of our which is funclamcnt:il to the work gesture. He refers to the opposition [Entgegen relationship to work, in which Calvinism, capitalism and industrialism have played ::m setzung] of our hands as a human condition which calls us to 'involve both hands in a important role. challenge, a problem or :in object [Gcgcnst:md]. This "full" gesture is the gesture of When \Vork is considered in terms of g:esture and rituaL new dimensions emerge, Joing. It presses down on the object from both sides so that both hands can touch each which have hardly been dealt with in the di;courses on the topic of work and its future. other. Under this pressure, the object changes its form. and the new form, this "infor The understanding of work as gesture points to the fact that our relationship to work - nrntion" impressed on the present world. is a way of overcoming one's basic human and thus to the world and to other people - is habitualised and incorporated from our constitution. In the object. both hands arc brought together in agreement ... Both hands early childhood on. The link between work and ritual also refers to the fundamental reach out to the world of objects. They grasp an object. They change its forn1 This significance of work for the emergcncl: of society and the inner cohesion of comrnu constant reformulation under the counter-pressure [Gcgendruck] of the object [Gcgcn- nity. The character of work as rn/tural 'per/'urm~znce' and staging. with its sustained 5tand] constitutes "the gesture of working".• Thus, in the gesture of working, hands effects. is expressed in the ritualisation of work. invent new forms and impress these onto objects ... !lands snatch away the objective . lf we talk of the gesture of work, we understand work as a movemenl of the body. context of these objects and use them againsl lhe context ... There is no social world Significant bodily movements are understood as gestures, of which intentions form the basis without completely explaining their representation and forms of expression. 4 The Gennan verb schaffen includes ihe sense of 'creating' as well as 'working'. 40 41 left for the hands equipped with tools, which have forgorten their original object. Their ploughing, sowing and harvesting are necessary for humans to fot:d themselves. Work gesture of doing is apolitical and unethical'. 5 is the human punishmem for the having dared compete with the gods. Work deals hu The gesture of doing makes the gesture of work possible. The gesture of work mans what they deserve. The gods do not ncct.l food: animals have no difficulty finding emerges from the umklcrrnincd gesture of doing, from Poicsis, in the course of the it. Only humans an; forced to work to feed themselves. Out of anger, Zeus decides to civilisation process. It originates from the proccsst:s lhal kd humans lo develop from give the humans something that will make life even more problematic. He presents hunters, gatherers and nomads to settlers. A settled form of existence requires the them with a gift containing evil in a tempting shell: Pandora, the present of all gods - shaping and design of the claimed land. Gender specific and other forms of ,vork \Voman. She is bait and a means of deception, whose animal nature remains hidden. sharing arc developed. This is accompanied by the differentiation of the world of work IJcr stomach swallows up the food that has to be produced by work. Humans become and the development of social hierarchies. As a result, complex social structures the slaves of her stomach from \Vhose needs their efforts and worTies stem. Moreover, emerge within whose framework cultural production and differentiations grow. !vlyth, Pandora is the fire that Zeus gives the humans in return for the stolen fire and which religion and ritual play an important role here ,:md contribute considerably to the de thereaticr consumes humans. Pandora's fertility corresponds with the fertility of the velopment and shaping of the gesture of work. earth. In order to be able to receive and produce life, thl: fertility of both the e;irth and The social reality of work produces and interprets, preserves and changes witb lhc ,voman has to be tended to. All gifts are ambiguous. Something is given aml at the help of rituals, which can he understood as ,ymbo!ical!y coded bodi(v processes. Social same time, something is taken. They mix good and bad and are therefore of irrevocable norms or work are registered in the human body hy means or rittrnls, which are carried ,ctmhiguity. All the elements mentioned in the myth arc contingently connected: the out by groups in social and normative determined spaces. These registration processes (stolen) fire, woman and marriage, cereal farming and work. These elements serve to also allow social power relationships to he incorporated. A sci/staging of society, of allocate the humans lht:ir status between the gods and the animals, which cc111 be de culture and'ofthc individual take plac(; in the rituals of work, in the process of which fined in the following way: the necessary capacities arc acquired, confirmed am.l transforrm:t.l into practical knowl t:dgc. 'Humans art: not the masters of their own fate: they must make sacrifices to the The following thn:t: examples show how myth, religion and modernisation are in gods to win their favour. volved in the development of the gesture of work, which is currently in a slate of crisis. Humans need fire to prepare food and for the production oftools. Males need females as mates to assure the reproduction of the species. In order to feed themselves. humans need to work the fields for cerea1. ·0 Historical Perspectives: Greek Antiquity and Christianity "r!ic rnylh reinforces the idea that all gitis from the got.ls arc two-ct.lgcd. The hum;:ms, In Greek antiquity, the l'rnmctheus myth, as told by Hesiod, already gives important however, do not know the character of this ambiguity in advance. This is also true of indications about the significance of work for the constit11tion of European people. \vork, which is on the one side a punishment, and on the other a chance for human de Prometheus, renowned for his cunuing, his }defis, gets into an argument with Zeus, velopment. who is equally charnctcrised by his divine and therefore higher Meris. The talc is the This view of work as an activity unworthy of humans remained intact into the time portrayal of a duel bctwct:n liuman and di-:ine cunning_ Who will deceive whom? Who of the (3rcck Polis. For the Greeks, work served simply to produce and provide the will be deceived by whom? rake presents arc mutual!;, exchanged. Zeus emerges from t1cccssary goods for the preservation of life. As such it was the task of slaves. Thev the argument as the victor. The humans and their representative, Prometheus, an.: pun \vcre called oiketai if they belonged to the house. Jn contrast to the slaves belonging l~1 ished for the sin of measuring themselves against the gods. Fin;illy, they 3rc now allo the house, the crallsmcn, the clemwurgoi, publicly offered their work and were able to cated a place. t11ove around freely to this aim in public. These craftsmen were later called banausoi. According to the I lesiodian talc, Prometheus tries to trick Zeus bv offering attrac -fhcy performed physical labour but were not allowed to participc1tc in public affoirs. tively packaged yet not very nutritious parts of a sacrificial cow. Zeus ·sees through this For the Greeks of the Polis, physical labour, which serves merely to preserve the bot.ly. attempt at deceit. Enraged, he forbids humans thereafter the use or the heavenly fire is of an inferior kind. The real human work or activity. i.e. the participation in bios that had hitherto been ;it their disposal. UnbeknO\vn to Zeus, Prometheus steals fire and r,o!itikos - political life - begins when that which is necessary for the preservation of iakes it to the humans. The gods, however, will not be provoked without severe conse the body has been dealt with. Slavery thus allows for a life or fulfilled activities for the quence: Zeus refuses the humans possession of fire: the gods hide the corn, necessary free. as a means of human nourishment. Where humans had once simply had to bend down The origin or work is not perceived much differently in the Judeo-Christian tradi to pick thr.: corn growing of its own accord, now, since it has been hidden from them, tion. I !ere, human history begins with the expulsion from heaven, which is also a pun they have to grow it themselves. From then onwards, ponos, the arduous labour, ishment lor the violation of a divine commandment. !--Jere too, work, now prcscrihecl 5 Flusser 1991, p. 61 (trans. A. Lagaay). 6 Vernant I 987. p. 179 (trans. A. Lagaay). 42· 43 for humans, plays a decisive role: 'Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt For Calvin too, work is rooted in obedience to God. He presents work as a means thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring fo1ih to thee; <)f self-discipline and asceticism more slrongly than Luther did. Accordingly, work is and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat ofthv face shalt thou eat bread till rationalised and directed towards the intensification of production. According to the thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou tak;n: for dust thou art, and unto C;nlvinist teaching of predestimtion, the individual is in principle unaware if he has dust shalt thou return.'7 As in the Prometheus myth, in Genesis, certain clements are been chosen or not. However, ifhe has, God's choice is manifest in that person's moral determined that characterise life after the fall from heaven. These include: behaviour. This involves a strict control of sensuality, obedience to God in work. dili gence and self-discipline. Inversely, we can infer predestination from this behaviour. the tempting, evil-producing woman, 1~ational work asceticism becomes a sign for having been chosen, and all the more so if - sexuality, language, and consciousness. Qne's efforts arc crowned with success. Thus, it makes sense to strive to be successful work. i 11 one's work. One ·s body, senses and feelings should he subordinated to the rcquire- 111ents of work. Success requires much effort. At the same time, it is not a question of The central position of work is emphasised once more in the biblical 'He who does not '>vork as such. of the pleasure of it or the enjoyment of its success. To ascribe work work shall not cat'. Work is a duty to God and other humans. In the parable of en c;uch value in itself would amount to an inc1clmissible attachment to ,vorldly things. trusted talents, God even demands of the humans that they reproduce and multiply that ~ 1ich an attitude would forget that work and success are worship and constitute the which is originally granted to them. To make productive use of what they have re l1onouring of God. Work serves as the hallowing of God and tht: ascetic self-hallowing ceived from Goel meets with His approval. God demands that humans work; through <::if humans. The rntionalisalion of work docs not lead to a relief from the toil and effort work they, in turn, prove their worthiness to God. but to an improvement of the results of work. Due to this divine affording of purpose, The human dutv to work is further intensified in the medieval Benedictine rule ora there can be no satisfaction through results from work. Work is c1 permanent. ncvcr et labora. Here w~rk becomes a form of worship or service to God. Further subdivi \c:ndin~ task. Jn the sight of God, the achieved amounts to nothing and demands further sions occur in the course of work sharing according to guild. The differences between intensification and extension. Max Weber perceived and analysed the connections the artisans in medieval towns arc thus made visible by the fact that the members of between people's attitude to work, industrialisation and the spread or capitalism. eai.:\1 guild set up business in the same street or part of the town. Thomism set up a hicr::irchy of fields of work. Agriculture was ranked at the bottom. followed by crafts manship and spirituality. monks, nuns and. highest of all, priests. Commissioned by Disciplinary Society: Loss and Expansion of Work God, it is the duty of the priests to take care of the souls of humans and thus their well being after death. -l'hcsc reJlcctions on the Calvinist concept of work contribute to our understanding of 171 contrast to Thomas Aquinas, who values spiritual above secular work, Luther the modem obsession with work. Further important aspects arc expressed in the phi regards earthly and spiritual forms of work as equal. There arc even some suggestior~s losophies of Hegel ancl [Vian.:. In Hegel's opinion, God ·works on the world as if it were that Lulht:r gives precedence to earthly work over spiritual-monastic work. The deci lhe 'other of Himself in the historical process of his becoming a subject ... Wol"id his sive difference to Thomas Aquinas lies in the fact that Luther highly respects all work tory becomes the mighty chore of working out human and absolute subjectivity. This regardless of its results. The evaluation of work is therefore shifted from its success to t,rocess is at the same time one of absolute human scli~empowerment as well as great its~ fundamental ethos. According to Luther, the value of work lies in its ethos not in i:s pain'.~ For Marx too work is a decisive activity, through which humans become hu purpose or its success. The reason for this equal evaluation of every form of work 15 nian. Social structures and hierarchies arc formed and changed through work: depend that .:ill forms of work arc defined bv Divine creation and therefore mcnial work is seen in2 on the charncter of each historical epoch, work gives rise in a different way to rule as willed by Goel. The equc1l v.:ilu;tion of the different forms of work is further ex "nd repression. Marx pins his hopes for liberation and the abolition of the non-lcgiti plained by the fact that ;iccorrling to the Lutheran view, work is no longer necessary for n1ate ruk of some humans over other h11m;ms, on inrlustric1lisation anrl the connected the achievement of sc1lvation. For salvation is given through God's mercy c1lonc. The rationalisation and increased cffcctivcnc:ss of work. and on a fair distribution of pro form of one's work need not therefore serve the welfare of the soul. Rather, it can be duction means. In civil societies it is above all the working class whose social basis determined bv its usefulness for the world order. In this way. work takes on an inner 1::onsists of only having their labour power to se!l. In Marx·s opinion it is definitely the world rmton;my founded on God. It need not scrvc God di;e~tly, but can concentrate 1o:mancipation of the working class that !cads to the liberation of humankind. 'In -his fully on promoting human well being. Insofar c1s work serves humans, it serves Goel. view. humans arc socially essentially determined by work. Thus, human liberation The scale of its ethical value lies in its use for other humans. Through this reference to 1::;urnot mean the liberation of humans from work, but rather, the liberation of work it other people. work becomes a field of expression for Christian love. :c:;clf. ·'1 It is clear that these hopes have not heen realised in advanced capitalism, yet this ~ Koslowski 1994, pp. 122-123 (trans. A. Lagaay). 7 Genesis 3. v_ 17-19. 9 Bohme J985, p. 158 (trans. A. Lagaay). 44 45 does not release us from the basic questions on which they arc founded, concerning the rnodem disposition to all-penetrating work. The expansion of time rule, of chronoc relationship of work. possession and rule. racy, has become an important clement in the emergence of work society because it is Throughout the modern age, the gesture of work has spread. It has moved into in "vhat brings hunrnns into line with the dictates of work. An end to this dynamic is not creasingly more fields and encompassed an increasing area. It has become the move foreseeable for the majority or humans. A new development however. is the fact that ment by which humans define themselves for themselves and in relation to Lhe world, a recently more and more people have become excluded from the work dynamic and a means or discipline and expression for self-discipline and asceticism. Performing the :-;harp division of society has emerged. Whereas one part of society is increasingly gesture of work gives rise to the production, repetition and expression of atmospheres, 1a!ling prey lo the mo loch-like demands of endlessly extending work, the other part is feelings and attitudes, which make work and its continued effectuation possible. The (.:Ut off compklely from the world of work and thus foils into an area of life below that following factors have had a determining influence on the modem work gesture and its '.vhich is socially acccpt:ible. Exclusion. isolation, dcvahwtion, economic and social development into rituals: J")overty arc the consequences. In a disciplinary society humans arc trimmed and trained according to time and - purpose-rational organisation, '.vork. This structuring of time and work, as well as their interrelations, engenders a - economy of time. (.:crtain kind of human: an all round 'compatible' and employable human being. the character of the work, <'t 46 47 tificial world of humans, but refers to the activity that takes place between people. All Part Two three forms of activity are different.and cannot be associated to one unique activity in volving one particular gesture. Such is the importance of this differentiation for the relativising of work and its universal claim - and therefore also for human self-understanding - that we should not obscure the fact that its difficulties lie exactly in that the analytically clear areas of life practices lend to overlap and continually mix so that these and similar differences are Mimesis in Education, Culture and Anthropology levelled out and eliminated. Further, the relation between work and life must be de fined more closely. This will lead to a further relativising of the universal character of work, leading to new perspectives for a better handling of work, unemployment, pro duction and trade, in which active and contemplative life can emerge. So far we have dealt with the reconstruction of the dream of education in the European modern age. It transpired that the modern project to educate the individual contains a utopian element rooted in cultural ideas. The aim of the following part is to show the central role mimetic processes play in the construction, preservation and modification of society and culture as well as of community and individuals. A historical analysis of the use of the concept mimesis will reveal its anthropological character. We shall then highlight the importance of mimetic processes in education and socialisation, when it comes to learning about the outside world, or acquiring a sense of gender belonging, as well as gaining the practical knowledge required for social behaviour. Further, our attention will be focused on how gestural and ritual competence and performance can be learnt through mimetic processes and how this contributes to creating the social. finally, we shall observe how mimetic processes produce different types of images, which are received by the imagination and used by it in different contexts. 49 48 4 Mimesis as an Anthropological Concept Introduction Current conceptions of mimesis delimit the category insufficiently in two ways. Firstly, mimesis means not only imitation, but also 'making oneself similar'. 'representing oneself, 'expression', and 'pre-imitation'. Secondly, mimesis cannot be restricted to art, poetry and aesthetics. The mimetic ability plays a role in almost every area of lmimm activity. imagination, speech and thought. and thus represents an essential re quirement of social life. In the light of this understanding of mimesis. definitions which comtrue an opposition between mimesis and the self-empowerment of modern m,.m 1 or which envision the activity of mimesis merely in the distinctiveness of the lit erary representation of real i1ies 2 fall short of their mark.. Following the 'death of God' and the end of an obligatory nonnative anthropology. mimesis acquires a special significance.3 With the collapse of guarantees for a stable divine and human order, the reference points for knowledge have been toppled, clis placc:d and have become mobile. Due to their inter-referentiality, they change con stantly. This creates a mimetic interrelationship of signs in which a single 'reality' no ]on ger constructs the moclel of imitation: instead, word and picture signs become thcm sel;es the mudel for other signs whicl1 imitate them and. in the process, change so that in the complex mimetic process s0mcthing new is created. :-V1imcsis has no single timelessly fixed meaning. The term has many significant nuances. These are apparent in the classical use of the term by Plato and Aristotle. Mimesis means 'imitation'. but it also means 'presentation' and 'expression'. The term can refer to a relationship with given and with represented reality. and in this sense it refers to a rcpre::entational relationship. The term can also refer to the imitation or something thc1t is not giYcn, lik.c the representation of il myth that is always given in the same representation and that has no other known model beyond this representation. Here, mimesis has a myth-constituting function. Even in the case of the symbol. it is not a question or a pure irnitational relationship; rather, the symbol refers to a new symbol that cannot be found in the actually given reality: the symbol creates something Blumenberg I 981, pp. 55-103. 2 Auerbach 1982. 3 Foucault J972; 1970. Also much to be recommended is the excellent analysis of Foucault in the first chapterofDauk 1989. of its own which cannot be explained by reference to a given reality, but which refers mimesis is understood as a power which acts to break down instrumental reason and rather to a unity that lies outside of the symbol. dismantle rcification. Thus mimesis appears as a possibility of freedom even in light of As nature, so, too, the artist creates with the aid of mimesis something new and the critique that it is itself caught in the content it is criticising. other. This, in turn, enlarges the category of reality to the point where it becomes al In the following, we shall invcstigatL: important paradig;;,atic changes of mimesis most superfluous. In the mimetic acquisition of the given, the imagination of the per in aesthetics and in the social sphere and, finally, in the convergence of both these ceiver reshapes the process of imitation so that the 'imitated' acquires a new quality. tields in contemporary society. Mimesis unites the imitated object, the imitator and the process of imitation in which tht: structurt:s fixed in the object to be imitated direct the mimetic process in the imita tor. In addition, the results are determined bv the individual situatiDn of the imitator. If Mimesis and Aesthetics the mimetic acquisition refers to linguistic o~ pictorial products which themselves have a mimetic relationship to other mimetic productions, thL: mimetic proce,s is especially ln European history 'mimesis' appears first with very little terminological differentia complex. This is the case with all cultural products which have no 'rock bottom' and tion. Whereas the term mimesis is used initially in social and aesthetic contexts without whose points of reference are produced and displaced in mimetic processes. Here, an distinction, increasingly a specifically aesthetic significance of thL: term is isolated open and merely situationally restricted horizon for possibilities of meaning is given. which, for Plato, still refers to social and cognitive processes but which tends to be Mimesis is thus not directed backwards in the sense that it only aims at the imitation of come independen1. For many centuries mimesis was a central categorv in theories of a given. It is also directed forwards.'1 The principally open character of a work of art the arts and poetry. In modem aesthetic theory, however, mimesis in~n.:;sinely loses its allows for mimesis to tum towards the not-as-yet-creatccl.5 The goal is not ere-deter significance. The conception of the original creativity of man clashes with~ti1c idea or mined, but rather, realised in its 'becoming' development and in its recL:ption. 0 mimesis when mimesis is reduced to imitation (imitatio ). thus lc;:iding to a devaluation Already, Aristotle indicates that imitation is an inherited faculty: 'It manifests itself of the term. The snbjL:ct of modernity no longer secs itself as being determined by past from chilclhood onward, and man distinguishes himself from other animate beings by traditions. Already in the sixteenth century the battle against the canonisation of st vies the fact that he is especially capable of ~nitation and acquires his knowledge first an cl and for an enlargement of individual forms of expression had begun.x Thus the ~on roremost through imitation as well as through the pleasur<:: that everyone finds in imi ceptions of the mimetic relationship between world and man were marginalised, but tation. ' 7 This special mimetic ability is related anthropologically to a) the early birth ~f never fully forgotten. man and his thus predefim:cl dependence upon learning, h) his residual instinct consti Just as rhe craftsman or demiurg created ideas and objects, so the artist, accordinQ tution. and, finally, c) the hiatus between stimulation and reaction. to Plato, creates the 'world of appearance'. In the Middl~ Ages the world appears a: Mimetic ability can only be comprehended in its historical expressions. Jlow these the book of God which is lo ht.: read and mimetically interpreted.~ Human life must arc cktcm1ined will depend upon their inexorable conceptual and historical position. thus face the demand nfthe imllat/o chrisll from which the norms or lifestyle and edu When analysed in the framework of historical anthropology, mimesis appears to be a cation are deduced. ln the fifteenth century. the renaissance artist strivL:s to compre construction of numerous conceptions and discourses which accentuate various func hend in his artistic works the plan underlying the natural characteristics of the world. tions. What arc the t\Jnctions and discourses constituting the term 'mimesis' tlrnt are For Paracelsus. all cognition is formed through the mimetic relationship between the decisive for our understanding of mimesis? It is hoped that a reconstruction of selected microcosm 'man' and the macrocosm. 10 Even when s ueh conceptions recede into the aspects with a large variety of nuances of meaning will help us to answer this questio~. background in other historical periods, they are never completely forgotten: again and In the course of our study it will become apparent that mimesis is resistant to theory: it aeain they arise in changing contexts. Thus for Hamann, nature is a t~xt whicli has to resists the attempt to make it unambiguous by referring to its own complex affiliation b~ clecipherecl; for Goc!he, there exists an inexorable correspondence between man and with imagination, language and the body. world: even Baudelaire postu13tcs a 'correspondence' between man and world. Inde Mimesis develop; before the qucsti~n can be raised whether that which is imitat~d pendent oft he various epochs. there seem to be no forms of contemporaneity bound to is 'goner or 'bad' and what effects it will have on the imitator. Often this pre-ethic them, since they Jre constituted over many centuries and thus make it next to impossi character of mimesis is seen as threatening and challenges one to place the ambiva ble to write a systematic history of mimesis. lence of mimesis under control. On the one hand, large expectations are placed_ upon This is precisely what Auerbach stresses in his famous book on Mimesis in which the mimetic ability which is located at the centre of onto genetic and phylogenetic de he discusses the 'interpretation of the real through literary representation or ''imita velopment; on the other hand, the mimetic abilitv seems to enable adaptation and to tion"' 11 and in which he pn::s<:nts a collectio11 of literary case studies with which he signi!)' a relinquishment of self-determination and a source of violence. Furthermore, strives to show how the different epochs shape reality in literature. His analysis shows d Zuckcrbndl 1953. 8 131umenhcrg I 981. 5 Eco 1989; Iser 1984. 9 Flasch 1986. 6 Feldmann 1988 . . · 10 See Bohme, G. and Bohme, H., in Kamper/Wulf(eds.) 1989a. pp. 44-57 and pp. 144-182. 7 Aristotle, Poetics. 11 Auerbach 1982. p. 515. 52 53 that it was quite possible, in the Middle Ages and in the Ren:iissance, 'to represent the pears. Even the interpretation of a selected number of examples from the history of day to dc1y routines of reality in a dignified and meaningful unity in poetry as well as in mimesis must remain fragmentary and cannot be extended up to the present. The evo the graphic ans' .12 Only in the seventeenth century did representatives of a more strict lution of mimesis in the Renaissance, in the French and German cbssical periods, in imitation of antique literature designate norms against which the subsequent revolt of the romantic period and in the aesthetics of the twentieth century, cannot be treated the 'storm and stress' (Sturm und Drang) and the romantic period was directed. here in detail. Montaigne, Diderot, Rousseau, Stendhal and Balzac, but also Baude Auerbach investigated the 'realistic works of serious style and character' he selected in laire, surrealism and contemporary postmodern art require an investigation of the role 16 order lo determine how they represented reality. ]-le was less interested in the 'temporal mimesis plays in individual works and in their aesthetic thcorics. or causal development' than in the forrn which ullows for the representation of the variety of methods of reworking reality .13 However fascinating the individual studies of Am:rbach 's work may be and however important they have generally become for The Origin of the Concept of Mimesis the discussion concerning mimesis, the hook manifests the limitations of the age in which it was written by clinging to the concept of reality. The European term 'mimesis' originated in ancient Greece. According to the hypothe 17 Feldmann's distinction between a representational and an ontologically constitutive sis of Koller. its origin lay in daIIce. Following this conviction, Kolin enlarges the term mimesis. Mimesis no longer means simply 'imitation'. but also 'presentation' and form of mimesis points in the same direction. 1" The representational side remains tied to a given ·reality' that is not merely imitated, but also changed by its ';:irtistic trans 't:xpression'. With the use of mimesis in the Polzteia, the history of the krm is further formation'. That is why the depiction in a work of art is not a simple repetition of real developed. Whereas in the third book the term is still used in its general meaning, in ity, but merely its representation. The ontologically constitlltivc side of mimesis pro the tenth book we find a restriction of mimesis to art and a consequent devaluation of duces a new 'reality'. And here the power of mimesis is apparent in its ability to create the term. Kollcr's claims occasioned a large and intensive discussion. His theorv that an imaginary world that is independent of the given 'reality'. But as in Auerbach's the term 'imitation' stems from the delic hymns and originally was related to ~lance work, here again the question has to be raised whether realitv - in each case histori ,md to baccl1ic cult cannot be maintained. Equally problematical and unconvincing is cally differently conceived -- can act as a reference point [or mimesis. or whether, his hypothesis of two mutually contradicting mimesis-theories in the third and the tenth especially in the face of the contemporary crisis of representation. we mnst assume a book of the Politeia. radical plurality of conceptions of reality, each of which can serve as a point of depar Manv cletailcd historico-lingnistic investigations have shown that the narrow con ture for mimetic processes. so that 'reality' can no longer rationally be assumed to be nection ](oiler postulates bctvvcen the word 'mimesis', dance and music docs not the referential point for mimesis. lndced. mimetic processes usu;:illy retcr to already exist. 13 In addition, his theory that Plato refers back to Damon's music theory is disput existing presuppositions and interpretations, images and texts, so that they engage in a ;1blc. 19 In appraising the investigations into the historical meaning of all words and representational relationship not with reality, but ,vith other represent;:itions. Similar collocations belonging to the mimesis-group for the fifth century. Else isolates the reservations must be voiced against the term 'ontologicallv constitutive side· of mime [ollowing meanings for the term: 1) 'mimesis' in the sense ofa direct depiction of the sis. If mimesis develops in the field of art and poetr:/in th~ 'world of appearance·. then appearance, act or expressions of animals or humans using speech, song and/or dance; it docs not produce new cs,encc, but merelv manifests something new in the world of 2) mimesis of the acts of one person by another in a general sense, without direct imi appearanec. 15 Mimesis thus constitutes a w~rld of appearance. not a world of essence. tation (in the ethical sense); 3) 'copying' a picture or print of a person or ;1 thing in Another question that must be raised is the extent to which mimesis in contemporary material form .20 In sum, these meanings of the term forbid us to speak of a mimesis art fonctions in respect to the world of appearance less constitutively and more therny at this point in histOJ)'; what we have is a collection of similar word usages in cleconstructively. ln any case, here we arc dealing with a manifestation of not just the the centre of which we tind the imitation of a person or an animal with voice or ges reproductive. hut also the productive side of mimesis which aims at an extension and ture. Olten. mimesis takes place in the medium of music and dance. With the aid of shaping of the world of imagination and appearance. human faculties something pre-aesthetic is imitated. In the following we shall sketch the important stzigcs in the historical development In distinction to Koller's opinion, we must assume that the tcrrn 'mimesis· came of the category of'mimcsis'. ll will become apparent that the tem1 is used in different from Sicily, the native land of the mime. to Greece, but first managed to establish itself senses and that terminological clarity cannot be attained. The term has rather many in Ionia and Attica. 'Mimesis' was. however, first widely used as a category in the filth sides to it and must be sem:rntically interpreted according to the context in which it ap- century; the term must have been current during Plato's lifetime. The various iso18te 54 discoverics.21 lvlimesis does not have a special relationship with music and dance, but lation. The goal of the mimetic process is to emulate exemplary acts or individuals and has rather to do with mimos. Mimesis, or creating similarity, is not the initial sense of to strive to be like them, to adapt oneself according lo their example. Such processes mimos. Originally it meant: to stage a prank, to act like a 'mime'. Here the term re are more likely to succeed insofar as they, loo, arc accommodated to the division and flects the low life staged at festivals ·with the intention of entertaining the rich. These concentration of Jabour. For Plato, this means that the guards should have the oppor stagings were often ribald and disrespectful; they include scenes where individuals are lrniity of acquiring mimetically such depicted acts as are necessary in carrying out their deceived and cheated. Only over a longer period of time did mimesis acquire the own duties; at the same time, the guards should concentrate strictly upon these duties, meaning of 'emulate' and 'rival' that is developed in the third book of Plato's Politeia. since only by concentrating upon their duties can they maintain the energy they need in Out of the 63 extant collocations using a word from the mimesis-group in works order to learn everything required of them. In this instance mimesis has an ethical prior to Xenophon and Plato, only 19 have an aesthetic context, although here their component. With the aid of mimetic abilities, an exemplary model is supposed to be meaning is not distinguishable from their use outside the aesthetic context.22 Beginning imitated so that it becomes a part ofonesclf. with Xenophon, m1d most certainly in the works of Plato and Aristotle, the situation There is much debate over the question whether, in the third and tenth books of the changes. Mimesis slowly becomes a word that obtains its full significance in the field Politeia, there are contradictory usages of the term mimesis. Koller maintains that of aesthetics. there are; but he has been strongly criticised for this position.2"1 In my view, the differ In the third book of the Polireia mimesis encompasses several meanings. In one ences between the two books arise from the context, from the position of the tenth case it means 'to make oneself like another in voice or stance, to depict ,mother per book following the metaphor of the line, the allegory of the cave and the development son ';23 mimesis leads here to the form of poetry, present in tragedy, comedy and in of the platonic conception of the soul. First, an ontic scale of priorities is developed parts of epic poetry, in which persons are directly depicted. In distinction to depiction which leads to the devaluation of the painter and poet insofar as they arc least able to in the verbal arts, pure narration, as found in dithyrambic verse and in parts of epic imitate the idea. This results in a series of levels. 1n ontic respects, the idea brought poetry, is differentiated. Mimesis serves Plato as a characteristic for a topology of forth by the creator-god Phyturgos has the highest status. The next in line is the crafts poetry. man, the demiurg who sees the idea and, in contemplating it, creates an oh_jcet such as Under the assumption that the poets play a large role in education - a rok which in a couch. The third place goes to the painter, since the painter does not see the idea and Plato's opinion ought to be played uy philosophers - Plato raiscs the question of the has no real knowledge of the techniques with which he could create, in contempl.:ition educational effect of mimesis. Plato has no doubt about the effectiveness of mimesis in of the idea, the actual object: like one who, with the help of a mirror, produces mirror education. Mimesis is, in his opinion, a cnnditio humnna which makes education pos irnaues, the painter is merely capable of making copies of already crc:atcd things. I le is sible rrnd which facilitates the process of education. Especially for the youth. many t]ie ;iimetes, the imitator par excellence who creates copies of a low ontological status. decisive processes of acquiring knowledge are mimetic. And that is why Plato, in the The painter is equatc:d ,vith the poet, since the poet, too. produces only copies. Both outline for his ideal state, demands absolute control over mimesis. I le demands that require no special technical k~owlcdgc of the objects tl_icy copy. lnst_ead, th:y have the mimesis henceforth refer to content. The c'.Umds arc not to be confronted with things ability to copy everythmg, to 11rntat_e. Not only does this produ_ce ob_Jects o_l little onto that make them weaker, instead of strong;r. Their education ought to en;-ible them to loaical value; it also violates the prmc1ple (developed m the tlmd book) ol the conccn perform their tasks. The choice of the content of poets and poetry must also follovi this tra~ion on a single task with its inherent principle of the division oC labour. Despite criterion. Only such poetic content may be circulated from which young guards may these shortcomings, the painter and the poet still receive their shan; of recognition: but learn and with which they themselves may grow. The depiction of the foibles of the lhev ought, nevertheless, to be forbidden entrance 10 the ideal state which is to be con gods and of great men must thus be rejected, and wherever such depiction exists, it stn;cted-according to other principles. must be banned from the state. This is all the more necessary insofar as it is most Painters and poets do not produce ideas, as the gods do, or useful commodities, as doubtful whether the depictions of the foibles of Gods and heroes are actually true. For the cratismen do. They produce only the appearance of these things, and are not lim thcr·c can be no doubt that for Plato greatness and weakness are incompatible. Due to ited to certain objects. Painting and poetry arc not limited hy the artis1ic depiction of its 'pre-ethical' character, mimesis constitutes a danger wherever it is applied to t]Je objects, but by the arti~tic d_cpiction of their appearance, as they 'seem' to be. The surm:thing negative that threatens to weaken man and draw him away from the com coal is not the depiction ol rcalny or of truth, but the art1st1c dcp1ct1on o1 phantasmata, pletion ofliis social duties. ror this renson the choice of content must be placed under ~ie appearances of appearnnc,~s. That is why p~intin? and mimetic poetry can depi~t control if the content is to he yil:lded up to mimetic reception. absolutely everythmg v1s1blc.- Here,_ hmvever_, It IS tirst and foremost a matter of rrn- This definition yields the conclusion that the depiction of desirable acts is ccrtainly 1esis which creates images and 1llus10ns, a mimesis for which the d1f!erence bct,vccn meaningful. For such depiction ch:-illcnges llS to imitate in the narrower scnSl' of emu- ~ode! and representation is insignificant. The gml is not a true copy or resemblance, 21 Smbom 1966, pp. 20-22. 22 S0rbom 1966, p, 41. i4 Zimbrich 1984. 23 Plato 1985 (The Republic) 393c. i 5 Plato l985 (The Republic) 598a, 598b. 56,- 57 but the appearance of the appearances.26 And thus art and aesthetics arc constituted the aspect of imitation in the narrower sense recedes; instead, the artist now depicts the here as an autonomous sphere in which the artist and poet are the masters. They don't image he has within, independent of the question whether this image corresponds to an have, in Plato's opinion, the ability to produce essences and are thus free of the claims object or person actually giYen in the ·world. In this sense mimesis does not mean the to reality whicb philosophy makes and which are destined to be the foundation of the creation of a copy, but the production of an image that does refer to a model and yet ideal state. The aesthetic sphere gains a certain independence from the interests or docs not merely double the model. philosophy and its own search for truth am! knowledge, its quest to attain the good and Mimesis ims at furnishing an image the painter or poet sees with his inner eve. In the bcautiful. The price to be paid for this independence is banishment from the ideal the process or giving artistic form to the image something new is created. The outline state, since the state cannot accept the unfathomable character of art and poetry. guiding the formation of the work dissolves into the picture, drama or musical piece PJD.to denies that m1 D.nd poetry haYe the ability to depict ideas. They arc concerned developed in a medium different from the medium of the original outline. 1-lcre with mimesis and not with methexis. From this moment onwards, the devaluation of chan2.cs, ellipses. additions and other modifications occur so that the resemblance with mimesis by comparison with philosophy's claim to perceive ideas and to seek knowl the o~iginal plan is only marginally given. Occasionally the models upon which the edge of lhc true, the good and the beautiful begins. But at the same time, platonic phi images and plans of the artists are based arc unknown; either they never existed, or losophy is fascinated by the signifirnnce of mimesis in education, politics and aesthet thevc are no longer extant. The image lies at the centre or artistic activity, whether as ics. In this context wc find the mimetic character of Plato's own philosophy which the"imac:e containing the references to the models or as the image that is transposed via consists in depicting Socrates and his interlocutors and showing how knowledge is the creative process into the work of art. In any case, the production of the image in sought in dialog and how the true, the good and the beautiful can be approached. Thus cludes a transformation of the model. Plato's relationship to mimesis rcmains contradictory and enigmatic. lf the ar1ist is supposed to imitate nature, then this means ·creating like nature'. For Aristotle, too. art is mimesis. Music in particular is mimesis of ethos; in dis The first step in this pr0cess is to create an image or a design. The art \vork then in tinction to painting and sculpture, which create visible lines, music creates an audible volves reworking this image, constantly improving, correcting, and designing it anew, inner movement. This is the expression of character; it has ethical effects. Tragedy is As Emil Staiger brought to light in his interpretation of the seven drafts or Conrc1cl placed in the centre of the poetics as the mimesis of active men. In tragedy, nothing is Ferdin,:md Meyer's poem Dead Love (Die tore Liebe), from draft to draf1 the most im depicted that did not already occur. Its themes and plots coincide with the mythical, portant changes do not effect the content of the po~m but are far more in the relation· about \Vhich foct1rnl statements would be senseless. The action or tragedy should be ,hip between its words, sounds. rhymes, and vcrses.09 . . performed in such a way that the spectator responds mimetically, experiencing vicari What is the relation between the model (Vorbild) :me! its likeness (Abbild)? Docs ously the sense of terror and pity leading to catharsis. which strengthens the spectator's the former create the latter'1 How are we to undcrst;md the connection? Already in an character.27 tiquitv. Phidia's celebrated depiction of Zeus led to spcculatinn about whether there For Aristotle, mimesis docs not signi(v a copy of reality for which the distinction was; moclcl, and if so. where? Since there cannot have been a precedent however, this bclwccn copy and original should disappear. Mimesis is re-creation and mewmorph~ irna"e of 7:eus must have been new. lt must have emerged in the working of the mate sis in one and aims at an embellishment and 'improvement', a ·structuring mimesis · rial,"'inrough the artistic process itself. Anyone who sees the statue will recognise the Homer's depiction of Achilles is an example: it shows Achilles as a temperamental image, c:ven though there is no earlier model of 'Zeus' that one might know. light-headed man who nevertheless appears to be a scrupulous hero. In poetry, mimesis Zuckerkandl went so far as to claim that every work of art is 'an image in search of a is rclatecl to delineation of the possible and the general: and this brings a new clement model. created in order to find within the human spirit its model, and thus fi.1lfil its into the process of mimesis that is not present in the process of mere copying. purpose. that of becoming an image'311 • The image is not una_mbiguous: it is_ more of a Poc:trv, painting amt music ought to imitate nature. How this is to be understood question than an an:c;wcr. /\ question put through the work ot art, and to which_ the ob depends. ,however. on the interpretation of the term 'nature'. The term nature is for server may answer m many different ways. Tbe structure of the work of art conjures up Aristotle not the nature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, something reduced to images, strings of meaning and interpretations which all contribute to its complexity the status of an object. Phys is signifies rather a nature with its inherent powers to pro ,md ~11 aterialitv. The mimetic terms arc displaced: the work of art is no longer seen a:, duce life - a lively nature. If the arts, sucl1 as poetry, painting and music, are supposed the imitation of a ccrt.iin model. Rather. there is a certain relationship of representa to imitate this nature, it cannot be a matter of a mere reproduction or naturalistic tion. of mimesis bctwce11 the work of art and the obscr.u. The aesthetic experience copying of something. The presupposition of a 'living nature' in ·which the principle of aains sianilicancc as a place ofmirrn::tie relations. ot·course, the \Vork of art involves a an intelligence is active redefines the meaning of the mimesis of nature. In this case Z!efinccl ~limcnsion of content ancl form. relation or meaning and expression; yet these mimesis of nature means that art must imitate nature's powers.28 With this conception, only become alive in the 'aesthetic experience' or in the ·act of reading' (Iser). 31 26 Zitnbrich 198·1, p. 270. 27 Tarot 1970. Brecht's epic theatre was the first in which actors were required lo perform in such a ?9 Staiger I 957. way as lo show that they were presenting and imitating and not being dissolved in the action, JO Zuckerkandl I 958, p. 233 (trans. A, Lagaay). 28 See Flasch 1965. '.JI Iser 1984; JauB 1964. 58 59 Mimesis in the Aesthetics of the Eighteenth Century ing from the imitation of nature, we obtain here an increasing 'idealisation of beautiful nature' in the ,vork of art. 36 The artist's relationsl1ip to nature is determined by two In the subsequent period mimesis and aesthetics remain closely linked to the demand characteristics: originality and taste. The artist's enthusiasm is the force with which the that art should imitate and perfect nature. Some have unjustly seen in this conception a Grtist represents his relationship to nature. The principle of reason is so influential in limitation of man's creative energies from which man only slowly began to liberate mimetic processes that an order arises in multifariousness and a symmetry of parts in himself. 32 According to this conception, Nicolaus von Cues's 'The Spoon-cutter' relation to the whole, both of which are constructed out of the encounter of the human ( 1450) represents the new self-conscious man appearing in his day to day life, for mind with nature. The mimetic processes of the human mind arc irnlividual expres whom art is no longer the mimesis of nature, bul the mimesis of the 'infinite art' of sions of an overlying reason which recognises the order. symmetry and unity of nc1ture: God; his gaze is directed not so much towards the heavens as towards the man made taste is the coactive emotional element with which the objects arc correlated to man. world of objects. It is also significant that 'the entire emotiveness of creative and origi 'Good taste' becomes the judge of the fine arts, a thought that Kant would soon adopt nal man and the break with the principle of imitation arises with the technical, and not and integrate into his system. the artistic individua\'33 . In Blumenberg's interpretation, creative man is constituted Gottschcd. Ramler and Schlegel all assist in disseminating these ideas in Ciermanv through sudden inspiration (entusiasmo ); be attains perfection in the prcsent3tion of which soon begin to inllucnce Sulzer, Nicolai, Mendelssohn and Lessin£ in P,crli; original genius which makes mimesis of nature seem a limitation of man's powers. Their controversial assessment ofllatteaux leads finally to a displacement o-fthe ;heor,: In German aesthetic philosophy this change is accomplished within a single cen of imitation. The object of criticism was especially the central position of the principl~ tury. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, German poetic theory was still domi of imitation in the fine arts and the rational and dcrluctivc character of the thcorv. nated by the influence of Italian, French and English podics. In Gottsched's Crilical which failed to consider the nature of human sensations. During the late C:nlightcnme;it Poetics (Kritischr Dichtkunst, 1730) this is quite explicitly stated: 'I maintain most and the romantic period. the concept of nature imitation in its position at the centre of earnestly: a poet is a skilful imitator of all natural things.' The similarity with Aristote poetic theory comes under sharp criticism: in its pl:Jce. new aesthetic perspectives arc lian poetics is obvious. The accent lies upon mimesis and less upon the praxis of the developed, which, however, cannot be discussed here. genius. 'The relmionship between mimesis and poiesis can he represented schemati In Jean Paul's Pre-School of Aesthetics (1804) the conception that poetry is thL: cally as a circle consisting of the poet and reader, listener or spectator; the poet alien representation or the subjectivity of the world via subjectivity offers us a perspective of ates the probable inlo the marvellous, the reader reduces the wonderful to the probabk, the ensuing development m which the mdcpcnclent and self~structuring element of mi to experiential reality: the poet masks truth and nature as fiction, the reader unmasks mesis is radicalised. Novalio' demand - 'everything has to be poetic· - points in thl: the fiction as truth and nature. ' 34 The poet is permitted to represent the truth as he secs same direction. The poeticising of the world the romantics call for implies the same it. The reader, howc\'cr, has the task of finding the model underlying the representation subjectivisation of mimesis nn 60 61· to society and to one another. This can be demonstrated with many examples. For ent colours, but cannot be distinguished by wasps, since many wasps are red-blind and plants an.ct animals, mimicry is the result of mutation and selection, a process of evolu confuse the two plants. tion. In the face of a darnier-filled natural environment it seems that early man went A further example of mimicry is offered by the insect orchid. ln this case the buds through similar processes~of adaptation to nature, 'Which offercc.l defence against the give off a scent similar to the sexual trigger-scent of insects. As a result male bees per fears rrnture inspires and which were thus a means of survival. With the genesis of fom1 pseudo-copulation with the buds which in addition resemble a female bee from magic, the situation changes. Now mimetic abilities serve man in conjuring up pre the perspective of the male bee. When the bee lands on the plant, it absorbs pollen. imitations: primary, and not secondary mimetic productions. Mimesis no longer ap which, after leaving one plant, gets deposited on another plant. Thus the act of pseudo pears as a reproduction of nature, but as a production in relation to nature. We are copulation results in significant benefits. Even the stapelia or carrion !lower almost however still faced ·with isolating the destructive social side of mimesis. Here the po never has nectar for insects; it misleads female bees in search of carrion in which to ]av tential social violence produced -through mimesis and the methods of dealing with it their eggs, however, with its carrion scent, and the bees in tum fly from flower t~ arc of special interest. In the end, every encounter between peopk is dependent upon flower, pollinating the flower in the process. their mimetic abilities, since without them sympathy. understanding and intcrsubjcc The processes of mimicry are aimed at a better adaptation to the environment and tivitv are not possible. Mimesis must thus be considered an essential precondition for offer the plant or animal better chances for survival. They arc introduced by mutation ·the. social' in gem:ral. Ami thus w-: an; juslifieu in inlrouucing th-: concept of social and held in the correct direction for survival by selection. Similar processes determined mimesis, a term which goes beyond the present context and requires more extensive the history of humz.inkincl's ancestors in evolution and give us reason to suspect why deconstructive investigation. certain forms of Homo Australopithecus were not further clevelopecL At the 'alleged be2 inning of mankind' (Kant) stnnds the fear of the dangers of nature. Early man often bad no better way to defend himself than to play dead. a 'petrifaction' reaction similar Mimicry: Ecological Mimesis to that found in small animals. With the aid of this adaptation to the appearance of death, early man became unattackable; he survived, but as a 'detenceless victim'.38 Forms of mimicry may be found not only in humans, but also in animals and plants. And i.n that sense he still had not managed to distance himself from the overwhelmin2 The mimetic processes are of course distinct from one another, which is why we speak power of nature: his only mez.ins of survival was adaptation to the superior power ofth~ rather of mimicry than of mimesis in connection with plants and animals. Plants arc environment by way of petrifaction, alienation and reification. With this transformation capable of extraordinary adaptation to their environment. Three clements play a role: into the realm of the dead we glimpse a side of the civilisation process that has re-· the model, the imitator and the signal receiver or animal, which cannot distinguish wi th rnained determinant right up to the present. Whereas the transformation was initially ecrtaintv between model and imitarnr.37 Colours, distinctive forms m1cl behavioural bound to the spatial environment in which man lives, it later catches hold of the tempo traits ar-c imitated. In distinction to the mimesis of humam, the mimicry of plants and ral siJe of life in an excessive chronocracy.39 In any case, humans arc in thi:; perspec animals is the result of evolution. Over numerous generations, evolution manages to tive the victims of ;rn evolution and civilisation process transacting independently of create through a process of selection and mutation tl1e characteristics required for sur them. vival. A prerequisite for the development of mimicry through evolution is a reproduc tive benefit acquired by the imitator through mimicry. Om: of the most well known forms of mimicry in plants can be found in the imita Mimesis and J\,lagic tion of an inedible species with the goal of avoiding being clevourecl by predators. Iii this case. the naked survival of the adapting plant is already a reproductive advanta?e Man acquires both distance and independence in respect to nature with the dcvclop by comparison with the plants incapable of such mimicry. The s::ime holds true l~r nient of magic. Wherever magic is a determining feature in the relationship to the envi animals which arc capable either of adapting in form or colour to their environment m ronment hy comparison with the mere adaptation to nature and the defensive simula such a way that predators cannot locate and devour them, or of simulating lifelessness tion of death. man enters a nc\v phase in history. He hegins to influence nature with his in order to stay alive. Another form of mimicry exists between plants and their pollina own activity. He develops his own conceptions of the relationships he observes in na tors. Herc the relaliunship is symbiotic; both profit !rum it. This situz.ition may also be ture and attempts to gain control over them. !le begins to prescribe to nature character exploited by other plants whose form seems to promise the same nectar. but does not, istics and to expect consistency in their fulfilment. As a result. the mimetic relationship even though the plants themselves profit from the effect of pollinators. A well known lietwecn rnan and nature changes progressively. If at first this relationship could he cxample is the cepha/onthera which imitates the form of the belltlower in areas where characterised by the 'petrifaction-reflect' in the face of nature's superior power and by it coexists with it. thus obtaining the advantage of pollirrntion by wasps despite thcir feigning the appearance of death, now the relationship may be considered one of pre- lack ot' nectar. These plants may be clistinguishccl by the human eye clue to their cliffer- 38 Horkheimer/Adorno 197L 37 Barrett 1987. 39 Wulf 1987, 62 63 imitation in which man develops images with the expectation that nature will 'follow' make oneself similar to the 'authorial natura naturans' in order to gain influence over them. it. In mimesis there would not he a subject-object split as there is in the sciences, where The efficacy of magic, which represents in all early culture man's attempt to gain the subject attempts to pcrctive and rule the objectified world. Instead, by making one power over nature and over others, depends upon the intensity of emotions in the acts self similar to nature and bringing oneself closer to it, nature itself is supposed to fall of the individual performing magic and in their mimetic expression. If, for example, under the influence of man's intentions. The environment receives an impression of fear is to he dispersed with a magical act, the spectator must act as if the fear has be what man is expecting from it Procreative nature is urged, with pre-imitation, to yield fol len him. He must tremble, scream and represent himself as if he is in the throes of up the result that human wishes anticipate. Of course the wishes expressed here are terror; the sorcerer must align himself mimetically with the feared feeling and make still in harmony with nature; they have not yet separated themselves from nature, have tht: fear itself tractahk in the eyes of those watching. In other cases, a ritual is ust:d to not vet become autonomous. The process of pre-imitation represents an initial attempt attempt to imitate a goal. to anticipate a desired result hy acting it out. The attempt to to c~eate a cosmic order in which the division between cause and effect has not yet fructify a parched field with the aid of a fervent reunion is one example. Decisive here taken place. With the representation of wish-images and wish actions, magic aims at is the transference of magic power onto the ohject - the fear or the barren field - in the brinaing nature to imitate them. Trust is placed in the infectious inlluencc embodied in hope that it will be affected by the magic energy invested and respond mimetically to the ~nages and acts brought forth by nature and by man. This presupposes the possi it. [n order to secure the influence of magic. incantation. sound, and the central use or bility of infection, seduction or effecting imitation by pre-acting. The magical effects wish-related words and mythological allusions arc resorted to.'w Magic is a power are the expected result stemming from conceptual images and from the mimetic actions belonging exclusively to humans which is represented with the aid of voice, physical accompanying them. Since these wish-invested images are sometimes fulfilled and expression (danc<:) and ritual and which is directed towards very specific tasks. The since this fulfilment in the wake of magic activity receives special attention. the effects mimetic process consists in creating an image of the desired situation and the acts ne and successes or magic mimetic behaviour are continually being noted, contributing to cessary in order to bring about the change: the image is then imitated with the intent to the cult and social value of magic. contribute to its realisation with imitation. Here, magic has something in common ,vith !Vlagic effects arc developed on the basis of thrc_e_ pr}nciples: contiguity, similarity early forms of science. In Malinowski's attempt to differentiate the two. he suggests and contrast. On the one hand, a magic net may be ettecttv~ when brought to bear upon that science presupposes that experience, effort ;cmd reason are valid. whereas magic a part that represents the whole towards wlrn:h ~he magic IS targded. For example, a~ presupposes that 'hopes cannot go unfulfilled and wishes do not clcccive'.'11 The extent object from the belongmgs of ~he enemy stands 111 con'.111gence with the enemy h1msclJ. to which this distinction may be applied must remain an open question here. Certainly, What one does to the ob1ect 1s suppos_ed _to be .transferred on to t~e owner. Agam, a reservations arc called for. since the development of science depends more upon de magic act may be effective when a snrnlanty exists between the ob_1cct upon which the veloping concepts and theories in the hope that they may be valid than is commonly magic is directed and the ~bjcct which is supposed to be_ influenced. Where contiguity acknowlcclgcd. is already present~ mimesis plays a role. Whenever s1milant1cs ~r~ given, m1mes1s is Although instrumental thinking and acting as well as the use of tools ancl instru especially activc_.j_, \Vherever such structured forms of magic act1v1ty may bt found in ments in early cultures play an indcpemlcnt role, and although clear impressiono of modern society, forms ofrrnrnet1c action may be discovered. their application and limitations are available, there arc certain aspects and ,1ssociations i'or which only magic is responsible. In these fields, the task ot·1hc sorcerer is to use his methods to influence nature and other people. It occurs with the aid of 'pre-imitation· - Mimesis and Violence at least. th:ll is. in the opinion of Leopold Ziegler. But this does not mean that man imit:1tes nature. Rather. he provides nature with a model for imitation, 'pre-imitating' ·t· l]v we noted mimesis in the form of plant and animal mimicry, and thus as a frmn ln1 ia J . • • • ·• , . · til~tina death - playmg dead - exemplified by the petnfactJon reflex ot early nature. 'He acts out theatrically and represents. he expresses mimetically what he ex o t Sll11 " c . ~. . . . . pects from the authorial natura naturans. and he expresses it in the most drastic means in the face of the supenonty of danger-filled naturi.;. We also noted m1mes1s m the man ·1· . ct· d h b·1· . . . available to him. '" 2 Once again it is clear that the point of departure for magic-mimetic context of magic as the abl '.t)' to gam JSlnnCC an _t e a I Ity to act '.1S-3-VIS 1rnture. behaviour lies in man, and not in nature. and as the ability to prc-11rntate and thus to prescribe to nature ccrtam exp_e~tc1t10ns. With the help of thought man prescribes to nature what he expects from it. With Thus mimesis appears as aco~puls1on to overcome h1erarch1es and social_ d1rtcrcnti_a the intensity of his emotions and his representation he removes himself from the power . Revoking. in times oi cns1s, taboos and ntuals which hnhcrto mamtamed the d1t- t1on. ~ b kd . h. '. '1· . of nature and gains influence over nature. One could glimpse here the beginning of a , ., , s between people provokes a rea · own 111 1erarc,11es. " 1mct1c processes lead fdc:nce . d . ·1 . f 1 , . successive liberation ot-man from nature. In this case. mimesis would he the po,vcr to to an infectious, situc1t1onally relate ass1m1 at1on o numerous peop e. 1 he ,loss_of d_is- . . between people can also be seen as a cause of the development or social v10- t1nct1ons · . _ . . . Icnce among them. Only the sacnt1cc of the scapegoat and the urnty ol the all agamst 40 Malinowski 1992. 41 Malinowski 1992. See also, Kippenberg/Luchesi (eds.) t 978. 42 Ziegler 1953. 43 Foucault I 970. p. 40. 65 one can resurrect the differences and appease the violence inherent in society. Here the the threatening crises. Whcn:as prohibition is intended to impede the clevelopment of mimetic processes between people, particularly in the form in which they endanger mimetic crises, rituals help to overcome them by repeating certain integrative acts social order, become apparent. Recognition of the infectious character of mimesis, constitutive of society. The repetition of rituals is Sllpposed to actualise the integrative noted already in the context of magic, is a point of departure for an important theory on powers and overcome the disintegrative violence inherent in rivalry. In the eollectiv 44 Girard 1998: see also Girard 1987. 45 Girard 1986. 66 67 me primarily visually' .49 In this encounter of my gaze with the gaze of another lies the his provocation of Romulus - uppcars to be justified, Cain's murder of Abel is viewed basic experience of reciprocity between myself and the other. When I see the eye of the as a crime form the very beginning. This illustrates a characteristic of Judeo-Christian other, the other sees me, and not just-my eye. The other individual has a certain ap history, distinguishing it from the rituals and myths of other cultures: history is nar~ pearance; he sees me and stands across from me at one and the same time; I can ex rated from the standpoint of the victim and not, as in most other cultures, from the change positions with him. In the exchangeability of p~sitions he is ~he ~ther as I am standpoint of the victor. the other for him. The glance belongs to the outer and mner percept10n; 1t creates. the Mimesis is thus active in the construction and destruction of societies from the very sensual image quality and the expressiveness manifest within it, and is at the same time beginning. Mimetic processes permeate social hierarchies and orders and affect the the product of both. Led by the glance encountering the other, the reciprocity of body dev~lopmen! of_social structures. They arc marked by their ambivalen~e; they develop paradigms, which probably coincides with the developmen! and mastei:r mot_or s_ocial orgamsation, but at the same time they endanger them and lead to their destruc ?t: skills can be discovered. 'Precisely becuuse the eyes with which I see are mv1s1ble tor t10n. On the one hand, they can he harnessed and canalised, but on the other hand, they me, the eyes of the person gazing at me and receiving my glance enter into a_reciprocal threaten to grow wild and uncontrolled, as in the case of mass phenomena. relationship with them.' 50 Thus the face and the structure of the other are prmted upon my own 'movement paradigm·. T(ie appearance o'.· the other is reproducible in the op tical sense of movement and remams at the same time constant enough for Lhe renewal Mimesis and the Other of the movement of the other in my own movement system. The face of the other is my face in reverse. This is also true for the entire body, the limbs of which are contrapun- Following the analysis of the constructive and destructive role of mimetic processes in societies with a distinct historical development, we turn now to the central role of mi tal images ofmy own movement field. · In the gaze encountering the other, the reciprocity of the body paradigm is compre- m~si~ in encounters with other people. Central to the following considerations is the hended. The gaze must, however, be experienced as having the same meaning; and this question of the processes which transact whenever two people encounter one another, is possible ·exclusively on the basis of the eccentric position of man. The eccentricity is when one individual stands before another, when they regard one another; relate to one the prerequisite for reciprocity, for the fact thnt the body and movement of the other another, each attempting to encompass the consciousness of the other.46 J can only can be referred to one's own body and imitated with the aid of one's own gaze. The experience the consciousness of the other by interrelating the expression and feelings mimetic process is possible whenever the exchange of an event and its representation of the other with my own feelings and by comparing my mimetic expression with my in one's imagination is necessary. This in tum requires referring back to the body. Em corresponding psychic data. The perception of the other is predicated upon such ex bodying and objectifying are prerequisites for mimesis. Every mimetic act alludes to periences. The observed relations between my mimetic expression and the mimetic ex one's own body. Whereas the individual can imitate pictures as they manifest them pression of the other give me information about the other. Here, according to Merleau selves, anima Is arc only capable of mere co-execution in v;hich certain movements nre Pont~, lies the origin of intersubjectivity47 Intersnbjectivity arises through the inner repeated. ln distinction to the mere repetition tied to the pr~s_ent man as a social entity relation between my body. my consciousness and the body of the other_ which allows emerges via his predecessors and doubles. The act of g1vmg a name, for example, the other to appear as the completion of the system. Evidence of the other is possible evokes a relationship with the emim.:nt carriers of the name in the past. The child is because I mysel1 am not transparent to myself and my subjectivity drags my body urged to enter into a relationship of imitation and emulation. In carrying out such mi along_ behind it. My expressive movements. which l sense kinaesthetically, and the ex metic processes, the child develops into a new member of society, setting out for him pressive movements of the other, which I sense primarily through sight are related to ~ne another through externally and internally aimed internal perception. The combina self certain models, tasks and duties. In anthropological respects, mimesis is mnde possible through the hintus between tion of both these forms of internal and external perception is - according to Max stimulation and reaction. the 'unique position of man in the cosmos' (Scheler). eccen Scheler - the comprehension of expressive sense.48 tricity (Plessner). The latter is a stipulation for the 'unalterable distant position' of man Whether the 'bridges· between the zones of inner and outer perception in their to hirnse lf and the possibility this offers for the objectification of impressions and thus co_mm~n ~xpressive meaning are nlways passable, thus onering a way of explaining for the experience of reciprocity of the body paradigm as an anthropological precondi- m1mes1s; 1s doubtful. The intersubjectivity ofexpressive characteristics and the motion r:latecl t_o bel_,avi?ur, attitude and stance as well as the processes of sympathy and an tion for mimesis. tipathy m m1met1c contexts do play a role. But tlJe possibility of imitation requires more. According to Plessner's analysis, a 'localised transference of an observed fonn into a zone of my appearance at my disposal must occur which is not as such given to 46 Schei er I 973; Merleau-Ponty I 945, p.404; Plessner 1982, pp.391-398; Plessner 1983, pp. 449-457. 47 Merleau-l'onty 1945, p. 404. 49 Plessner 1982. p. 394. 48 Plessner I 982, p. 393. 50 Plessner 1982, p. 395. 69 68 The,Convergence of Social and Aesthetic Mimesis essary prerequisite for the experience of the external world, for the encounter with·the other, and for cognition.51 It guarantees the possibility of resistance against abstraction, From the historical-linguistic analysis of the tenn mimesis we learned that, initially, against the reification and objectification of the world; it struggles to withstand the there was no distinction between mimesis in a social and in an aesthetic context. Be logic of subsumption and clings to its theoretical evasiveness. ginning with Plato the distinction is developed. But here the two dimensions of mime sis are conceived of as being interrelated to one another. Gradually, however, mimesis becomes a central category for art and poetic theory, for philosophical aesthetics. The Reification and Resistance meaning of mimetic processes for the communal and social organisation of people seems to have been forgotten, although mimesis can be documented in the historical Mimesis opposes its own theoretical formulation and alludes rather to the limits of the reconstruction of social relationships, And although mimetic processes can also be ob orisation. This characteristic fascinated Adorno. In the Dialectics of Enlightenment, served in the social sphere, they have rarely been recognised in their significance for mimesis is first defined as a movement through which man loses himself in his envi the development of the human sciences. Mimesis finds application Jnrgely in the field ronment instead of conquering it. 'Mimesis makes ll1e world similar to itself.' In this of the arts and literature. Recently, however, the boarders separating art, science and early period, human adaptation to the environment resembles processes of mimicry in life have become porous. The previously valid differentiations are losing their capacity plants and animals. It represents an early form of alienation, ossification and confor to be distinguished. Restrictions of ideas, concepts and categories to certain fields are mity to the 'dead'. 'Wherever the human strives to become like nature, it becomes being displaced. New connections and distinctions are being developed, rigid termino hardened against nature at the same time. Terror as defence is a form of mimicry. The logical applications arc being broken, and new ways of organising such conceptual petri friction-reaction in man is an archaic method of survival: life pays its dues for its thinking are being generated. This development has helped to render visible the un own further existence wilh its own conformity to death. ' 52 In the form of ,mimicry, noted mimetic processes in many fields. This is so much more the case wherever fu mimesis is - according to Adorno - a pre-magic form of conflict with the superiority sions of art, literature, aesthetics and science are currently common, since it is pre of nature and its terrors, the expression of human suffering, but not the overcoming of cisely in these new amalgams that the productive side of mimesis is most conspicuous. this status. Mimesis is not an irrational and unreasonable capability; it contains, rather, M-imctic processes arc not tied to the borders previously established between these an clement ofratiomlity, which enables the conscious :ictivity of mimesis and hinders fields: they relativise the existing borderlines and arc themselves transacted across mimesis from entering into the 'service o[ dominance'. This rational element counter them. Often, mimetic processes combine a social and an aesthetic dimension; and often acts the dissolution of the subject and the decomposing power of mimesis. this. combination leads to a new quality of the social and of the arts. Beyond this Mimetic adaptation to the environment in which one lives leads to a reduction of '.productive side',· mimesis is also becoming a central category of social and aesthetic the time forms of past, present and future to time-space, and results in man's reifica processes. tion: with the loss or a multiplicity of time, the plurality or dimensions of space is also And tlms .the ambivalent character of mimesis is once again evident. Mimesis con reduced. The myric1d of time structures is reduced to linear time. Although man ·lives tributes to reification and 'making strange' by allowing for adaptation to fragmented even longer, he is even shorter·ontimc: there is more to be done in the same amount of environments, ossified social structures and structures of dominance, to the coercion of time. The shortage of time leads to an acceleration of time, which takes firm hold of chronology and to the machine-like logic of self-referential processes. At the same man. Chronocracy results in a reduction of distinguishable actions, interactions and time, mimesis takes part in the restructuring of our world and in processes of simula experiences ac~ording t_o the _time-element required for them-Events b~come the cor tion. The 'advanced aestl1ctisation' of' lhe world cannot be revoked. The development ner stones ofttme w1thm which thmgs must be accomplished. Qualitative differences and spread of the mass media support this process. Their pictures react mimetically to arc neglected. Chronology homogenises, synchronises and functiomiliscs man's life the realities they presuppose. Thus they create these realities, change them, and ·absorb time to achieve an increasing rationalisation and effectiveness. Alienation and reifica them. Miniaturisation and acceleration allow them to function as a substitute for 'real tion are unavoidable. These processes are strengthened by the effect mimesis has in experience' and 'truth' in day~to-day life. In day-to-day experience it is not reality that distinguishing and isolating forms of rationalisation. Mimesis debilitates the subject becomes an image, but images which become reality. This gives rise to a plurality of and keeps it from attaining unified consciousness. At the same time, mimesis -evades image-realities. the dominance of the subject, remaining both resistant and ambivalent. · The difference between.reality and fiction disappears. Images are immediately at In the course of the civilisation process we noted the development of mimesis be hand. and thus flatter the omnipotence of man. Everything seems to be possible, at least ginning with ~h~ early forms ?f adaptat~on to_ inani m_ate nature, followed by the first in image. Images simulate images in the search-for lost images and realities. Floods of forms of acqumng autonomy m connection with magic, and later by the rational prac images drown the imagination and destroy the manageability of the other and the resis tice of Jabour. The master-slave relationship is also mimetic and may be correspond- tance to the foreign. And yet mimesis is also related to the hope for a new form of re sistance against the processes just described. For mimesis also enables mm1 to step , Wimmer 1'>8S. outside himself and thus to create a proximity with objects and people. It is thus a nee- 1 -52 Horkheimer//\dorno 1971, p. 205. 70 71 ingly interpreted. An early image of this may be found in Odysseus, who sails in the scientific production, but without offering the prospect of a 'higher trnth'. Herc the same boat with his companions; they labonr, and he enjoys, but he enjoys only the contemporary state of the sciences resembles the arts. Use, emancipation and cognition world of appearance.53 The figure of Odysseus and his use of stealth presage the an.: implausible captions for producing art and science. Science itself has become today change from early forms of socialisation to labour and science, hailing many develop more than ever before self-referential. In connection with the development of system ments in the history of European civilisation and the significance of mimesis in it. themy, self-referentiality was considered prooC of an increase in complexity. As Mimesis gets caught in the tension of increasingly autonomous instrumental rea 'autopoiesis' il is an essential component oflhe human sciences. How we are lo judge son. Logical identity thinking, false non-contradiction and abstraction become chal them is, however, still an open question. Two by no means mutually exclusive lenges to the mimetic ability. Mimesis stands now in contradiction to the violence of interpretations are obvious. On the one hand, one could view in the type of complexity conceptual thinking, representing the world in rigid definitions. Mimesis approaches an unwilling adaptation to the Junctions of more elaborate machines which have come what is not yet catalogued and huddles up lo it with a broken intention: it resists the to influence human life so heavily that life itself finally abandons its control to an ex rigid subject-object division to which belong the opposition of ruler and ruled, being ternal. machine-like logic. On the other hand, the insight into the self-referential char and 'ought', and is thus intended to contribute to the reconciliation with reality. acter of large sectors of the sciences contains the prospect of eluding the forces of ab Mimesis is an emphatic form of behaviour, a form of selt~adaptation of the subject straction present in identity-logic and of getting involved in a mimetic cognitive to objectivity that is resistant to instrnmental thought allhough it itself contains rntional movement tied to language games and to the mimetic relationship of language games elements. Mimesis thus bears the hope that alienation and rcification may be over amongst themselves, which arc open to the paralogic and the paradoxical.56 come, even if mimesis itself contains no criteria for critical an;ilvsis and develops prior to the division in moral and immoral action. Mimesis is an expr~ssion of a certain form of belrnviour of man to himself: self-imitation without the loss of the \Vorld of objects. Picturing and Simulation Mimesis enables man to step outside himself and to drnw the outer world into the inner world and vice versa. The mimetic impulse produces the proximity to the object which No Jess decisive than alienation and reification is the picturing of the world.57 Every is not attainable without mimesis; the mimetic ability is a prerequisite for cognition. thing has a tendency to become a picture; even opaque bodies are transfonncd. They The tendency inherent in mimesis to give the object priority and place the sell~em Jose their non-transparent and spatial character, become limpid and surface-like. Ab powermcnt of the subject later can be corrected using the rational clements contained straction-processes result in pictures and picture-signs. We encounter them every in mimesis. where; nothing is more foreign and overpowering. Pictures cause things, 'realities' lo If we assume that there is an overriding crisis of representation in which radical disappear. plurality appears to be the 011ly solution,i.J eve1i the criticism related to the representa In addition to the transmission of texts. for the first time in hi:;tory pictures. too, arc tional reh1tionship no longer takes hold. For Adorno, aesthetic theory and the mimesis being stored and transmitted in an unimaginable dimension. Photographs, films, videos it is focused on is one answer to the crisis of critique. ln this situation, mimesis - ac have become memory joggers, giving rise to pictorial memories. \Vhereas earlier it \\'as cording to Adorno - can become a new rorm of resistance against the relations which the texts that required the compliment of the imaginary picture, today imagination is transg;css the hitherto valid boundaries. Jn aesthetics the best possibilities for this seem limited by the production of picture-texts whose tr,msmission is unlimited. fewer and to be given. fewer people belong to tht: producers, and more and more to the consumers of finished For Adorno, art is the imitation of nature, understood, however, as natura naturans, pictures and texts. . _ , . _ . the power of nature. The imitation of nature means imitation ofthe n:itmally beautiful. Pictures arc a speoi1c form o± abstraction. 1heJr two-dimensionality annihilates Beauty charnctcrises the world of the non-objectiYc, of appcurancc. Appearance is in space. The electronic medium of (TV) pictures ma~cs tl1eir nbiquitousness anu accel determinable ,md avoids precision. lt contains something 'more' that cannot be ascer eration possible. 1 hesc pictures can spread almost smmltancously to all corners of the tained. Art is tl1e imitation of the act of creating. Mimesis refers not to the external earth at the speed of light. They miniaturise the world and allow for a particular kind of similarity, but to the similarity with the act of creating. 'Mimesis of a work of art is s 1ecific experience: the experience of pictures. They represent a new form of con similarity with itself. ' 55 It is self-related, but without thus foiling prey to the forces or ~~mer goods and arc subjected to the principles of the market economy. They are pro identity in identity logic. Its model of art is / 'art pour I 'an, in which art itself is the duced nnd sold e\'en when the ob,1ccts they relate to ha\'e not yet become consumer point of reference of art. In the humanities and human sciences radical pluralism has products. . . resulted in a situation where numerous reference points exist with 'equal rights' side Pictures get rrnxed together; they become exchangeable with others; they arc mi- by side with one another, each of which is self-referential for one form or another or metically referred to others. In pictnres,_ picrnre fragments me_ selected and reassem bled; fractured pictures :1re produced wluch Ill each case comt1tute a new unity. They 53 Horkheimer/ Adorno 1971, p. 49. 54 Welsch 1987. 56 Lyotard 1985. 55 Adorno 1970, p. 159. 57 Baudrillard 1987, 77 73 created exclusively as a simulation of politics. The simulation often has more influence move, refer to one another; even their acceleration makes them more similar to one than the 'real' political controversies. another: a mimesis of velocity. Various pictures become similar to one another exclu sively on the basis of their pure surfaceness and their electronic and miniaturising medium, despite the differences of content. They participate in a profound mimetic re structuring of our contemporary world of images. The pictures themselves become Postscript promiscuous. The goal of this swdy is a new underst~nding of mimesis. Contemporary reductions of Pictures spread at the speed of light; they are visually infectious. In mimetic proc the term are called into question and rejected. A lield occupied by many categories es_ses they lead to the production of more and more pictures. This gives birth to a world opens up for us. Mimicry, similarity, adaptation, imitation, representation, reproduc ot appearance and fascination that is severed from 'reality'. As a world of art and lit tion, simulation, adjustment, expression, premonition all belong to this field. The mul erature, this world of appearance no longer takes its (limited) place beside the world of tifariousness of these: tenns displaces the limitation of mimesis to aesthetics. New politics; it has rather the tendency to rob the other worlds of their reality-content and to transdisciplinary perspectives open up. The relationship between environment and the turn them into worlds of appearance. The aestheticisation of all sphe~es of life is the social reappears as an equally important aspect of aesthetics. With the end of a norma product. And an immense increase in the importance of mimesis is an immediate con tive and binding anthropology, mimesis becomes a central category in the field of his sequence. More and more pictures are being produced which have only themselves as a torical anthropology. Its fundamental ambivalence, noted already by Plato, is today point of reference and for which there is no corresponding reality. The final result is more than ever apparent. On the one hand, mimesis contributes to the transformation that everything becomes art, a game of pictures and references in which everything is of the world into pictures and images and thus to its aestheticisation. The images get . possible, so that even ethical questions receive a subordinate importance. The 'ten swept up into a mimetic whirlwind. Thcir self-referentiality and velocity increase the dency towards cul1ure-society· manifests here its ambivalent character. 58 If everything abstraction and pictorialness. On the other hand, mimesis is a carrier of hope. It can do has become a mimetic game with pictures and images, randomness and non-commit without definiteness, it can initiate movements with a fractured intention and offer ment are inescapable. The picture worlds which are thus produced and which stand in a room for the non-identical, and it can restore the moment to its own rights in the face mimetic relationship to one another turn their influence back upon the world and of chronocracy. Mimesis. contains possibilities for a non-instrumental wav of dealin2 aestheticise it. Thus diffen:ntiating between life and art, 'reality' and appearance, be with the other and with the world in which the specific is protected fro~ the. domi~ comes impossible. Life becomes a model for the world of appearance and the world of nance of the universal and in which things and people are guaranteed safety. At the appearance a model for life. The visual develops hypertrophically. Everything becomes present stage in th~ process of civilisation, a choice between the two sides of mimesis transparent; space dwindles into picture-like surfaceness; time coagulates as if there is not possible; whether the possibility to choose between the two sides of mimesis were only a present of accelerated pictures. The pictures draw desire onto themselves, bind it and unframe it and reduce the differences. At the same time, the pictures avoid ever existed is an open question. desire, simultaneously indicating with the presence of desire its very absence. 'Things' and people long for a 'transgression', ;i step beyond in pictures. Desire blasts into the emptmess of the electronic picture-sign. More and more, pictures are becoming simulacra. They refer to something, adapt to something, and arc products of mimetic behaviour. And thus political conflicts, for ex ample, are not waged for their own sake; they are staged rather for the sake of the irn age-crc:ation in 1elcvision. What takes place as a political conflict is actually already conceived as image-creation. The television pictures become the medium for political c?ntrov_ersy; the aestheticisation of politics is unavoidable. The spectator sees the s1mulat1on _ofa political controversy in the course of which everything is staged so that ~e w_1ll be_heve t_hat the conflict is authentic. In fact, the authenticity of the representa tton ts a s1mulat1on. By playing upon the convictions and expectations of the spectator, the spectat~r is led to consider the simulation authentic. From the very beginning, eve ryth111g 1s ~1med at the image-creation and reception in the world of appearance. I nso far a~ the image-creation and reception is achieved, the controversy itself is a success. The mtended effects of the political sphere communicated via the television screen are 58 iis1he1ik und Kommunikation, Vol. 67/68: Kull11rgeschichle, Berlin 1987. 75 74 5 Mimesis in Education Mimesis as a Concept of Educational Anthropology So far we have seen that 'mimesis' is not only a notion belonging to the realm of aes thetics. but also an anthropological concept. Thus, it is clear that mimetic processes play an important role in educ,1tion and socialisation. At the same time, 'mimesis' has a multiplicity of meanings, which forbid too narrow a focus on 'imitation'. Indeed, mimetic activity does not mean simply 'imitation'. but also 'making oneself similar'. 'showing·. 'expressing' and 'demonstrating'. The concept involves other concepts such as mimicry. representation, imitation, reproduction, simulation and autopoiesis. As an ::rnthropological category. mimesis contributes to the understanding and expla nation of the processes of sociJlisation and education, of social activity and aesthetic experience. Mimesis is thus well suited to describe and analyse interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary processes. The 1ield of meaning of mimesis is principally ambivalent. On the one hand, mimetic processes, as processes of mimicry, can lead to adaptation to given, rigid con ditions 1: on the other hand, many hopes are placed on mimetic processes. They can lead to a 'living experience' (Adorno) of the external world, ol" others and of oneself. Mimetic processes can initiate movement with a fractured intention, leave room for the non-identical, create pos;;ibilitics for a non-instrumental n:lation,hip with the environ ment in which the particular is defended against the universal. in which objects and people are protected. In the current socio-cultural stage of development. the ambiva lence of mimetic processes cannot be negated. The mimetic abilities of children, youth and adults are closely tied to the processes of the body and resist social tendencies of abstraction. They build bridges to the out side, to the external world and to other people: they attempt to break down the hard subject-object split and take the edge off the sharp distinction between what is and what ought to be. It is a matter of coming to understand the 'bctween'2 that is experi enced in the subject's 'making itself similar' (;\clorno) to the external world or to an other individual. Mimetic processes contain rational elements, but are not exhausted bv them: in these processes the individual steps outside himself, aligns himself with th~ world. has the possibility of transposing the outer world into hi, inner world ;md of llorkheirner/ Adornn 1971. 2 Derrida 1967a: 1967b. 77 giving expression to this inner world. Mimetic processes lead to closeness with objects Role models, which challenge the youth to imitate, have similar lasting effects. The and with the other and arc thus necessary requirements for understanding. models may be real people or fictional characters, and fictional images. In this historic While modern rational thought is related to the singular isolated cognitive subject, period, the models for education were primarily created by poetry, above all by Homer. mimesis is alwavs the affair of the relational network of people. The mimetic produc Plato criticised the lack of clarity and the 'mixed character' of poetry. For poetry por tion of a svmbo.lie world refers to other worlds and their creators and includes other trnvs the inadequate sides of the Gods and the human weaknesses of heroes. This people in ~ne's own world. It recognises the exchange between world and man as well mi~cd rcprcsentation is harmful to the role model of the Gods and heroes in the educa as the aspect of power contained within it. The history of mimesis is the history of the tion of the youth. And since literature cannot create clear models, it should be hanncd struggle for power over symbolic worlds, for powc:r to represent oneself and others and from the Republic and replaced by philosophy, which focuses on the search for the to interpret the world according to one's own ideas. To this extent, mimesis belongs to 'beautifur, the 'good' and the 'trne'. the history of power-relationships, especially where they concern education and social This platonic position of control and ban. also present in other social utopias and isation. normative educational theories, is tied to the following presuppositions: Mimetic processes are not mere processes of imitation, reproduction or formation. On the contrary, they require individual shaping by the child. the youth or the adult. Due the human mimetic predisposition, role models develop a lasting power over The dearcc of individual difference varies according to diverse conditions. Our inquiry youth, against which there is no successful defence. Models spur the mimetic de into th; meaning of mimetic processes in the sph;rc of education and education, of sin.; and 'force' the youth to strive to be like them. The exemplariness of a model socialisation and social behaviour, constitutes a complex field of rcscmch from which, indicates a lack which desire seeks to overcome. Mimetic clcsire4 motivates the in the following, a few exemplary aspects will be treated. young individual to wish to be like his model. That is -why he attempts to make himself similar to the model and to adapt himself to it. In Plato's theory, the power of models is based in anthropology. Tt indicates a The Power of Mimesis conditio humana that appears parallel with the 'eccentric personality' (Plessner) and 'world openness· (Schclcr). Human desire, which is only insignificantly in J\s \Ve have seen, already in the ancient world, in the pre-Socratic period, a number of stinct-related, is infected by models, leading to a mimesis of a model. This mecha central meanings or 'mimesis' can be distinguished th<1t are still relevant today in the nism passes on ways or life and spheres oflife to the younger generation. field of persona genesis anJ cdm:atior1. Research into the existent texts of this period According to the concept dcveloped in Po!iteia, the perfection of the youth is made referring to mimesis indicate the following semantic variants: possible by mimetic desire. which forces the youth to adapt to the world. The se lection of correct models is supposed to overcome human shortcomings and l. mimetic behaviour in the sense of the direct imitation of appearance, acts, or forms achieve improvement. Tht: radicalism of this position, in which the lives and cxpc- ~ of expression of animals or of a man in speech, song and/or dance, ricnces or young people arc determined on the basis of a normative anthropology 2. the imitation of acts of one person by another in a very ge~cra_l sense:, . 3 and nonnative education, is controversial. 3. the reproduction of an image or a picture of a person or thrng 111 matenal form. Aristotle strongly criticised Plato's position. Although ht: was equally con\'inccd of the Mimesis is first applied to education in the third book of Plato's Politeia. Herc, the power of mimetic: processes. he drew other conclusions. The imperfect and the incor idea that education takes place largely via mimesis is developed. An cxtraordina? rigible should not be excluded from the realm of experience; rather, one must learn to puwc:r is ascribed to mimetic processes, a power based upon the strong human mimetic• la~e up to them, to take up the struggle against them and to thus immunise oneself instinct, which, especially in early childhood, enables motor, sensory, and speech de against their infectiousness. The avoidance of negative models offers no defence velopment, as well as intellectual, social and personal development. According to against them; the struggle with them docs. Without this experience, the youth is easily. Plato. children and the youth experience and acquire their social behaviour in their en infected by and defenceless against negative models. Only those who work their way counter ,vith other people, and in their experience of their modes of behaviour. In these through negative models can develop resistance and personal strength. Similar consid processes, values and points of view arc registered and incorporated by all the ~cnses. erations still play a role today in political education. According to these considerations. Next to the visual senses of perception, the auditory senses are especially sigmficant._ firm political convictions arc not developed by fending off contradictory views, bnt bv Plato stresses the meaning of music and its mimetic proc<:ssing in the dcvelopme_nt o± dealing with them critically. The same can be said for views and values in other field.~ the mind's ability to experience. He distinguishes between various forms of music, to of education. This position is also supported by psychoanalytic knowledge, which hcis which he ascribes a variety of effects on the 'psyches· of the young. isolated the negative conscgucnccs of avoidance and protection in psychogenesis.5 4 Girard 1998. 3 Else 1958, p. 79. 5 Wyss 1977. 78 79 Due to the lasting effects of mimetic processes on child upbringing and education, direct experience of childhood .and its cumulative 'representation' and. linguistic pres Plato demands strict controls over the influences on imagination; Aristotle calls for an entation is constitutive. The displacement between the lived, the recalled and the repre- · intensive confrontation with·their effects. Beginning with Plato it has been clear that sented childhood hinders biographical clarity. Even -with the help of early sketches, ideas, positions and values, but also social forms of living and acting are constructed pictures and films, the biographical text remains a reconstruction. The images arising by means of mimetic processes. 6 As a result of their different requirements, the youth out of childhood are fleeting. In order to make memories out of them, they must ·be do not generate a mere copy of their models; the mimetic process leads to difference, read, placed in the context of life, their meanings must be decoded. Memories are . which accounts for the autonomy and creative character of results. The model, ac promises aimed at the present and the future in whose construction the temporally sub quired in mimetic action, is not merely a copy of the basis of external similarity, but sequent fulfilment is contained. That is why the place and time fa which memories are rather a 'construction' of the mimetically behaving individual which leaves room for built must be precisely defined. In Benjamin's texts, memories become thought-pic difference, particularity and creativity. tures mixed with allegories and emblems that await a deciphering reading. Benjamin portrays how the child experiences the world mimetically. Like the wiz ard of earlier ages, the child produces 'similarities' between itself and the outer world; Acquisition of the External World via Mimesis it 'reads' the world and 'creates' in the process correspondences, Thus,. the child be- comes a windmill by stretching his arms out and rotating them, producing the required In his autobiography, A Berlin Childhood Around 1900, Walter Benjamin describes in accompanying noise with his mouth. By doing this, the child-broadens his experience: numerous reminiscences the places, rooms, streets, houses, objects and events of his he realises how the wind drives a windmill; he experiences something of the power of childhood and describes their meaning for the inner development of the child. In recall wind and the power of man's use of nature; he comprehends the fascination of human. ing the objects, scenes and events, he conveys the particular perspective of his child productivity. In the mimetic act of metamorphosing himself into a windmill, the child hood. His memory images do not belong to the programme of traditional autobiogra in Benjamin's narrative experiences the possibilities - at least in play - of using his phies and their ·search for the origin of self-knowledge and self-consciousness; instead, power over nature. The moment the child's body becomes a windmill, the child ac-· they consist in individual texts which narrate the feelings of happiness and fear during quaints himself with a basic form of machine and with the machine character of the childhood, but without drawing attention to the child as the subject in these self-reve human body. At the same time, he experiences his body as an instrument ofrepresen-· lations. The framework for these extremely individual recollections is given in the_ in tation and expression. In the process he acquires not only concrete possibilities ofrep dication of place, 'Berlin', and time, 'around 1900'. In the implicit consideration of resentation and expression, but also has the experience of using his body for certain. these co-ordinates there arises a historical-anthropological analysis avant la Lettre. objectives in order to receive social recognition. Such mimetic· processes are accom-. Benjamin's autobiographical text breaks with the tradition of the self-representa panied by symbolic interpretations, so that thought and speech are developed in them. tion of a subject investigating itself and with 'the central perspective' of the subject's Benjamin's autobiographical text offers us numerous examples of the mimetic consciousness of its life's dynamic - a tradition stemming back to Augustine and conquering of streets and squares, and of the home with its rooms and chambers.-The Rousseau. In its place, we find images, scenes and noises that cannot be subsumed un magic interpretation of the world of the child, in which the world is. animated and der the organisation of the subject. The texts con~ist in a chain of signs in which the answers the child, is achieved through processes of comparison and 'becoming like'. individual signs take part in a metonymic game and find truth in themselves. With their Images from one's childhood are connected with meanings that the child intimates, but metonymic movement, they incapacitate inherited sign systems, and explore new pos- which are articulated biographically much later. sibilities for writing and experience.7 . Thus, in recollection of the entry to the family home: 'Among all the caryatids and · These memory images are suspended in the tension between city, childhood and atlases, the cherubs and Pomona that used to glance at me, the most dear to me were time. On the first page, the city already appears to be a labyrinth, a tangled clump of the dusty ones from the race of threshold specialists who guard the ·stew into existence knots in which the Benjamin child encounters· numerous obstacles, loses his orienta or into the house. They resigned themselves to waiting. Thus it was indifferent to them tion, wanders aimlessly and manages, again and again, to get involved in unforeseeable whether they waited for a stranger, for the return·ofthe old Gods, or for the child with situations.·The labyrinthine city-arouses memories of impassability, dangers, threaten his school books in hand who thrust himself past their feet thirty years ago.'8 In the .. ing, mythical powers and monsters. The experience of labyrinths is not restricted to the production of this picture from childhood memories, the figures seen in childhood are, city; it continues in the home and applies as well to the memory as it seeks its toilsome seen anew and interpreted anew. In a mimetic approach, the figures develop new levels path into childhood. . of meaning, which overlap the experiences of the child. The figures await the child, the For adults, childhood has passed; only with the help of language are the memories Gods, the stranger, at the same time. ·Thus, the difference between the world of the of this age possible. Thus, for these autobiographical texts, the difference between the child and the mythical world of the Gods disappears. Both worlds enclose one another 6 Bourdieu 1990; Gebauer/Wulf 1993. g Benjamin 1980, p. 138 (all lhe Benjamin quotations inthis chapter have been translated from the 7 Schneider 1986. original German text). , &O· 81 opment with which the child gradually constructs its relationship to the world, to lan ness and that are contingently related to one another pnrapraxis, dreams, symptoms guuge and to itself. With the help of these processes the child is transposed into the arc among them. These observations lead to the assumption of the existence of an structure and power relationships expressed in the symbolically coded world - rela 'unconscious idea' - nn imago, whose development takes place in mimetic processes tionships in reference to which distance, critique and change become possible only which evade consciousness. Like the development of the imago, the formation of a later. With the help of its mimetic ability, the child adopts the meaning of objects and 'complex' is detem1ined by cultural factors, which influence its content, form and ap forms of representation and action. In a mimetic move, it builds a bridge to the outer pearance as an expression oflack in a given situation. In its content, the 'complex' is world. At the centre ofmimctic activity lies the reference to the 'other', which is not to representative of an object, which means it bears a mimetic relationship to that object. be internalised, but with which one strives to become similar. In this movement there is In its form, the complex is determined by the given state of psychological development a pause in activity, a moment of passivity which is characteristic of the 'mimetic im that can be understood in part as being a result of the corresponding mimetic processes. pulse'. Jn the end, the complex, as the result of a lnck, is also a product of mimetic processes. The mimetic encounter with the world takes place in all the senses that develop Lacan identifies three complexes which are characteristic for the psycho-strncture their sensibility in the course of these processes. The child's opportunity for mimetic of the nuclear family and in whose development mimetic processes play a central role: acquisition of the world constitutes a prerequisite for the quality of the sensory and l) the 'weaning complex', 2) the complex of the 'intruder' and 3) the Oedipus com emotional receptivity of the later adult. This is especially true for the development of plex. They arc shaped in a certain historical and social situation and ought thus to be its aesthetic sensibility and its ability to empathise, to feel sympathy, friendship and relativised in the sense of a historical-educational anthropology. love. The mimetic abilities result in the ability to comprehend the feelings of othe:5 without objectifying them and without becoming hardened against them. TI1e mimet1_c ability alludes to the secretiveness of things, the auratic moment in aesthetic experi The Weaning Complex ences and the possibilities of'Jiving experience' (Adorno). The weaning complex encompasses biological, psychological and cultural aspects, which arc inextricably intertwined. Despite the biological common ground, the com Psychogenesis via Mimesis plex is distinguished in content and form from one culture to another, from family to familv, from child to child. Weaning leaves a lasting impression ofan aborted biologi Whereas in the previous section of this chapter we attempted to show how childre~ cal r~lationship in the hl1man psyche. which oftrn leads to a crisis, n psychological mimetically acquire space and objects, we shall now tum our attention to the role mi trauma. Tht vital crisis is compounded by the initial psychic acceptance and rejection metic processes play in psychogencsis, using three examples from Lacan's resean;h on of weaning. The acceptance and rejection of weaning 'can be understood as a choice'; the psycho-strncture of the family. In his assessment of the undeniable and lasting psy thcv form the coexisting and contrary poles of a thus ambivalent altitude. According to chic formation of children in their mimetic relationship to their parents, Lacan comes La~an 's intcrpn:tation. 'rejection of weaning is the basis of the positive side or the close to Plato's rigour. Here, it is not so much the possibility of freedom as the d~ complex: the imago of the infant's mother who seeks to resume nursing' 15 • In content, pendencies and moulding in mimetic processes, which are placed at the centre o_f Ins the imaco is made possible by body-mimesis corresponding to the young age of the in analysis. Thus, he sees in the family a social institution in which mimctic-educat10nal fant which initially leaves the impression of the mother's breast and body on the men processes are organised for the small child. tal structun.:s of the child and which in turn model later psychic experience and mani According to Lacan, the family has its origins in a number of complexes. 'Complex' fest themselves in the content of the consciousness. This mimesis of the mother's body is understood as 'the sum of reactions which account for all the organic functions from is closclv tied to the development of the child's needs and how these needs the mother emotions to object-adapted behavionr' 13 • A 'complex' reproduces a certain reality of fulfils. r~ the first year, body mimesis plays a decisive role insofar as the child has no the surroundings. First, this reality represents its form in ils objective distinctivene:s at co-on.lirrnted external. personal and internal cognition. What later is differentiated into a given stage of psychological development; this stage specifies the emergence ol the external, self. and internal cognition is still undifferentiated in body mimesis. complex. Second, the thus fixed reality repeats its effectiveness in events wh~ne:'er Lacan is convinced that weaning relativises the misery of birth that brings to an certain experiences arc encountered, which would actually require a higher obJCCI'.~; abrupt and premature end the parasitic balance of uterine life, leaving the child ex cntion of that reality; these experiences specify the conditioning of the 'comple~ · posed to complete life-threatening helplessness. Wenning is a repetition of the still 'Complex' can be qualified primarily as the ensemble of unconscious factors. m a more painfol separation caused by the premature birth of man. which initiates the higher unity which result in psychological effects that are not controlled by consc1ous- 'extra-uterine spring'. Weaning has a mimetic relationship to the helplessness that re sults from this separation at birth, for which no motherly care cnn ever compensate. l 3 Lacan I986, p 45 (all the Lacan quotations in this chapter have bc,n transl~tcd fr?m ;he Gennan edition referred to in the bibliography. Lacan 's original French text was pubhshed in L 'Enc die Franr;aise. vol. VIII la Vie Mentale. ed. Henri Wallon 1938. pp. 8°40 S-8°40 16). 14 Lacan 1986, p. 45. 15 Lacan 1986, p. 49. 84 85 skills and feels inferior, the younger child experiences the older child as a rival. The Following Lacan's thesis, women have the chance to find repletion in their ~Ider child also has a rival relati?nshi~ to the younger child in competing for the attcn 'mother's-breast-image', in the child's suckling, embracing and eye contact. Thus the t10n of the parents; the older child wishes to be like the younger one and receive the mother can experience and satisfy the most primal of all desires. Even the endur~nce of same affection; often this mimetic desire leads to regression on the part of the older birth pains can be interpreted as representative compensation fo: the 'fear t~at is b?m child. Lacan explains these processes with the assumption ofan 'imago of the similar' with life'. 'Only the imago - which bears the stamp of the weamng '.hat beg ms at birt~ which is espe~ially active betw~cn children of similar ages. In such situations we may in the depths of its psyche can explain the power, wealth and durat10n oft_he r~other s assume the existence of a coercive force to be similar. Girard (1987) secs in this force feelings.' 16 In regard to our subject this means that even the 'mot~er's feelmgs ha~e a the origin ?fte~per tantrums, which oft~n occur between children ofone family. Here, mimetic origin. They are a response to the mother's own experience of lac~ at birth too, the mimetic processes mamfest thelf fundamental ambivalence: on the one hand and in weaning and attempt to minimise the suffering she experienced as an mfant for they effect rapprochement and similarity; on the other, they force the children and her own child. Here the relation to the child is created through the memory of ~he a~ults to be dis_tinct ~nd diffc:ent_so that they may exist in their particularity. The am situation of the newborn and subsequently weaned child. In this reversal o~ the. situ bivalence ofth1s feelmg consists m the mimetic desire for adaptation and in the simul- ation. compensation for the sufferings once endured can be attained. _In he: m1_metic r\ taneous wish to be distinct. .. . . ferral to the mother-imago, the mother can find a large degree of sat1sfa~t1on m her ac. Mimetic processes follow not only the example of others; they can also be self-ref . of caring for the child. At the same time, the possibility of compensat10n _secures for c~ential giving_ way to sc!f-mime~is. La~ari secs an initial phase of self-referentiality · the mother the affection of the child. As opposed to the many other m1met1c fomis al given already m early childhood 1mmed1ately after weaning. He calls-this the mirror ready discussed, here we have an example of the mimesis of unconscious ime1g~s that, nd st~g~. In this sta~e, when the child's sense of its body is still characterised by a Jack of owing to their early devek,pment. have the power to continually structure desire a · ab1hty to c~-ordmat~ its_ organs and by the feeling of dismemberment and disjointed wish. · · ne:s, the ~hdd sees _its ~1cture, upon _looking coincidentally into a mirror, as a physical .· Furthermore, the imago of the mother's womb plays an important role m secunng un:ty. This_ perc~pt10n 1s acc?mpamed by a 'joyous' feel_ing of happiness, since the family bonds. Their form, removed from consciousness (the form of prenatal accom- child :5ees itself m the ~efle_ctmn as _a uni~y t~a: it has not yet achieved in its physical . modation), is appropriately symbolised in the house and the apartment - symbols experience. The reflecllon m the mmor 1s s1m1lar to the child; at the same time it is whose significance we discussed in the previous section using the example of "."alter 15 imaginary because it does not correspond to the physical reality of the child. But th Benjamin's memory-images. The affection for the domestic unity of the family dis rencction in the mirror does indicate the unity the child knew before birth and strive: tinguishable from the affection that every individual member of the family feels_ for t_he to recreate on another level. The image of unity it sees in the mirror becomes a refer other members. 'That is why giving up the security the family economy offers 1mpb~s ence to t~e ~mago of unity that lives inside the child on the basis of its prenatal situ the far reaching consequences of a return to weaning; in most cases the complex is ation. This 1s t~e source of energy for the intellectual progress of the child. which 17 sufficiently liquidated for _the first time on th_is o?casion.' There _arises a psycho~:: structures the child's search. · netic development which 1s spurred on by rmmehc processes and m which the iep . _Insofar as the_ reflection i1; the mirror r'."fers to a status which is targeted but not yet tion of the complex provides the basis for the feelings of the mother, brings about the_ir ~chiev~d and which appears _m the reflect10_n to_bc attainable, it triggers a strong feel sublimation in family-feelings and leads their liquidation to traces that are expressed m mg of JOY- Thereafter the_ ch!ld attempts m1met1cally to recapture the image it saw in · mankind's longing for universal hannony. the mirror, an image that 1s tied to the child's lost status. The image seen in the mirror becomes· a· model· that thef child .emulates in an attempt to achieve its unity . Th e mirror· reJkcl10n 1s a picture o the reality of the child, of its affective value -which is as illu- The Intruder Complex sory as the picture - and of the child's structure, which is, as the child itself. a reflex of the ~u~an f~rm. 'The perception of the form of the similar as an intellectual unilv is. ;he small c~ild's first experience with the intruder complex and with envy as an ~rche for hvm_g ~emgs, dependent upon a correlative level of intelligence and sociality.' 18 type of social feeling occurs when it becomes acquainted with its brothers and si_Slers. Fro:~ th1~ time onward, the s~gg!c to recreate the lost unity with the self occupies a The conditions for this experience vary from culture to culture and from family to 0 position m the ~entre of consc10usness. In the search for an affective unity, the child family and depend upon the individual contingencies and one's place in th~ or_der ~ unearths figurations. that represent, to him his unity; Amon""' such figurations·, th.e mirror· children. Only rarely docs envy between children have its origin in substantial_nvali, image has a special status. What the subject so openlv welcomes in the mirro · g as rule it is the result of mimetic processes, in whose framework one usually tmds t e · · h · - . . - r 1ma e a 1st1 1e m erent umty wit1 1m tt. Wh~t ~e_recogn~ses in the image is the ideal of the imago adaptation of a younger child to the older child. The younger child wishes to be like of the double. What he celebrates 111 1t 1s the trrnmph of the life-saving tendency.'19 the older child. Especially when the child does not yet have a command of the same I 8 Lucai1 1986. p. 58. 16 Lac an I 986, pp. 51-5:'. 19 Lncan 1986, p. 59. 17 Lac,m 1986, p. s:; . 'x7 The Oedipus Complex mesis of the desire of the adult, throughout which the child's own desire is developed. Since initially a :mcial relationship, and not a subject, exists, it is mimesis that pro In the development of sexual identity and in the farther psychogencsis of the child, the duces the undifferentiated relationship between the body of the small child and the Oedipus complex plays a central role. In the Oedipus constellation the child relates adult who serves as an exnmple. This gives rise to a mi~ctic correspondence between himself mimetically to the parent of the same sex; this gives rise to a mimesis of the one's own body and the body of the other - a correspondence leading lo a representa desire of the parent of the same sex, but without occasioning a fulfilment of this in tion of the other in the small child, which is the prerequisite for the development of the stinct. The parent of the same sex reappears in the child as the 'agent of sexual prohi subject. bition and as an example of its violation'20. The repression of the desire leads to a Due to the lasting effects of mimetic processes on uphringing and education, Plato doubled affective moment: the child harbours aggression towards the parent with calls for strict controls over the influences on imagination; Aristotle demands an in whom it rivals on the basis of its sexual desire: at the same time, the child has a sense tensive examination of their effects. As early as Plato it was clear that ideas, attitudes of fear of such aggression. The feelings of being torn and of fear stemming from birth and values, but also social and interactional forms arc shaped by rnimesis.21 On the and reactivated by weaning are inevitable. An overlapping of the castration phantasm basis of the various conditions of young people no simple copy of a role model is cre with the memories of a dismembered body is likely. The child's mimesis of the parent ated; the mimetic process leads to a difference that constitutes the individuality and the of the same sex in the Oedipal triangle is decisive for the sublimation of reality, since creative character of its results. The acquired model, present in the mimetic act, is thus this parent is not the object, but the subject of desire and resists the desire of the child. not a mere illustration on the basis of external similarity, but rather a construction of The prevention of the fulfilment of desire gives rise here to the object whose position the mimetically behaving individual, a construction in which there is room for differ is thus determined as resistance against desire. The end of the crisis, according to the ence. particularity and creativity. opinion of psychoanalysts, lies in the development of the super-ego and of the subli mating ego ideal as well as in the increasing experience with reality. One would not go too far in seeing in this mimetic constellation between parents Perspectives and children the basis for the inherent violence in the relationship between generations which is crcatt:d by the following mechanism: the child relates mimeticully to the par In conclusion, some considerations concerning the significance of mimesis for ecluca ent who has already become what it itself is destined to he, which means that the child Lion and socialisation shall be developed which in part expound upon what has been strives to obtain s;1pport from the adult to become what the adult already is. At tlie said and in pa1t offer new perspectives. same time neither the adult nor the child can tolerate becoming the same and losing the I. In distinction to imitation and simulation. the use of the term mimesis implies an difference between them that safeguards their uniqueness. For this reason, the relation insistence upon an 'outside' that one approaches, to which one makes oneself similar, ship between the wish to be similar to one another and the wish to be distinct and but into which one cannot dissolve oneself~ an 'outside' in relation to which a differ unique is· split. As we have seen, the mimetic desire is not a simple movement from ence remains. This 'outside' to which the child and youth move can be another person, one subject to another. Rather, the desire is transacted over a third subject over the a part of the environment or a figurative and imaginary world. In any case, an approach desire of the third subject. If desire is mimetic, then it is preceded by the desire of Jn towards the outer \vorld takes place. By transmitting the 'outside' via the scmes and 'other' to which it is targeted and with which it relates mimetically. In this light, the the powers of imagination in a mimetic process into internal images, bodies of sound basic structure of desire is mimetic. worlds of touch, smell and taste, the outside gives rise to cxpcrie1{ccs which are tied t~ ]Viimetic desire is aimed at the other, at the desire of the other, from whose origins the living, inescapable physicalitv of the child. the subject constructs itself and its self-esteem. From the outset, the child has no cxpe 2. Mimetic processes are given with physically and thus begin vcrv earlv. Thev rience of its self, not even in the I-thou-relationship, but rather, only the experience of take place before the ]-thou split and the subject-object division, and c~ntrib~ile sub the other. There is no direct path to the development of the self: it always leads through stantially to psychic, social and personal genesis. They arc closely tied to early com the other. The 'other' creates the child ,vho expects from the other that it be shown plexes and imagines and extend into the preconscious. Owing to their inter-relatedness what it should desire in order to find itself. The small child does not yet know that it with the earliest processes of physical constitution in birth, weaning and desire, their desires or what it desires. It learns both from the other. The child imitates the other be influences are very long lasting. cause it cannot yet differentiate between itself and the other. The child has no self-per 3. Even before thought and language arc developed, the child experiences the ception and no feeling of itself: it lets itself be filled with the other and with objects. world, himself and the other mimetically. His mimetic processes arc linked to the vari The adult shows the child, who is in search of itself and senses a deficit, who it is ous senses. Especially in learning motor skills, the mimetic talent pbys :m important and who it is capable of becoming. Alone the child is not able to find itself. The adult role. Also the acquisition of language is not imaginable without the mimetic oift. Mi- thus demonstrates to the child how il may come lo itself. The decisive palh is the mi- mesis is the form oflifc oflhc child in early childhood. 0 20 Lacan 1986, p. 63. 21 Bourdieu 1990; Gebauer/Wulf 1993. 88 offer decisive conditions for the genesis of living experience; in order for mimetic 4. Sexual desire is aroused· and developed through mimetic processes. Sexual processes to develop, analysis and reflection are also required. identity thus takes shape and sexual difference is experienced. Desire behaves mimeti 10. Mime_tic processes a:e ambivalent; they contain an inherent impulse to adapt cally in relation to another desire; it becomes infected and infects itself; it develops a that can ccrtamly take place mdependcntly from the values of the world at hand. Thus. dynamic that often stands in contradiction to the intentions of the subject. Already de there is also an adaptation to things obsolete and lifeless, which block or lead astray the veloped ideas are modified and new ones are tested. Repeatedly, references to other inner development of the child. Mimesis can deteriorate into simulation or mimicrv. concepts and experiments are developed. Many of these processes take place uncon Bu_t i~ can ~!so lead to an extension of the child or youth into the surrounding world, sciously. bmldmg bridges to the outer world. The absence of violence is characteristic of the 5. Mimetic processes support human polycentricity. They extend into the layers of, mim~tic adaptation to the external world. To form or change the world is not the goal physicality, sensuality and desire in which powers other than consciousness are de of rn1mes1s, but rather to develop and educate oneself in the encounter with the world. terminant. Among these powers are aggression, violence and destruction, powers that 11._ In ~imetic processes, a non-instrumental access to the world can take place. are ·also developed through mimetic processes. In group and mass situations they can The m1met1c movement leaves the other as he is and does not attempt to change him. It be particularly active since in them the personal centre of navigation and responsibility contai~s an open~~ss for the fo~eign by allowing it to remain and by approaching it, is displaced by a group or inass authority, which, with its intoxicating infectiousness, but without requmng that the difference be dissolved. The mimetic impulse directed makes possible destructive actions the individuals would not be capable of committing towards the other accepts the other's non-identity; it dispenses with definiteness for the on their·own. · sake of the difference of the other, whose definiteness could only be attained by a re 6. In the family, at school and at work, the values embodied by these institutions, duction to the same, the familiar. Thc renunciation of definiteness secures the wealth their ideas and norms are internalised by children, youth and adults through mimetic of experience and the different nature of the foreign. processes, As the discussion concerning the 'hidden curriculum' has shown, the values I 2. In mimetic movement the anterior world is interpreted by a symbolically pro actually active in an institution can stand in sharp contradiction to the conscious self duced world, that itself is already interpreted. This results in a new understanding ofan understanding of the institution. Analysis of institutions, the critique of ideology, insti already interpreted world. This is also true ofrepetition or simple reproduction. Thus, a tutional consultants and institutional changes can bring to consciousness thcse contra- dictions and remedy them. ~ ~ gesture that is repeatedly carried out creates other sense-structures than in its first exc cution. The gesture isolates an object or event from an everyday context and generates 7. The same is trrn;, hy analogy, of man· s constructive, educational and socialising a perspective for its reception that is different from the perspective in which the ante influence. These also take place more often through mimetic processes than is com rior world is perceived. Isolation and change of perspective are the traits of aesthetic monly_ supposed. Moreover, here too, there is a discrepancy between the self-image of processes that connect with the close relationship, which is claimed to have existed the teacher and the effects of his actual behaviour. Often the unknown and unintended between mimesis and aesthetics since Plato. Mimetic reinterpretation is a new percep effects - for example, the efiects mediated by the personality of teachers and educators tion. a 'seeing as' (Wittgenstein). The mimetic act involves the intention to manifest a - have a lasting influence on children and the youth. Especially the manner in which symbolically created world so that it may be perceived as a concrete world. the individual teachers feel, think and judge is mimetically processed. Adaptation and rejection play a role that is different in each case and whose consequences can scarcely be calculated. The difficulty of estimating the effects of educational behaviour results also from the fact that the same behaviour of a teacher or educator in different phases of the individual's life may he assessed differently. 8. 1n Walter Benjamin's memory-images, we noted how important thc mimetic ac quisition of places, rooms and objects is for childhood development. From early child hood onward, the child continues to have a mimetic relationship to the world around, which it experiences as animated. In this adaptation and rapprochement the child ex !ends itself into the world and absorbs it into its own inner, imaginary world, educating itself m the process. Since this is always a matter of a historically and culturally de termined world, whose objects are symholically coded and have thus fixed meanings, the enculturation of the child or youth also takes place in these mimetic processes. 9. Objects and institutions, imaginary figures and practical actions are embedded in social relations of power that are mediated through adaptation and rapprochement. · They are experienced in mimetic processes, but they are not understood. In order to comprehend a mimetic experience, analysis and reflection is required. Often only thereafter can one arrive at appropriate appraisals and judgements. Mimetic processes 91. QO 6 The Mimetic Production of Gestures and Rituals lV!imctic processes play an important role in education and socialisation as well as in constituting community life and the social in general. This can be shown with refer ence to the creation, maintaining and modification of gestures and rituals, which are of greater significance for the cohesion of modern societies than is often expected. Nowadays, social and educational conditions arc so complex and difficult to under stand that some people deplore the frightening complexity of the situation. The tradi tional support for orientation has disintegrated, both in the field of 'Wcltanscl1auun gen', in which the 'great stories" (Lyotard) have lost their integrating power, as well as in the 'Lebenswelt' of the individual, in which he has to lead his 'own life' (Beck). Yet in spite of this. neither societit:s nor individuals can do without some kind of orienta tion and order. Social practices are needed, especially in economically, culturally and ethnically mixed societies, in which the variety of the social world and of individual self concepts czm be expressed and represented. For this purpose, appropriate misc en scene, styles, emblems, fashions and symbols are required. But what kind of social ac tions and social representations create social order and social structure':! To a large ex tent, social actions create forms of expression am] ways or structuring the social. Daily actions based on routines and customs play an important role in the production of so cial representation and social urdt:r. The fact thnt people ::ire often not aware of the im portance of routines .ind customs for social relations makes them even more effective. This lack of awareness favours the incorporation of social customs and societal struc tures since a 'hidden' knowledge develops, which tells people bow social rcl;itions work. This intuitive, practical knowledge is not questioned and does not have lo be legitimised: that which has always been done looks as if it were natural and does not need lo be subject to or founded on arguments. Among these social practices, rituals and gesture:, play an important role. The question naturally arises as to how the social is produced through gestures and rituals and whai role rituals and gestures play in educ::ition? The assumption is that mimetic processes play a central role for the production and performance of gestures and ritu als. This is due to the fact that mimesis is related to the mise en scene of body behav iour. Already in pre-l'latonic times, the performer of humorous sketches was called mimos. This underlines yet again how mimesis focuses on human behaviour, on body language, and certain normative body movements. Rhythm, gestures and rituals are some of till:: factors which are assimilated through sensual perception and adaptation within the practical knowledge of the mimecist. One's bodily development. behaviour 93 and rcsponst:s arc comprehended and remembered as images, tones and sequences of of body, and the semantic meaning or gestures cannot be made to disappear. In the movement. They become part of one's internal library of images, sounds and move figuration of gestures, there is a meaning which transcends their language based inter ments. which can be used in life when newly combined by the active transformations pretation and which can only be understood by a mimetic process, in which the gesture of im~s:ination. Through this mimetic processing. it is possible to extend or disguise is internally or externally performed. previm:sly experienced ambiguous or contradictory actions c1nd behaviour. Mimesis is Gestures play an important role in verbal communication and social interaction. thus conceived as the ability to assimilate and incorporate, to present and arrange ges They communicate something, which is impo11ant in social psychology and ethnology. tun.::; and rituals in a new social context. Hall. for example. has done interesting research on proxemics, which shows how the Mimetic behaviour appears within social institutions such as families, schools and individual develops symbolic space with his body in a way that corresponds to )10w he businesses, whose social power structures determine to a great extent its possibilities deals with distance.2 In the context of kinesics research on bodv movement Bird and limits. Nevertheless. social norms and institutional values are maintained, altered whistell has analysed codes of non-verbal communication.3 Morri; has cxarni~ed the and further conveved with their aid, as these institutions ensure continuity, change am! distribution of gestures in Europe; he has analysed the way gestures are produced and forthcr dcvelopm~nt. Mimesis leads to the acquisition of practical knowledge. Habitual the context they arc used in, discovering ,imilarities and differences.'r Calbris has de knowledge, stemming from early actions, can develop over longer periods of t_ime as veloped a semiotic of gestures. which includes detailed ir:iformation on the use of ges the result of experience, and operate as a future point of departure for further ;ict10ns. It tures in different areas of life in different parts of France.) As far as J know there is, as cannot be sufficiently understood logically and conceptually, for practical knowledge yet. no comprehensive study on educational gestures, on their specific character, their is not analytical or re.gimented knowledge but a knowledge of action. role in the educational process, their relation lo teacher behaviour and to different edu Attempts to understand social practices unamhiguously have faltered due _to the cational institutions. tact that social interchanges are often opcn-cmlcd and vague; their interpretation IS, The language of gesture, however, is older than the spoken or written language. however. aenerallv ascribed a looic and claritv which are not actually present at the From a historical point of view there is no doubt gestures contributed considerably to moment of intercl;anee. and which are, in fact: not needed. Social actions are usually the creation of spoken language. Even today gestures help us to articulate emotions. oriented in the field ~f bodily processes, occupying a symbolically organised field of thoughts and sentences. They help us to understand the meaning of the spoken J;in meaninf!, without them being made less ambiguous. With the help of social mimesis an guage and of social behaviour and arc essential elements in human communication. unambiguous practical body knowledge is acquired, from which a great part of our so Since they are a means of body expression and presentation, they are often uncon cial lives is developed. Social mimesis is multi-faceted, contradictory, and thcory scious and therefore much less controlled than spoken language. resi,tant. Directions for life arc not onlv learnt thmu!:'h the mimesis of living examples In contrast to mimic expn:ssions of the body. gestures can be learnt and sh;ipcd am! rituals and ritual formation. Thcv ~an also be c;vered through the introduction or through practice. Whereas in mimics it is hardly possible to separate expression from representations which arc generated- by art, literntme and science. Reference points emotion, or form from content, gestures are based exactly on the differences between consist therefore not only in the real, but also in imaginary social actions, representa these aspects. Thus, gestures can be shaped intentionally. Perfect gestures express a tions and pictures. high degree of 'artificial naturalness· and suggest the interrelationship of emotional content and body expression. Gestures are also essential for the performance and arrangement of rituals. In relig Gestures ious. political and educational rituals, where the aspect of representation is imporiant. the mi.1·c-en-scene 3nd the atTangement or adequate gestures are or centr::il import3ncc. Ccsturcs c:m be understood as hody movement. belonging to a person's most impor Since gestmes are forms of body-focused expression. the social subject can come tant Corms of expression and representation. Since human bodies are always histor!· to know himself by the under:;tanding of his own gestures. Insofar as a· social subject cal ly and culturally shaped. their gestures too have to be read just as much 111 their can perceive himself in gestures from inside and outside, he experiences himself in ·this historical and cultural context. 1 The attempt to understand gestures as universal lan incorporation of interior and external. In the use of gestures in social situations, corpo guages of the body has failed. Historical and ethnological studies show how ~ifferently ral being can be transfctTed in the active mode of having one's body. In a mimetic re gesture:; arc interpreted in different cultures. The more iconic the character of a gesture lationship to his gestures the social subject experiences himself in these presentations. is, the more it is understood by people in a variety of cultures. The more symbolic the In mimics and gestures the social subject expresses himself and experiences the reac character is, the more its understanding requires a particular cultural background. tions of others to these forms of expression. The iconic and corporal language of ges Gestures are significant movements of the body, which are directed by an inten tures is the result or a historical and cultural process; this language shapes the individ- tion. Their forms of expression and representation cannot, however, he reduced to th.eir underlying intention. The difforence between gestures as expression and representation 2 llall!Y59. 3 Birdwhistell 1954; 1970. 4 MorrisetaL 1979. I Bremmer/Roodenburg 1992. 5 Calbris 1990. 94 95 uaL who at \he same time continuously modifies the language. With the mimetic ac word or contradicting it. A person's gestures ollen relate more closely to his feelings quisition of gestures the social subject participates in corporal and iconic traditions, than language does. Where language is consciously controlled, gestures are often co~ which he can creatively apply in new social situations. A corporal figuration is ex sidered a more reliable expression of feelings. pressed in gestures whilst in the performance of gestures, an internal relation to oneself But to read and to decode gestures they have to be perceived mimetically. Whoever and a mediated relation to the world comes into existence. In the corporal character of perceives a gesture, understands it by recreating it internally in imagination and so a gesture the emotional and the corporal side can hardly be distinguished. grasping its specific corporal expression and representation. Although gestures are Gestures play an important role in the process of civilisation and human self-do m~aningfol and c_an be ana)ysed as such, it is only mimetic reproduction which permits mestication. Most social institutions develop specific sets of gestures. The demands a full understand mg of th err sensual, emotional and symbolic content. This is also true social institutions make on the usi:: of specific gestures in an institutional context forces of the misc en s~enc of gestures. Mimetic reproduction helps to assimilate the specific an individual to behave in particular ways. To take a very characteristic historical ex corporal exp:essrnn_ ot an other ~erson and it is the mimetic recreation of his gestures ample. we could look at gestures in the world of monasteries.6 Here, the novice had to that allows hrs specific corporeality to be perceived. In the mimesis of another person's unlearn the daily gestures from his secular life and repbce them by a newly acquired gestures, an encounter with the corporal world of the other person's expression and set or gestures, which qualified him for his new tasks and his new way of life. By ac presentation takes place and with it, the sensual experience of the other becomes pos quiring these specific gestures the novice turns into a monk. ln this transformation sible. Coming to know another person's world of expression and presentation is often proc.;css he changes important parts of his character and turns into a new person. The cxperienced as enriching and pleasurable, since it proviues the individual with the ex performance of new gestures is not a superficial change. Since these new gestures ex perience of the outside world. The mimetic process is thus a way of enlarging the in press the iucorporatio11 of new values, attitudes and feelings, they can be understood as dividual's_wor_ld, leading to wide-ranging experiences outside his own interiority. signs of profound changes. By learning a new _['csture language, the individual is made.; In s_oc1al situatwns, gestures help to communicate menning. They express feelings ready for a new life. and articulate sentunents. 1 hey are corporal-symbolic presentntions and, when per Processes of similar importance take place when a young child enters school and ceived, produce unconscious effects. It is precisely this unconscious character of their turns into a pupil. By acquiring gesture and ritual competence the child fulfils the insti effects, which makes them so dficient. tutional expectations of the school. By doing so the child comes to know whnt certain gestures mean and how it is supposed to react to them. ln the course of these processes the child c1cquires the practical knowkclgc of how to behave in the institution. By Rituals doing so, it becomes an accepted member of the institution. The child becomes aware of the institutional hierarchy and power structure and learns how to cope with these. Soci~l rituals. are_ made possibk by mimetic action and behaviour. One important rea (3esturc is one way in which institutions an: able to express their social power - in son !or this Iles m the except10nal nature of the social performances, in which social this casc, by making people perform institutionally acceptable gesturcs. Where people exchnnges arc staged and performed. At the same time, rituals and ritualisation arc fuil to live up to institutional expectations. this is seen as a criticism of the institution mimetic vers_ions of previous ~nactments. Those employed in the ritual process have by the representatives of that institution and often results in sanctions being taken. the opportumty to alter these ntua]s according to their own social context. A relation Therefore, the acquirement of gesture and ritual competence and of practical gesture ship to social history is established on such occasions of change; the opportunity exists and ritual knowledge is an important educational goal to help young people to cope to modify crentively some of these relationships and simultaneously to provide for the with institutions successfully. incorporation of future mou_ifications._ Rituals may be thought of as 'winuows' through The menning of gestures, however, does not only change in relation to space nnd which onc_ cai: observe social dynamics, but ulso as windows which enable people to time. There are nlso di!Tcrcnces rclaku to grnuer mid socinl class, age and cultural create, mamtam and alter their cultural environment. b:ickground. Indeed, gender differences are created in part through the use of different Rituals and ritualisation can be examined in terms of religion, mythology and cul sets of gestures. According to some studies there are differences in the wav women ture (Mnx Mueller, Herbert Spencer, James Frnzer, Rudolf Otto) and with regard to the traditio;nlly sit. which spa~c they occupy, how they :mange their legs etc. Si;nilar dif funct_ional context of the social strncture (Fustel de. Coulangcs, Emile Durkheim). Jn ferences have been discovered in relation to the way women speak, eat, drink. and so addn10n to these, they can also be read as kxts: think, for instance, of the significance on. These findings lrnve however been suhject to differing interpretations. of rituals for cultural symbol-making and social communication (Victor Turner, Clif~ The central point is that gestures express the central values of a society and provide ford Geertz, Marshal Sahlins). The following discussions on the operation of mimesis knowledge of mental strnctures. They accompany the spoken Jan_['uage but also have and ritual belong within this context. an 'indcrcndcnt lirc'. Their meaning is often multidimensional. Sometimes they com Y ct first, however, we need to clarify the differences between various forms of plement the spoken word by focusing on single aspects, by relativising the spoken rituals. What is important here is the difference between rituals that mark distinctive life stages, and t_hose which are de~ermined by the calendar. To the former belong 1ire· stages such as birth, puberty, mamage, divorce and death, including the rituals occur- 6 Schmitt 1990. 96 97 ring in the over-determined symbolic actions at times of increased status, for example, and the creation of ~n inter1:1ediary state of emptiness, through which the person pre at the end of school attendance, studies, or a promotion to a higher position. This type pares for a new social 1dcnMy. _In Wester~ cultures, similar intermediary rites of pas of ritual is restricted to individual, family and smaller groups. In the past, rituals used scige take place such as umvers1ty graduat10n, although their expression and intensitv to be fixed. There was little leew;iy for interpretation. Nowadays, in contrast, when t are reduced. The. examination situation- upon which these relv, , C"n" "or,, ms· ance t1e 111-· ' customs arc handed down, it largely falls to the individual to decide to what extent he tcrpretcd _as a kmd of humiliation of the pupil. This is rewarded by the new status of wants to, or can, alter or reinvent the ritual. In any case, the individual components are 'non-pupil' ?r 'non-student'. The intensity and the aims involved differentiate the still restrictive in the way they function despite an enlargement of the possibilities for characters of _these rites. The question is therefore, how can we adequately examine the interpretation. Such restriction is apparent in the great personal effort it takes in order concepts of ntuaL rites and ritualised behaviour. · to avoid certain ritual and ritualised actions. . On, first imprcssio_n it _app_ears that ritt_rnls are used as a form of social practice Calendar rituals function in the same way, except that they arc carried out by larger which 1s a strategy of socrnl mtcraction differentiated from other social interactions groups of individuals. These ritmls demand a large degree of comprehension of social through a stream of particular characteristics. Many of these characteristics me con mimesis, but even so, the possibilities for individual decision-making in the field of text-dependent and can only be generalised ,vithin set boundaries. It hardlv seems ritualistic action is greater than it used to be. Having said this families with smal I chil possible to grasp the comp_lcxity of these rituals, something which has alway; pushed dren will find that it is not always easy to celebrate Christmas in a radically different the researcher~ to their hm1ts. In the context of sacred rituals, these can be understood way: traditional social forms demand that family and individuals submit to, and act as ac~10ns ,vhic)i are n:qrnrcd, however, in order to develop their sacred and social with tradition, from year to year, and from generation to generation. mearnn?. Behet, attitudes, symbols, and myths can exist without ritual, but without In such situations, it is .ipparent how the mimicry of social forms makes use of all these, ntual cannot exist. Nevertheless it is prim;:iri]y actions in which somethino is available individual mimetic deviations and arrangements. The 'elbow room' tlrns portrayed and expressed, and in which it pays to create parallel collective ideas ofbe created makes possible, at least. the individual appropriation of ritual. If there were no lief: whi~h can_ be experienced and_ confirmed through validation. Representations of changes and marked personal differences from various cultures and historical periods, social hie provide the mdividual with the possibility to participate in ritual. T o h . . . I I d h 1· . o~et er, then one might assume that actions were simply copied or simulated, rather than being md1v1c ua s pro ucc t c re 1g10us and social continuity and traditions, on which ;Itera- mimetically interpreted. This, however, would not be mimetic behaviour, and therefore tions and historical changes encroach. would not have the social results one can expect from such behaviour. The reaffirma In the symbolism of a ritual,_ the experienced world and the imaginary world con tion of the ritual by the 'performing' group exists through a mimetic relationship to verge and appcm as a smglc environment. This allows the ritual fo act both as a model collective cultural tradition. This is what produces the effect of cohesion which. in the taken from the world and applied to the world. On one hand, the ritual refers to the so end. has an effect on the future of the communitv. cial and psychological_ reality, wl11~h itself refers back to the ritual. Jn this way social Van Gennep goes a step further in underst~nding the functions and structures of and psychologtc~l reality ts given tom1 and meaning. Rituals act as the embodi~cnt of ritual in his thoughts on the rites of passage (rites de passage).7 He defines them as h_eli_cf attitudes, ideas and myths: through expression and portrayal, they are the matc rites, which accompany place, condition, position or shifts from one life stage to the nahsat1on and rea!Jsat10n and bndge the dichotomy between action and thought. Ritu other. These foll into thn;e phases, namely that of separation, threshold. and incorpora als arc over-determmed symbolic actions which in themselves can be interp;ctcd het tion. During the first phase, individuals or groups release themselves from an earlier erogeneously and in a multiplicity ofwavs. social strncture or from a series of cultural conditions. In the second phase, the inter Rituals provide the m~ans for the c;:pression of social power structures and thev mediary, transitional, and threshold phase push one into an ambivalent situation in frequentlv. . , act as wavs· ,o1 maintaining. - and confirming existino· "' "soci·a1 , "rt. i uc t ures. A-s which neither the past nor the anticipated foture situation can be presented. 1n the third Levi-Strauss and Bourd1cu have pomted out power structures o 1·,,c the " . 1· • < , , ' ' b V oppeaiancc 0 phase, the new connections and the period of transition are completed. c:xpressmg a n~tural order but m fact conceal the conflict between culture and nature The threshold phase is particularly pertinent when considering rituals of intermedi a conflict contmually reappearing in the medium of ritua!. 8 According to Bourdieu, ary life stages and the processes of social mimesis. Insecurity and ambiguity arc typical rituals can contribute. . to social change if thev_ break, throuoli" the 'n"tti-ral'" , · t axonom1c·, characteristics of the period of transition between a lower to a higher life stage. I-Jenee, order. and can ate! m the development of a new 'cultural' order. Thev nc era!], _ · - 1 · . _ ,-, n , \ con for example, during the rites of puberty in tribal societies, there is a demand for un 1 tnbutc to a. success u assoc1at10n with 01Jposing-· _ orderino" S"stcins-', sticli a- s na t ure,· cu l- usual conduct. Humility, silence, the renunciation of food and drink, tortures to the ture or social systems. body, and humiliation are exercised as a means of submitting to the authority of the . Victor Turner has also repeatedly pointed out the innov:itive character of ritual. greater society. Diverse forms of humiliation are conceived as a preparation for the which has been so frequently overlooked.9 As an attempt to strengthen and establish bter increase in status. One could actually speak of an educational theory of _the cultural order one has to address the disorder-elements- wh'ich res. 1·ct,, ord,ermg. · T umer threshold state. Central to this st.ate is the destruction of the person's previous identity, 8 Bourdieu 1972: 1997, 7 Van Gennep 1961. 9 Turner 1969, 98. QQ. describes these dimensions by using the terms 'liminality', 'anti-structure' and 'com take part in the performance. They possess a particular ability to enahlc a mediation of munitas '. These terms describe dimensions creating an essential supplement to the intensive emotions. result of ritualisation - the hierarchical and consolidated social strncture. Liminal or On the one hand, although rituals arc productions created with dramatic ekrm:nts. anti-structural communitv indicates an 'unstructured or rudimentary structured and there have been attempts to make clear to actors nowadays, that these rituals are shown relatively undifferentiated living community'. Thus social life can be understood as a in order lo create an effect on the audience, and not necessarily on the actors them dialectic process between differentiation and homogeneity, between imbalance and selves. On the other hand. there are cases where those creating the action are them balance, between the past and the here and now. In this respect rituals serve to generate selves the subjects addressed by the ritual. This does not mean however that those not liminal situations in the transition from one point of social strncture to another. Due to directly involved in the performance of the ritual have no role to play in its effect. In this process. rituals play an essential part in determining the ri.:lationships of social many tribal societies, however, this type of distinctive feature has its limits: rather than structure; existing social identity is disintegrated, and prcparntions are made for the addressing those creating the ritual, it is the ancestors, gods, nature and the cosmos future identity. who are being addressed. With the attempt to make the invisible visible, the ambivalent character of ritual Despite these_ differences, it makes sense to speak of a list of analogous traits pos corresponds to the respective preservation and alteration of social strnctures. They can sessed by both ntuals mid drama and sec ritual and drama as two forms or 'cultural contribute as much to the reinforcing of power strnctures as they can to their alteration. performance·, possessing the same basic framework. The clements which mark their They require the maintenance of traditional forms, but they also provide the opportu shared form arc, for example, their temporal nature, their collective manner of experi nity to develop variations. Resistance rituals in particular arc where we find ways of ence, the publtc access to them. and their power to alter not only the way people under fashioning and expanding new fonns. In times of political hostilities, for example, or stand them, but also to alter themselves. ln both forms of production, those pai1icipat generation gap struggles, rituals with no previous existence are invented and applied. ing become caught up in a type of self-oblivion which knows no past and no future. Their effect lies in their innovative character, where the innovations bind society to For those involved in ritual action, the focus is on the here and now, thereby gencratinl'. gether, just as traditional rituals do. Such innovative rituals mark a demarcation line both great intensity of experience and pleasure in a kind of inner flow. ~ ~ between themselves and other societies and groups and allow a sense of community, its Thi_s !low induces_ feelings of strong presence and inner satisfaction. Mihaly Csik aims am! lifestyle, to be created. The social effect lies in using the same rituals to em szcntmihaly1 has studied these more closely, examining the character of self determi body a range of differences in mrnning and feeling and thus to permit members of the nation. and developed the concept of 'flow cxpcricncc'. 10 This 'flowing' of thi.: inner society both homoucneity and difference. feelings of those particip;iting in the ritual is of central import,mcc in th: arrarn:iemcnt Rituals have n;uch i~ common with other cultural representations as cultural pcr and continuity nr the scenic organisation since it helps create a sense of satisfaction fonnances, such as for example, sports events or theatre productions. Like these, they and a feeling of belonging. This is where the mimetic abilities of members ol socictv embodv symbolic contents in 'traditional' form and behaviour at.set times and in fixed arc essent_ial: they m:ikc the adjustment of the participators with 0ne another possibl~ places: with a beginning, a definite duration and an end. They portray the symbolic and thcrclore create tlus common or socially founded '!low experirnce'. This tendencv contents for the 'actors' and their observers. Rituals organise and convey cultural con to create sucial similarities occurs through a sensual-bodily-mimetic 'infceti0n' an~I tent through particular actions and behaviour, and connect these actions with thoughts can. in some_ cases lead to a. suspension of individual control and responsibility. Mi which plan, modify and interpret the rituals. metic behav10ur becomes r:11m1cry: the potential for community grounding ritual can Social situations and 'social dramas' arc frequently portrayed in ritual action and then change however. and simply become a drive to conformitv in the individual thus articulate the most important values in a culture, values which arc often so poorly Bernusc rituals consist of coded acts ·which one can al~o understand as ·scenic understood bv its members. Throm:h ritual. thosi.: values become visible and tangible. metJph_orieal portra?•ab, ll~cy can be read in the same way ::is a text. This view, sup It matters little whether the values -arc considered to be of great worth or not. The de ported m Ben1amm s read mg of the future cif texts, is rather a later form of 'readirni' cisive fact is whether the members of the soci8.I ritual pcr-formance contribute to the the world. Sense and meaning gener:ncd through the scenic porlraval of similariti~s ritual and its articulation. Both the participants in the ritual perfom1ancc and the non and corresponding elements arc produced mimetically in the und~rstanding of th~ active audience make a sense of connection to one another possible, generating both world, and in the reading of rituals. Even in cases of ·what Ben_ic1min refers to ~1 s 'non sensations and feelings. The effective performance relics on the phenomena of collect scnsual similarities', the reading o t' rituals can generate order, sense and meaning_ ive experiences of emotion rnther than isolated ones, with the concomitant feeling of There :ire further points to consider when viewing rituals as being 'read'. Firstlv. the generation of a sense of community. Collectively accepted actions and forms of rituals arc overly determined structures of meaning in which every scene. each scenic conduct are developed in ritual. These show how one can act communally, and they element. each symbol and every gesture only becomes understandable in the context of achieve effect throuuh mimetic means when the individuals somewhat distance them the entire ritual. This ritu;il arr:\!1gement is designed like a text, whose individual parts selves from their o~ behaviour. They are social actions, controlled by symbolic inter only achieve their full meaning through the full textual arrangement. The reading can pretations. They demonstrate, and are therefore irreducible. Rituals have the ability to make something visible, to reveal something, to dramatise and to allow the audience to JO Csikszcntniihalyi 1985. 100 7 occur through the ritual action, the spectators or other factors. There exists therefor~ a structural parallel between the textually organised ritual and its !nterpreted readi~g from scientists and spectators. The reading is mimetic. Through this process of social adaptation during the ritual's scenic portrayal, the ritual becomes absorbed ~y t~e viewer who relives it and its meaning. An understanding of meaning generated m this Imagination and the Mimesis of Images manner becomes fused with the existing premises of the mimetically acting spe~tators and interpreters. Thus, one sees rituals as initially producing mimetic processes m par- ticipators and audience, which then create the various impressio~s afterw~rds. . Just like other forms of social exchange, rituals possess bodily, scenic, expressive, spontaneous, and symbolic facets; they are regular and routine, non-instrum~ntal a~d efficient. Ambiguous; they generally combine the variable with the contrad_1ctory m Mimetic processes apply to the outer world, be it objects, other people, social situ their.scenic portrayal. On one hand, they repeat scenic arrangements, and with them, ations, or works of art, literature and music. The imagination helps them to produce, traditional orders and structures with their particular power strnctures. On the other reproduce and change the different types of images. In diverse mimetic processes im hand, they create new, spontaneous and innovative energy. Some examples would be ages develop into educational processes. The German word bilden means to develop, resistance rituc1ls;youth sub-cultures, and life-style rituals. . to form, to shape, as well as to educate. Thus, Bi/dung - education - is connected to Rituals and the process of ritualisation can thus be understood as social the idea of forming. To educate is to shape according to a mental picture or image - 'producers', as an essential element in society. Repetition routine, scenic arrangei:nents, the German word for picture, 'das Bild', would confirm this association. For a long symbolic character and expression - these become the founding elements of social ac time, despite its relevance, educational science largely ignori:d the significance of im tiori, cultures of performance and community. ages. With the 'iconic tum' however, this appears to have changed. 'What is an im~ age?' has at last become a fascinating question in cultural studies, and has also more recently become a focus for research in educational science. What do the mental pic tures one has of childhood contain? What preconceived images do we have of the gap between generations, of school or of the organisation oflearning? For a long time, the connectil;ll between sight and the creation of images and inner pictures aroused little interest. Moreover, the relation between phylogenetic and ontological images, between collective and individual pictures or their sequence and strncture was largely ignored. The question connects vision with image ;ind fantasy, body with culture and history. How does an individual's imagination, his 'inner world of pictures', relate to a cultural picture-world or collective imagination? These questions point to the historical and cultural, ed].lcational and anthropological foundations of-upbringing and education and thus open the way to a whole new field of investigation in education. Imagination and the Power of Picturing Imagination is certainly one of the most mysterious of human faculties. 1t permeates all levels of life, manifests itself in many different ways, yet, tangible only in its concrete manifestations, seems to defy clear definition. Imagination refers to the ability to pic ture objects in one's mind, even when the objects themselves are not there, in other words to the faculty of inner vision. Imagination is first referred to as a concept in Plato's Politeia. In book ten of The Republic, painting is defined as the imitation of 'an appearance as it appears' 1• According to Aristotle, 'phantasia lies in our own power [when we] call up a picture, as in the practii.:c of mnemonics by the use of mental im- I pros to phainnmenon, os phainelai. 103 102 only to "express" itself (this is self-evident), but to "exist", to pass from the virtual to . ages'. Fantasy is 'that in virtue of which an image (phantasma) arises for us'.2 The anything more than this. The most elaborate delirium, just as the vaguest and most se Romans replaced the concept of 'phantasia' with 'imaginatio'. 'Jmaginatio' refers to cret phantasy, is composeq of "images", but these "images" are there to represent the active power of internalising pictures, of imagining. Fantasy and imagination sig something else and so have a symbolic function. But, conversely, symbolism too nify the human ability to internalise outside images, in other words to transform the presupposes an imaginary capacity. For it presupposes the capacity to see in a thing outside world into an inside world, as well as the faculty of creating different origins what it is not, to see it other than it is. However, to the extent that the imaginary ulti and meanings for those internal picture-worlds. In imagination, inside and outside worlds overlap. Both Maurice Merleau-Ponty mately stems from the original faculty of positing or presenting oneself with things and and Jacques Lacan have emphasised the importance of this schismatic structure for relations that do not exist, in the form of representation (things and relations that are perception and the creation of images. Any concept of sight that assumes a self-identi not or have never been given in perception), we shall speak of a final or radical imagi cal object and an 'empty' seeing subject must rail. There is always already something nary as the common root of the actual imaginary and of the symbolic. This is, finally, 4 in seeing, 'something to which we could not be closer than by palpating it with our the elementary and irreducible capacity of evoking images. ' . look; things we could not dream of seeing "all naked" because the gaze itself envelops Despite major differences in his argument, Arnold Gehlen's attempt to locate them, clothes them with its own flesh ( ... ) the look ( ...) envelops, palpates, espouses imagination points in a similar direction: 'we ( ...) find the concept of the "primal the visible things. As though it were in relation of pre-established harmony with them, imagination" ( ... ) manifested in the detritus of our dreams, or in the periods of concen as though it know them before knowing them, it moves in its own way with its abrupt trated vegetative processes, in childhood, or in the contact between the sexes; in other and imperious style, and yet the views taken are not desultory - I do not look at chaos, words, wherever. the forces of developing life announce themselves. There are, amid but"at things - so that finally one cannot say if its is the look or if it is the things that ever-changing images, certain primal visions or images of the overall purpose of life, command'3• Not only in sight is there an overlap between our sense perception and the which senses within itself a tendency toward a higher form, a greater intensity of cur outside object that our sense perceives, but also in touch and hearing and above all in rent, so to speak. An immediate vital ideality exists, a tendency in the substantia smell and taste. vegetans toward a higher quality or quantity (whereby it should be noted that the right Thus, human vision is not unconditional. On the one hand, we see an anthropo to make this distinction remains questionable).'5 Gehlen interprets fantasy as the pro morphous world on the basis of the physiological conditions in our head. On the other jection of surplus drive. Yet might not fantasy pre-exist the surplus drive in order for hand; our vision is determined by historical, anthropological and cultural factors. Thus, the 'life drive to find satisfaction in its images'6? In any case Gehlen clearly links for example, the invention and spread of writing has affected our sight to the extent imagination to human incompletion, residual instinct and the gap between stimulation that we really no longer see in the same way as in oral culture. Similarly, our percep and reaction. It is therefore connected to human need, drive motion and desire for satisc tion is affected by the new electronic era and the processes of acceleration associated faction, though not solely. Human flexibility and openness~to-the-world confirm the with it. As research in Gestalt psychology has shown, imagination plays a part in the need for cultural shaping. Imagination's part in this process is so central that one might simplest of perception such as for instance complementary vision. The same can be justifiably refer to man as a 'being of imagination (Phantasiewesen) as well as a being said for a person's cultural frame of reference, which attributes meaning to the things of reason (Vernu,iftwesen)'7• . he sees. All seeing is both made possible and limited by history and culture. It is there Despite differences in their points of view and .arguments, Gehlen and Castoriadis fore changeable, contingent and open to the future. agree that the imaginary is a collective faculty through which society and culture, as For Lacan, sight is rooted in imagination. He attributes imagination to a pre-lin well as individuality, are revealed. Developing Merleau-Ponty's later work on the guistic physical state, in which the individual is not yet aware of his own insufficien schism between human body and perception, Jacques Lacan went on to show the ex cies and limitations. According to this view, imagination is rooted in the early stages of tent to which the imaginary influences the everyday perception of any social subject. an individual's life, when at first the infant has such a strong sense of identification that it does not yet perceive the mother as 'different' from itself. The infant is fasci nated by the physical wholeness of its mother's body, which it perceives as a mirror of Magic - Representation - Simulation its own sense of completion and power. Yet, this very experience of its mother's per fection soon·Jeads the infant to become aware ofits own incompletion and dependency Pictures and images are always ambiguous. The su~picion that they originated long be on others. There too, in the experience of incompletion and finality, lie the origins of fore the development of consciousness, out of fear ofdeath or fear of having to .die, is the sexual subject. For Lacan, the imaginary, with its world of pictures, pre-orders the perhaps not too wide of the mark. Dietmar Kamper suggests that the.pu_rpose ofimages symbolic world oflanguage. Picking up on this view Cornelius Castoriadis defines the is to cover up the wound at the root of human existence. Yet this goalis unattainable: relation between the two realms as follows: 'The imaginary has to use the symbolic not 4 Castoriadis 1987, p. 127. 5 Gehlen 1988, p. 316. 2 Aristotle, De anima Ill, 3. 6 FIUgge 1963. p. 93 (trans. A. Lagaay). 3 Merleau-Ponty 1968, pp.131-133. 7 Gehlen 1988, p. 309. 104 :cs every attcmpt to com;cul a memory is at the same time a reminder. Thus, all mental for humans. For what could be more threatening than a world without images. whi;:rc pictures are in essence 'sexual', even though their motive may he deeply religious. any image would be engulfed and destroyed by either darkness or blinding li;ht? With Roland Barthes, we may call images 'death of the subject'. Through fear, pictur Plato describes images as representations of things that they thems;lv~s are not. ing plays a central part in distraction from human desire. 'It stands for original sin. At Images show something, express or describe something, relate to something. In Plato's first, imagining serves to reassure the individual that regardless of uncertainties, its view, painters an~ P?ets do not_ create, like God. ideas or objects; they merely present mother's voice will always be there. It accompanies us from the sacred to the banal. the appearance ot thrngs. Parntrng and poetry are not limited to the artistic presentation For indeed, reproduction is an important step in the overcoming of fear. The original of things, but rather, to the artistic presentation of the appearances of things. Thus it is image is supposed to get lost in imagining ... but it remains. ' 8 not their business to portray ideas or truths, but to represent fantasies, semblances' and From the point of view of cultural science, there arc three di ffcrent kinds of image: appearances as these appear. This explains why in principle the realm of paintin~ and mimetic poetry 1s the realm of the already visible. 12 Here we arc speaking of the im image as magical presence, ages and illusions of creative mimesis, where the difference between the model and its image as mimetic representation, representation is insignifi~ant. The aim is not to create similarity but to show the sem image as technical simulation. blance of an appearance.'-' For Plato, art and aesthetics constitute a domain, in which the artist or poet is master. The artist cannot however create being as such, and docs There arc of course many overlaps between these different kinds of image, yet still. not share the truth claim to which philosophy is bound, and which lies at the basis of distinguishing them enables the identification of different sometimes contradictory t~e Republic. Thus, :he _realm of art and aesthetics is attributed a certain independence iconic cliaractcristics. Magical, cult, and sacred images date back to an em when im from the mterests o1 philosophy, the search for truth and knowledge, and the question ages had not yet become works of art. Hans Belting considers these in his book Like of what is good and beautiful. Consequently however, it is excluded from the Republic ness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art.9 However, he deals that docs not accept the incalculable natur<.: of art and poetry. exclusively with presentational cult pictures since the end of the Antique age. Images Processes of artistic creation aim at the outward shaping of an internal im:we as that impart magical presence to thc gods we call divine figures or icons. These can be pictured hy the painkr or poet. The model. according to which a created ima~c is found for instance in archaic cultures. Early depictions of fertility goddesses engraved shaped. bemg of a different nature than the <.:rcation, progressively dissolves in the de in clay or stone belong to this kind. In his highly acclaimed book, The Anthropological velopment or that image. Throughout the process, changes, omissions, additions and Strnctzire of the Imaginary, Gilbert Durand designs a cosmos of images, many of other such deformations occur, so that in the end. there is only a limited resemblance to which arc 'magical'. 10 He distinguishes an 'order of day' and an 'order of night', dedi the original idea. The models of an artist's images and drafts are mostlv unknown· cating a section of the book to each category. The third section deals with images that either they have been lost or forgotten, or they never <.:xistcd. At the centre-of'thc artis~ stem from what he calls 'transcendental fantasy'. Durand's attempt to characterise and tic process an image emerges which, although related to models and earlier imaucs. is structure collective pictorial imagination highlights thc fluidity of transitions from im created through transformation and innovation. - ages as presence to images as representations. Philippe Seringe's study of symbols in What is the relation between the model (Vurhild) and its likeness (Abbi/cf)'! Docs art, religion and every day life points in a similar direction. 11 The distinction between the ~ormcr_crc~le the latter? Ho:v are we to understand the connection? Already in an presence and representation is blurred. Seringe provides a brief inte11Jretation of ani t1qm1y, Ph1dia s celebrated dep1ct1on of Zeus led to speculation about whether there mals pictured in imagination. From images of farm yard and domestic animals (such as was a model, and i r so. where'l Since there cannot have been a precedent however th is bulls, cows, horses, donkeys, lamb, ram, goats, cats, dogs, rabbits) to other land ani image of Zeus must have been new. It must have emerged in the ,vorking of the 1~1ate mals (elephants, camels, etc.), the realm of the imaginary extends to birds and fish as rial, through the artistic process itself. Anyone who sees the statue will recognise the well as plants (the Tree of Life, palm trees, cedar trees, oak; llowcrs. ros<.:s, lilies, lotus; image, even though there is no earlier model of 'Zeus' that one migl{t know. cereal, fruit, etc.). The imaginary also encompasses the cosmos and the elements with Zuckerkandl went so far as to claim that evcrv work of art is 'an image in :carch of a images of fire and light, of smoke, clouds and dew, water, earth, rock, caves and grot model, cre,1ted in order to find within the human spirit its model, and thus fulfil its 14 loc:s, air, sun, etc. Images of constructions (palaces, houses, gardens, gates, sculptures) purpose, that of becoming an image'. The image is not unambiguous; it is more of a as well as more abstract things (names, numbers, spirals, labyrinths) also belong to the question than an answer. A question put through the work of art. and to which the ob realm of the imaginary, highlighting time and again the 'in between' nature of images. server may_answer in m~ny diffe:ent ways. The structure of the work of art conjures up In illustrating the world. in turning it into pictures, images turn the world into a home im3ges, str!ngs of mcan'.ng and mterprctations which 3ll contribute to its complexity. The 1rnrnel1c terms are displaced: the work of art is no longer seen as the imitation of a 8 Kamper 1997, p. sn (trans, J\, Lagaay). 9 Belting 1994. 12 Plato, Polireia, 598a. 10 Durand 1994. 13 Zimbrich 1984. I I Seringe 1985. 14 Zuckerkandl 1958, p. 233 (trans. A. Lagaay). 106 107 certain model. Rather, there is a certain relationship of representation, of imitation finally leads to an image-game where everything is possible; political questions are between the work of art and the observer. subordinate. This tendency towards a 'culture society' (Kulturgesellscha/t) is ambiva Technical simulation determines the third, new kind of image. There is a growing lent: if everything is but a game of images, arbitrariness and non-commitment arc un tendency today to turn everything into image. Even the most opaque bodies are trans avoidable. The picture-worlds created in this self-relating mimetic process lead in turn formed, lose their non-transparency and spaciousness, become see-through and tran to the aesthcticisation of life. As the realms merge, the distinction between life and art. sient. Processes of abstraction lead to images and pictures. They arc everywhere; imagination and reality seems to dissolve. Life becomes a model for the world of ap nothing is more alien and overpowering. Images make 'real things' disappear. pearances, which itself becomes a model for life. The visual develops hypcrtrophically: Besides the printing of texts, more so than ever in the history of humankind, are an cvcrvthing turns transparent: space capitulates to image-like surface; as if there were incalculable numhcr of images constantly being recorded and distributed. Photographs, but the present tense of acl:cil:ratcd images, time is conclensed. Images attract attention films and videos have become tools, gradually contributing to a common memory of and desire. above and beyond all differences. Y ct at the same time, by always referring images. Whereas texts need to be supplemented by the necessary participation of one's to something absent they evade desire. People and things yearn for dissolution in im imagination, one's capacity to picture, imagination on the other hand, is now being re ages ... Desire fires into the emptiness of electronic signs. stricted by the production of 'picture texts'. While the number of people actually pro Images arc becoming simulacra. Thus, political debates arc often led solely for the ducing the images is constantly decreasing, ever more people passively consume these purpose of being transmitted on television. What appears as a political controversy has unstimulating ready-made pictures. actually been carefully geared towards being presented in images. Television pictures Pictures and images constitute a particular kind of abstraction. Their flat two are ::i medium for political debate; this aestheticisation of politics is unavoidable. The dimensional nature is at odds with, indeed eliminates, the multi-dimensional space viewer watches the simulation of a political controversy that is set up to appear around them. The electronic character of television pictures allows for ubiquity and authentic. Yet nothing but the simulation itsl:lf is authentic! The viewer's convictions acceleration: at the speed of light, images can be transmitted simultaneously around the and expectations arc manipulated: everything is devised in and for a world of appear world. Consequently, the world is miniaturised, experienced explicitly as ~ succession ances. If this succeeds then so does the controversy. Only as simulation can the in of images. Pictures and images constitute a new form of product, which can be sub tended politie::il effect be achieved in television. ln fact, such rn::ikc-believc is often jected to market principles. They become marketable products even when the objects mure effective than 'real' political discussion. to which they relate are not themselves tradable goods. Simulacra arc on the look out for models, which they themselves create. They have Caught in constant exchange with each other, images are mimetically interrelated. become trademarks that influence the character of political controversy. It is gradually Fragments of images are picked up and put together differently, creating fractal images becoming impossible to draw a line between reality and simulacrn; the dissolution of that in tum form new wholes. They move and refer to each other at a rate of accelera this bound::iry leads to new pcrvasions and overlaps. Mimetic processes circulate mod~ tion that m:ctkes them resemble each other in 'mimesis of speed'. Their two-dimen cl:.i. copies and after-images. Images no longer aim to rcscmbk models but to resemble sional plancncss as well as their electronic and miniaturising qualities makes different themselves. The same applies to people: the individual strives to become like !1imself. images come to resemble each other. A fundamental restructuring of present-day pic a mimetic result that c:rn only be achieved against the background of extensive di ffcr ture-worlds is thus underway, creating a kind of promiscuity of images. cnccs within one same subject. Mimesis becomes the dctnmining power of 1mai'es. Images !:,'Tab the observer by the scruff of his neck and immerse him in a whirlpool their fractal multiplication in a world of appearances. of impressions that threaten to drown him. Both fascinating and terrifying, images dis solve things and transport you into a world of appearances that you cannot escape. This leads to an inseparable connection between power and invasion. The world, both po The Inner \Vorld of Images litical and social, is al:stheticised. Images look for models to tum into, transforming through this mimetic process, into new fragmented images, divorced of any frame of A social subject's inner wodcl of images is defined a) by a culturally conditioned reference. Fascinating, these images lead into an ecstatic game involving simulacra and collective imagination, b) by the unmist::ik:.ible and unique images from his own indi simulations: never-ending differentiation parallels an implosion of difference~ unlim vidual history. and c) by the amalgamation. overlap, and mutual transformation of ited similmity. The images themselves constitute the legacy (McLuhan) in a world of thcsl: two image worlds. In recent years, l:ducational research in biography has gained appearances both fascinating and delightful. important insights into the role and function of these inner picture-worlds. In what Contaminating like a virus, pictures and images multiply at the speed of light. Ivfi follows. I propose to distinguish seven types of images in the inner pictme-worlcl: metic processes produce ever-new images, creating a world of appearances further and reg11/ntors of behaviour. orientating i'.110ges. images of desire. of 1vi!/. of memon. mi further removed from 'reality'. As a world of art and poetry, this world of appearances metic images and archetypal images. 10 is not subordinate to the realm of politics. Rather, it tends to rob other 'worlds' of their reality content, turning them too into worlds of appearance. Life is aestheticised. More and more images are produced to which no reality outside of them corresponds. This 15 Fliiggc 1963. p.155 (trans. A. Lagaay). :08 15)9 connect to failure and success. In remembering, memory images resurrect the past and, Images as regulators ofbehaviour soothe from the inexorability of time. The question is if, and if so then to what extent are structures or patterns of behaviour inherited. Undisputed is the gap between stimulation and reaction in humans, yet this Mimetic images does not exclude the possibility of influence through inherited images or patterns of behaviour. In recent years, ethnology has made significant progress in understanding Real people or imaginary images can serve as models for human behaviour. Plato re how trigger-images can affect such elementary human behaviour as eating and drink ferred to the fact that as models, images stimulate our own mimetic capacity. Acconl ing,-reproduction, and the raising of new generations. ing to him, humans - especially children and youths - cannot resist the urge to imitate. Therefore, in terms of a theory of education, Plato's view was that one should con sciously exploit images that it would be of value to imitate, and carefully exclude any Orientating images which could have a bad influence. Aristotle on the other hand believed people ouo-ht to ' b be able to learn resistance through confrontation with undesirable images. These op- Through socialisation and upbringing, thousands of images are transmitted to young posing views have re-emerged over the relevant debate about the effects of violenc(; people to guide and orientate them and enable them to lead their lives. Many of these depicted in modern media. 16 , images are very clear, catchy, easily reproduced, and therefore socially speaking, extremely effective. They are public images, shared by many. They connect people, conferring on them a sense of community, affiliation. and belonging. Globalisation ex tends these networks of images far beyond the borderlines of national cultures, creating Archetypal images trans-national forms of consciousness. c. G. Jung defines the relevance of archetypal images as follows: 'Every great experi ence in life, every profound conflict, evokes the treasured wealth of these images and brings them to inner perception; as such, they become accessible to consciousness only Images ofdesire in the presence of that degree of self-awareness and power ofundcrst.inding which en ables a man also to think what he experiences instead of just living it blindly. In the Drive-determined fantasies and images of desire tend to be similar in structure, though latter event he actually lives the myth and the symbol without knowing it.' 17 their concrete expressions often vary. These images are cmcially important for the ad Jung's somewhat dubious account for the origins of archetypes and_ 'collective un justment of human behaviour and dreams. They often aim at the satisfaction of desire conscious' ought not prevent .us from recognising the fact that every culture develops though at the saine time contain the knowledge that wishes cannot all come true. powerful models and images of fate that influence the course of human action through dreams and cultural events. Fantasies of will Whereas images of desire are directed towards having and enjoying, fantasies of will Conclusions tend to be projections of doing. Such will-determined desire expresses human surplus Human flexibility is illustrated in the fact that the inner image-world can take on so drive, the root of human work and culture. many different forms. All are the result of imagination, which encompasses all levels of human life, whether in perception and feeling, or in thinking and doing. Even hu man eccentricity is due to imagination, for it refers to the capacity to position oneself Memory images outside of-oneself, and from there, to relate back to oneself. Such self-reflection is often expressed in the relation of images to images. Images manifest one's capacity to Me~ories ·determine a person's particular character. They are partly accessible and picture; their different figures show cultural multiplicity. This is shown in the above mampulable, partly unavailable to the interventions of consciousness. Some originate mentioned different kinds of imagery. Images reveal magic, representation and simu in perception; others are based on imagined situations. Images from memory combine lation, changing the character of these, while affecting the quality of the imagination with new perceptions and contribute to shaping these. They arc the result of a selection process, whereby unconscious effacement and consciously motivated forgetting (e.g. they articulate. forgiveness) both play a role. Memories constitute a person's history, they are linked lO the different times and places of his life. Memory images relate to pain and happiness, 16 Gebauer/Wulf I 993: 1998. 17 Jung 1964. r- 272. 111 · 110 Education involves working reflectively with images. This implys not reducing an Part Three image to its meaning, but rather 'bending it backwards'. 'turning it round': lingering with the image and perceiving it as such; recollecting in one's mind its qualities of shape and emotion and letting these take effect; protecting the image from too hasty an interpretation through which it would be transformed into language and meaning, yet as an image, drained and emptied; bearing out uncertainty, ambiguousness, complex ity, without calling for clarity. The meditation of images: imaginary representation of something absent, mimetic creation and change within the current of inner images. Global and Intercultural Education Education requires one to work on one's inner imagery, not only to bring it out in speech. but also to let it in its image-content unfold and develop. To deal with images is to expose ouest:lf to their ambiguousness. In order to do this, one must get in line with an image ancl offer it full attention. With the powers of one's imagination, one must create the image as an inner picture, protecting it from other inner images that tlow in; with the powers of concentration and thought. one must 'hold on' to the im Of relevance to current changes in education are the processes involved in the unifica age. for an image to emerge is the first step, to hold on to it, to work with it, to let it tion of Europe and globalisation. Not only are concepts of education being influenced unfold in imagination arc further steps towards consciously dealing with images. To bv issues related to the unification, but also contemporary education3l discourses, as reproduce or create an image in imagination, to carefully linger with it, is no smaller an \;,ell as the practical handling of education are being transformed. As the concept of achievement th,m that of interpreting it. The duty of education is to bring together Europe gradually becomes reality, education is no longer a matter to be dealt with ex these two ilspects of working with imagery. clusively by each nation-culture or state. Rather, it must become an intcrcultural re sponsibility. involving careful consideration of the similarities and differences between the different European cultures, nations and ethnic groups. Increased mobility within the European Union has resulted in a proliferation of the phenomena of youth violeuce, raising the cruci31 question of how to tackle racism. nationalism or hostility towards forcig~ 1ers. In answering this, it is particularly important to avoid reducing violence to -its physically obvious manifestations. This may be more difficult than it appears. Vio lence is ahvays directed towards the 'other'. Une ofthe strategies ofpn.:vcntion against violence is therefore to intensify one's dealings with the other both outside and inside of onesdf. In realising and learning to accept that the other can never be folly under stood, much is achieved lo avoid violence against him. Thus, the other is a focus of intercultural and global edurntion, This poses the question of how globalisation affects issues of education. ls it possible at present to think of a universally applicable educa tional framework? What problems would such an 3tlempt pose'1 ls it possible in this context. to avoid the danger of reducing the individual to the universa!'7 Indeed, does the individual have a right to resist subordination to the general? No doubt these issues will 3!so become relevant in the realm of schools and universities, leading beyond in ternational co-operation to new patterns of intercultural collaboration where greater knowledge and new forms of action and behaviour can take root. 112 113 8 Youth Vio]ence Increasing mohility in the context of Europeanisation and globalisation has given rise to a mixing of different ethnic groups, which often leads to difficulties for minorities especially and sometimes results in acts of violence involving the youth in particular. This is not. however, the only cause of youth violence. The following chapter attempts to shed light on the multiple reasons for youth violence. But first a vivid example which was to stir up many emotions. 'Kni\'€S against insults. German schoolboy violently attacked by Turkish youths'. - Headline to the story of one of the most brutal incidents in recent years; the story was briefly repo11ecl hut never really analysed. 'A group of Turkish youihsfrom W<'sl-Rerli11 attacked o 15 year old German boy in the eastern clislricl of Friedrichs/win, as /w was rm his way home ji-om school. The offenders did not know their victim. They ·were out 011 a mission to take vengeance for a friend who complained of being discriminated a2,oi11st at school. The rnemv: "East Germans". However they couldn't get the ones tl;e)I were supposed to bcot up. so instead the gong took hold of the first G1:rrnan minor lh~y could lay their hands 011. They beat him with bars carried on their bikes: two of the-m held him drrwn ll'hile the others assaulted him. Then thev ran away leaving their victim on rhc grmmd. An eight hour emergency opera/ion saved his life, hut tlze hov will ncvcrful!y recover.' 1 W c often hear cases like this reported from the USA, hut they me now occurring with increasing frequency in the fast growing multicultural cities of Europe. Since re llnification in Germany, there have been an increasing number of xenophobic, right wine extremist criminal offences, especially in the new federal states (Ncue Lander). Acc71rdin2 to the latest statistics, of the 11 720 offences recorded in 1997, 790 were violent oti'ences. of which 462 registered as xenophobic acts of violence. Over the past few years in Germany, people have become particularly sensitised towards three kinds of violence: a) Violence within thefamily, b) Violence againstfnr eigners. c) Youth violence. Intensive discussion of these topics (violence against women and children, right-wing radical violence against foreigncrs,2 and the growing mcasiire of violence committed by youths) has turned violence into a new theme for public debate as well as scientific rese;irch.3 Taking over from the interests of the Tagespiegel 12th/l3th April 199& (trans, A. Lagaay). 2 Heitmeyer 1992a; b. 3 Wimmer/Wulf/Dieckmann 1996; Dieckmann/Wimmer/Wulf 1997, ll5 p~ace and environmental movements4 of the seventies and eighties, new discussions of family ties, and social. disintegration? Why should this provoke hostility towards for violence have led to new theories and explanations. An example is the way people eigners, and even violence against them? Moreover, it is often assumed that socia_l and have explained the growth in xenophobia that became especially apparent after the nonnative integration counter the unwanted side effects of individualisation. Is this unification of Gerrriany, in the attitudes and behaviour of young people especially in really true? We must indeed doubt the pre-fabricated connections suggested in the the new federal states. above 'programme of explanations'. 'Unsuccessful individualisation' can surely not The following theoretical outlines are frequently drawn upon to explain racist suffice to explain hostility and violence against foreigners, any more than efforts to xenophobic acts ofyouth violence: socially and morally integrate people (or the idea thereof) succeed in eradicating these failures. - Socio-economic reasons: high unemployment rates and the consequent social de Empirical investigations confirm our reasons to doubt the validity of 'modernisa- dassing of youths; problems related to the transition to a capitalist market-orien tion theories'. It is true that over 80%-ofviolent offenders are under 25 years of age; tated s~ciety and the• necessary (partly unsuccessful) processes of modernisation; evidence shows that 35% are even younger than seventeen. Yet since the events in imperfections related to the new system: in particular, unfairness of distribution. Rostocl,, where adults were seen applauding the racist crimes of the youth, it. has - Political reasons: with the dissolution of the socialist system, and the drastic reor become evident that hostility towards foreigners is not ayouthproblem. Neither, since . ·ganisation required, new challenges have appeared which many young people have Molln and Solingen, is it any longer plausible to assume that the problem is typically been unable to meet. Instead of these new challenges being successfully dealt with, East German. There are of course reasons why feelings of exclusion and a certain · often destructuralisation and destabilisation are the result. violent tendency are more visible in the new Federal States of the East than elsewhere. - Socio-psychological reasons: socialisation has been deficient. Due to the changed Relevant empirical studies in youth research have produced a series of descriptive conditions of society, many youths are disorientated and in need of guidance. This results which suggest that a) hostility towards foreigners is more common amongst ·-however, is unavailable: in many cases, peer groups have disintegrated; models to youths with low levels of education, from families with low levels of education;, b) look up to have disappeared. All that is left is bitter, emotional void and for many, a oirls are less xenophobic than boys; c) it is easier to find- racist attitudes amongst crisis ofidentity. ;ouths in the East than in the West. So far, the theory that right-wing extremii;t ten - Cultural sociological reasons:· many youths have experienced the disintegration of dencies are somehow connected to unemployment; social disadvantages or lack of values they were familiar with. New values accompany the drastic social changes prospects has not been proved. In fact, there is evidence to the contrary: youths well · taking· place. However, many of these Western values put pressure on the individ integrated in the working world, hold more radical views and are quicker to resort to ' ual, in a way many· are not used to and cannot handle. This can lead to a crisis in violence than others. The theoretical assumption that difficult living conditions explain · meaning and result in serious misconduct. a tendency to take on authoritarian nationalist views could not be verified._ Ne_ither - Educational reasons;· some young people fail to come to terms with the changing could empirical studies at all confirm the suggestion that.East German youths be more challenges of adolescence. Often, the loss of previous figures of authority can lead likely to exhibit authoritarian characteristics. . _. to· a certain normative uncertainty and a lack of prospects; learning difficulties and However, these empirical results leave many questions open and cannot be taken ··social exclusion· are the consequences. · · over uncritically. Most importantly, the investigations fail to relate sufficiently to the original theoretical hypotheses. In terms of methodology, they are also inadequate. It is This theoretical framework seemed to explain the fact that after the Wall came down, still unclear why hatred and violence are so often directed against foreigners, when a extreme right wing acts of violence escalated above all in East Germany. Unlike West much bigger social threat is posed by the far. more numerous Gennans, living in.similar Gerinany, the need· for- modernisation could be applied to the whole of the former social conditions. This is inadequately explained. Sometimes the foreigners themselves German Democratic-Republic and not only to particular individuals or to isolated so are presented as the reason for violence; other times they are the arbitrary objects of ri cial groups scattered around the country. Moreover, structurally, it seemed at first to be val-fear and boredom; yet again they might appear as the unlucky victims of those who a youth problem, since it was. above all young people who were involved in the acts of themselves were subject to structuralvicHence.Altematively, strangers and foreigners violence. This was easily explained by the fact that young people are more affected by are made scapegoats, responsible for society) v_iolence of which they are also thi; vic unemployment, loss of prospects and fear of the future.· The change of system that tims. Perhaps a. collective political unconsciousness automatically. steers.- unfocussed }'.oung people of the East"'.ere faced with was said to result in the general destabilisa aggression and an absence of political awareness towards the 'perfect' victim-object. . t10n and destructuralisation of their whole social fabric; not just in a disintegration of The empirical research in question is.unable to-explain.the roots of aggression-and values and a crisis of meaning. · violence. For the sake of clarity, and because of certain methodological requirements, · · The above interpretation must however be called into question. Why for instance, it significantly reduces the complexity of the problem. Indeed, to relate someone's should individualisation due to modernisation necessarily result in the dissolution of violence to a lack of recognition in that person, to an absence of emotional security, to frustration, fear, or a need for orientation, is to blatantly over-simplify the issue. In 4 Galtung 1971.; 1997. addition, one should not consider violence against foreigners to be an exclusively· 116' 117 cases, an act of violence, thoug~ ~egatively j~d~ed,. may secure the middle or _long" German'problern, for itcxists, in different constellations, in other European countries term survival of the species. Jnd1v1dually altrm~t1c a~ts on t~e o~er hand can serve a as well. · genetic or species-defined egoism. Seen from t~11s pomt ofv1ew, v10l~nce as a dcstruc- In order to do justice to the complexity of violent phenomena, the aforementioned t1ve. fiorce can hardly be distinwished,, from. v10lence. . as a constructive. . force. .Only a studies and explanations must incorporate central anthropological dimensions. These context-related analysis can provide a more differentiated evaluat10n of the different may not be directly related to racist violence, but they present another perspective on forms. · the issue and thereby shed new light on present understandings. . ·1arly from a systemic perspective, there are always forces that threaten a sys- Simi . f .. b h . Violent phenomena must be regarded in the appropriate cul:ural and historical tern's existence. These can appear unexpectedly, in the form o surpnsmg e aviour. contexts. These define exactly what a society considers violent. Is a matter of dispute d to revent these forces from destroying the whole system, the system reacts by In or er P . ·d 'b d · ' whether one should assume - as does Norbert Elias - that processes of civilisation nec intensifying its control mechanisms. An increase m cf~orts to avo1Th a h surpn_ses essarily lead to emotional distancing and therefore to progressively more violent so however leads in tum to a multiplication of the endangenng powers. us: t e stronger cieties. The ethnologist Peter Duerr for instance, would disagree.5 the controls are to protect the system, the greate~ the forces become t~at aim to change · As a cultural and historical phenomenon, violence is subject to cultural and his c. · t In order to further our understandmg of the issues ofv1olencc as well as an d ·d e~orm 1 . · ~ . . torical change. J\t the same time, what we consider violent depends on a relation be ticl orgams· at" 10n of- svstems. , we must consider the consequences of this· paradox1q1l· tween our imaginary and the relevant cultural and historical phenomena. Thus, our situation. . . - , · , I · d definition of violence is subject to two kinds ofhistorico-cultural detennination. No living creature or system is 'selfless'. Rather, _111s a ccrlam _egmsm_ - re ate Acts of violence are an extremely complex phenomenon. Both the perpetrators as · · t "or self-preservation - that produces violence and counter-v1olcncc. to t h e ms1 me ,, · . . . . , . In ,veil as their onlookers invest every act with different feelings and sensations. Such order to avoid reducing the concept of violence to its v1s1ble_:namfestatlons, o~e m_ust 1 1 strong mimetic effects are at work in every act of violence, that one can hardly resist - ate and account for the 'positive violent' aspects of 11e, systemic orgamsa 10n, mcorpor . _ · . d being'fascinated. As a consequence, one can either follow Platonic argument in the be the relation between sexes and gcneratmns, as _well as hum_an rel~t10ns to nature an lief that one should forbid public represrntmions of violence, or, in an Aristotelian self. Violence then takes on a new anthropological complexity. :his exte~ded conc~p~ tradition, hold the view that one should encourage discussions about violence, in order I fi Id certainly somewhat obscures the concept of violence (m compa1:1son to when to allow individuals to effectively confront the issue. It is still an open question, tua 1e . . ,, th Id ·Jt 1s• 1·1m1 · 1e d to 1·ts• explicit manifestations)' · ' yet 1t 1s necessary, ,or. o crw1sc, we wou·. whether from the point of view of the individual as well as the community as a whole, b bl to conceive as forms of violence those forms descnbed as structural v10- not e a e , . 8 , . . 1 , (B ct· )9 either of these attitudes to violence is more effective. Jenee' (Galtung),7 'founding violenc~ (Girard),, or _symbo 11c ;~o ence, our 1~u,. Research in social science tends to reduce the complexity of violent phenomena. · y· 1 e has been defined ·will to powtr (Nietzsche), force ot destruction , or 1oenc _ as · .. .,, d .. Jne subject is presented as if its definition were clear and one already knew not only · ' (Freud) Although it tends to occur when mmmmrn 11,e con 1t10ns are 'deal l1 d rive . · .. the exact origins of violence but how science can understand and control the phenom . k" ·olence is also disguised in more socially acceptable forms as amb1tton, com- 1etc mg, VI . . . • b d" h . ena. - · ess or rivalry Violence 1s expltc1t m cases where human o 1es· are urt, mut1- pet1 11ven · . · . · · 1 · h · Discussions of this kind often overlook the fact that many acts of violence occur so l t d destroyed. It occurs arbitranly. unpredictably, by chance. n war, m t e 6 a e 1· to speak wizhout reasim. They arise in certain situations, often unexpectedly, sponta or · dreams violence disables reason and the m· d"1v1 ·ct ua l' s contro1 over ac 1011. It masses, 111 , , - h kn neously, and are uncontrollable. Sometimes, it is as if violence could have been just as · "th a certain human desire to take risks - one s attraction towards t e un own mixes w1 . . - 1 h "fi ·i· easily avoided. Afterwards, neither the perpetrator nor the victim really understands d dden Both magnetically attractive and repulsive, v10 ence orr1 1es, tern 1e_s, what happened. It often feels like 'a stranger' committed the act. an su · . . · d · 1· · and j.ascma · tes - Violence is one of the cond1t10ns· . for human existence an socia 1sat1on, 'These considerations point to new perspectives on the question of so-called youth d as such it cannot be overlooked or avoided. . . _ violence - perspectives that shake the foundations of certain social scientific assump an Expanding the concept of violence in this way may seem to squash ou~ ~ope ot tions as well as any too optimistic hope that violence can be controlled. , . , 0111111· g the problem. This does not mean that we should not take polit1cal and cve1 ovt:rc ~ . . , d · d · I h '· As already pointed out by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Freud, violence is inherent · I t· n against violence But to consider violence a merely. un es1re socrn p e- soc1a ac 10 • · • • . to any human social community. Culture has to dci with rrnouncing drives and desires; , nd base any counter strategy on a reduced and over-s1mphfied conception of if is deeply linked to asceticism and discipline, violence against others as well as nomena a · . d" ~ · I · to h blem is utterly unsatisfactory. A comprehensive understan mg ot v10 ence 1s ourselves. Our capacity to be violent is perhaps· what enabled the human race to sur t e pro - · · · · 11 . I d . necessarv in order to handle the vmlent potential mherent to a s,~cta grm~r fian . In- vive. Biologists ·talk of a ceriain 'genetic self-interest' involved in human behaviour. dividual;. Clearly, in the light of the present threat posed by host1 1ty towar s ore1gn- They consider its moral evaluation to be a question of cultural values. In extreme 7 Galtung 1971. 5 Duerr 1993. 8 Girard 1998. 6 Wimmer, c. r. Grundlose Anmer~ungen iiber den gegcnwiirtigen Diskurs iiber Gewalt, in Wimmer/ 9 Bourdieu J999iBourdicu/Passeron 1973. Wulf/Dieckmann 1996. pp. 7-65. Il9 118 This way of projecting life problems and violence on to a scapegoat_ and then .delegat ers and racist violence, the demand for quick political and social action is both under ing one's actions onto a 'mass subject' are mechanisms which allow for such acts of standable and necessary. It provides politics with an urgently needed legitimization and violence to occur, but which, in order to be effective, depend on the people involved develops models for socially engaged behaviour. Yet, so far we still cannot tell how not seeing through them. · · effe~tive socia~ and educational interventions are in the fight against hostility towards Many people get a thrill out of seeing others tormented and hurt. The gladiator foreigners, ~e1sm nnd violence. At any rate, success will depend on how our under fights in the stadiums of the Roman Empire, the Aztec ritual sacrificing. of prisoners, standing of violence does justice to the complexity of the phenomena. the almighty Indian despots who had people executed in order to relish their own sur _· Reason cannot comprehend how some people are the innocent victims of violence, vival; these are all examples of how a certain pleasure can be got out of the spectacle simply because of foreign looks or different ethnic or religious origins. The mind bog of other people's suffering and death. If this were not the case, films such as Apoca gles. Attempts to explain· such acts of violence by looking into the life stories of the lypse Now or .Jurassic Park would not be so successful. Beyond the horror people perpetrators may shed some li~t on.the motives, but fall short of really explaining the sense in the face of arbitrary and grim acts of violence, something attracts them even phen_omena. ?ne notable fact m the case of youth violence is that perpetrators often do against their own will. The fascination created by violence, war and catastrophe is at not tullyreahse the consequences of their actions. Uninhibited brutal behaviour of the the same time attraction and disgust. But what is it that fascinates about violence? Is it kin~ involved in such violence, is only rarely followed by any 'kind of empathy for the the display of seemingly unlimited power over the body. and life of another person? v1ctJ~s. Instead, offenders seem inexplicably, frighteningly anaesthetised, incapable of Does such violence make a person forget his own vulnerability and mortality? Is it _the sensmg the damage and pain they have caused . desire to have the power to destroy someone else's life, instead of being destroyed . · History ~as shown the extent to which humans are capable of performing acts of oneself? For violence to fascinate, it must itself have power over the perpetrators or mcred1ble v10lcnce, without feeling the slightest bit of sympathy for their victims. onlookers: violence itself excites. It captivates, intoxicates, repulses, terrifies and de ~hen the restraining effects of prohibitions and rituals are suspended, a kind of excep lights. A collective excitement develops, turning acts of violence into a.kind of unstop tional, e11:er?ency situation emerges where extreme fonns of violence are suddenly pable stage act where fear itselfbeeornes thrilling. When this happens there is no pro poss1~le: This is for instance how massacres escalate, their only goal being· the de tection. Sometimes the borders between perpetrators and onlookers are suspended and structl?n and slaughter of helpless victims: the blood baths of colonial conquests, the onlookers become perpetrators. The hooligans are a relevant example ofthis. : . utroc1t1es of war and civil war, the human carnage of genocide. Massacres are acts of When reading studies on violence one is struck by the following: most investiga unbridled brutality, where perpetrators let all hell loose· there arc no limits no re tions focus more closely on the violent perpetrator than on the victim. The question of straints; th~re is ?o capacity to stand back. Excess stim~lates the perpetrator: makes his motives is raised, as well as how to work against these. But very rnrcly is any inters him l~se_ himself m drunken madness, there is no possible bridge to the helpless hopt: est shown into the effects of violence on the victim. What does it mean to be helplesslv less v1ct1m: Collective violence leaves its unlucky victims no means of escape. This at the mercy of someone's violence? What exactly are the short and long term eons; ~md of~nbroke? d~structiv~ness has vi_olence itself become the sole aim and meaning. quenccs of sometimes unimaginable physical and psychological injuries? To be at the · omethmg ofth1s kmd ofv10lence for-its-own-sake was apparent in the case oftbc as hands of arbitrary violence, to have suffered the pain induced, turns the victim's own saulted boy quoted to begin with. body into a problem for that person. Sometimes a victim will reject his own body be · The~c are many such cases of gruup violence. Usually, some kind of social crisis cause of the inescapable pa.in that it incorporates. This can result in the victim express (rooted 111 unemployment, social and cultural identity problems, a Jack of prospects, ing self-hatred, for he is afraid and has suffered pain, humiliation and helplessness in a etc.) provides the background for a person who is somehow different to be chosen as a way that he cannot forget. 12 . . scapegoat, ~nd blamed for everything that is wrong. What the group might have in With this in mind, Christian morality could be seen as an attempt to reject archaic common with that person is not perceived. Instead, the scapegoat's difference justifies pre-Christian values in order to control the sinister side of humans, the one that gets its _exclusion and the person is blamed and victimised, turned into an object against pleasure out of destruction. European history has shown only too clearly the diff'icultv 111 which the group can callously, violently unburden their frustration. an 12 Sofsky 1996. 10 Girard 1989. 13 Girard 1998. 11 Canetli 1998. 121 120 9 that attempts to explain it away and argue against it prove to be so difficult. If violence is a kind of shapeless force of destruction, with different connections in every situ ation, expressed in so many phenomena, then of course it is often hard or indeed hopeless to try to resist its engulfing nature. Despite so many attempts in theology, philosophy and science to understand how violence arises, time and again our knowl edge is thwarted. Every attempt to explain violence seems to have a provisional, hypo The Other thetical quality that its mysteriously ample scope is unable to dissolve. Since violence as an energetic force can hardly be distinguished from other human forces, but arises in particular situations and constellations out of a transformation of shapeless energies, it is especially difficult to explain how violence originates. Violence is a possibility of human behaviour, a virtual component of the human world that can always be sum moned and renewed. Insofar as violence often means violence against other people, understanding our rela Whoever suffers or witnesses violence, experiences the vulnerability and fragility tion towards that which is other plays an important role in attempts to achieve peaceful of human life. Western democratic societies are committed to stemming and channel human inter-relations. For every society, for every social subject, contact with the ling the violent potential between people, whether it is economically, politically or so other constitutes an essential condition. The human body is connected to and depend cially conditioned. With its monopoly ovc:r violence, the State plays a central role in ent on others for conception, sustenance and socialisation. Much of what an individual this: When its monopoly is questioned in any way, political order is disturbed. When experiences is related to others, from gestures and rituals to participation in games and rituals of social interaction are somehow suspended, eruptions of violence may occur, the exchange of gifts. Mimetic behaviour is always directed towards another individ for which certain individuals or groups are made accountable: When in situations like ual. A person comes both to resemble others, as well as to realise the limits to which these, mechanisms of violence-regulation fail, the relative absence of violence in another person can ever be fully related to or understood. The following aspects shall every-day life is shattered. be considered: Cases of open, unbridled violence lead one to doubt the success of human progress. Unstoppable wars involving terrible atrocities, ruthless attacks against nature, make the ineluctable other, one realise the profound vulnerability of human life and how it is constantly threat difference and otherness, ened. Becoming aware of the destructive side of human development makes it possible _ reduction and repression, to confront issues of social and individual violence, even when there is no hope of get foreign others, ting rid of the problem once and for all. Perhaps insight into the limits of controlling mimetic approaches. violence is one of the conditions for making cons1ructive progress individually and socially in this realm. · There is a constant ambivalence in the relationship between self and other: it oscillates between success and failure. A successful encounter ,vill benefit both self anu other, whereas its failure will work to the detriment of both. The Ineluctable Other ln his essay on education, Rousseau speaks of how, in order to be happy. eve1y indi vidual is dependent on others. Human existence is both relative and collective, for our true , l' is never quite within us. It is impossible to really be content or enjoy ourselves without it always having something to do with others. 1 People need others not only to lead happy Jives, but also in order to find pleasure in themselves. !'--n individu~I cannot choose to do without other people. Even to retreat from contact with others, still means living in relation to them. Others enable an individual to perceive his own existence. This is due to our ability to direct our senses and emotions towards people otherwise unknown to us. We cannot live without being touched. spoken to, and looked at by 1 Rousseau 1993. 122 others, without their representations within us. The other is a mirror in which we see connected to a wider group, people would be isolated and paralysed. This fact of discover, and investigate our o,vn selves. It allows us to perceive inner representation; human incompletion makes mutual recognition a necessity for the members of a com of ?urselvcs and_ thu~ to develop consciousness. This dependency on other people and rnunitv.2 Recognition is what makes an individual find his place within the community, their represcntat10ns 1s what makes human reality fundamentally social. and b~comc a social being. If an individual fails to receive the amount of recognition In ord_er lo have its existence confirmed and be able to grow, an infant needs to feel he needs. he will feel marginalised and excluded and become 'invisible'. Loneliness t?e ~ttent1on_ and tou_ch of the other, through its parents. A child's state of 'incomple and bitterness are the consequences. t10n 1s manifest m its dependency on its parents and their compensatory behaviour. The other plays a constitutive part not only in the development and well being of Only through parental care can a child free itself from its initial sense of inferioritv. an individual, hut also in the development and well being of every group, community The child's capacity to imitate is stimulated by its sense of inequality in relation to and culture. It is counterpart to a person's sense of self and identity, to that which he grown-ups; it yearns to relate to and resemble the other. This mimetic process is considers his own. Borderlines and patterns of ordering create the differences accord encouraged by the parents' reciprocal mimetic behaviour, which in tum satisfies the ing to which an other is identified._ Historical and cultur;il contexts, and !he symbolic child's demand for recognition, and encourages activities that lead to its fulfilment. A order define why someone 1s perceived as other. In the same way as one ·s concept of person's sense of belonging to a family and a community is rooted in this initial inter- 'self' is necessarily dependent on one's concept of 'foreign', so an individual is in play between parent and child. · complementary relation to that which is other. Nei:her can an i~di_vidual be conceived At hirth, a child is already predisposed towards a social existence. In the infant's without the other, nor can the other be conceived without the md1v1dual. early development, this predisposition is diversified and specialised. Touch and atten The split inherent in the huma11 constitution enables people to relate to themselves. t10n constitute a form of pre-verbal exchange between parents and child. Speech and Reflexivity is the condition for our perception of others. A person's sense of the other visual contact communicate to the child a sense of the other. Through being spoken to laraely depends on his attitude. Human flexibility makes for a great multiplicity of a~d looked at, the child also experiences its own existence. Playing with his parents or for~1s. that the other can take. The process of relating oneself to internal as well as ex with Nhcr people of reference, a child makes his first enquiries into the world, and ternal 'others' defim'S whom a subject perceives as other. The other can be seen in early forms of odf-<1wan:ness are developed. Language enables the child to enter the many different figures: in that which is considered foreign, enemy, or mad; in th<': world of the other. Mimeois plays an essential role in these stages or earlv childhood ghostlv, evil, or unsettling: in the other gender, or the sacred. In cases like these. there development. As in the physical interplay between parents and- children, ,in their ex is an ;vcrlap between concrete forms of otherness, and a more extreme, abstract other. changes of touch, visual contact and ritual behaviour, mimetic processes are mutual. In fact. every concrete form of otherness points towards a more indefinable, elusive, When parents attend to their child, it responds with mimetic reactions that elicit in tum radical other. In the case of God for instance, ~he superimposition of ii personified a response from the parents, and call for more attention and input. A sense of commu other with :111 abstract other is p;irticularly clear.' Such overlaps can be seen in other na! togetherness, resulting from this kind of interplay, is the environment in which a figures as well. The multiple forms the other can take arc a result of the symbolic order child will develop its essential farnllics: seeing, touching rememberino and speaking. of language. Without the parents' example, there would be no stimul;1s to imitatio~'. Parents sho~v "the_ child what to do, and encourage or acknowledge its performance by their reactions. fhis exchange is what transforms the cl1ild into a social being. The child realises its Difference and Otherness dependency on others, and experiences other people's recognition of its own existence as a necessary condition for life. In the mimetic relation between itself and others, the Under the banner of egalitarianism, European civilisations have often shown the clan structure of a child's personality is developed. Features of others are adopted and come aerous tendency to annihilate foreign differences through assimilation. The prevailing to ovcr~ay_ the c~ild's archaic self. They connect with it. Through experiencing the :ssumption is that other countries and cultures should not renrnin different, but trans people m its environment - the challenges, interests and desires that they present - a form in order to become part of a world-culture defined by Europe. Even between chi_ld neates Hs own self-image, which will continue to develop throughout the course countries within Europe, this assumption has prevailed. Throughout history, various ofit~ life. This self-image formed out of the responses that the child receives from oth countries have claimed to be the measure per sc for a European spirit and have wanted ers, is created according to mimetic processes that take place between it and them. to lav down the criteria for a European civilisation and world culture. at the cost of Human mteraction is not bound to the present. When for instance people of differ European and \\' orld wars. Instead of valuing _the unique characteristics of each cu_l ent ages live together, exchange is inter-generational. Through language, both spoken tun:, and strengthening such cultural features, European nations have tended to give 111 and \~'ntten. as well as customs, human exchange reaches back into the past whilst to the dangers of sacrificing the particular to the general. It is now, therefore, more pomtmg towards the future. The young build on the cultural achievements of the older relevant than ever to :icccpt the particularities of every culture and encourage these to gcnc_rations._ l-~urnan existence in lime increases the individual's dependency on a com '.11u?1~Y- Ind1v1dual self-sufficiency, autonomy and sovereignty are all but illusion, An md1V1dual needs a community in order to grow and mature. Without the sense of being 2 Todorov 1989. 3 Otto 1963. i24 125 th Se others be known. To experience an other's foreignness, one must only t1enl can ° - - . If F · d' ·ct I ·s blossom. For surely, only on the basis of a supportive attitude towards the differences It d·scover ·m 8 Todorov 1989. 10 Greenblatt 1991, p, 133, 11 Greenblatt t 991, p, 135. 9 Greenblatt 1991. -- 131 130 Egocentrism, logocentrism, and ethnocentrism interrelate and mutuallv reinforce Hermeneutic culturnl anthropology faces the danger of dissolving that which is dif each other as strategies for transforming the other. Their common aim is t; assimilate ferent. that is, reducing the 'non-identical to a general concept of understanding the '_foreign' or 'other' to that which is not foreign, that is, to the self, and thereby whereby the foreign is appropriately deformed and therefore mistreated in order to fit a erad1_cate it. _The processes involved can be observed on many levels. Not only is the universally positive method of hermeneutic appropriation' 14. In gaining insight into the mult1tud_c: of cultures destroyed as a consequence, but so also arc the lives of many differences of other cultures, science must avoid the temptation to flatten them v;ith people living_ in_ societies that are forced lo change and conform. The situation is par general concepts. Hermeneutic ethnology approaches the world of the other through ticularly tragic m cases where local or regional cultures have been eradicated, but no ;eadings and interpretations: but in so doing, it also focuses on the relation between the other cultural values introduced that would help the people come to terms with their other and the scientist, that is. between the ethnologist's frame of reference and the ch,mgecl conditions. other culture. The interpreter is drawn into the interpretation. Hermeneutic cultural nnthropology involves methods of objectif)'ing, as well as methods of reflecting world and self~refcrences. This leads to an ethnnlogy o( the self, of crucial complementary Foreign Others importance to any ethnology of the other. In ethnology, the other emerges at the crossing between cultural analysis and a Cultural anthropology secs itself as a science concerned with the foreign. In recent more general theory of human beings, as well as in ethnographic translation and years, there has been a widening epistemological debate about the other. How can it be description. In the introduction to Argonauts of the ffiestern Pacific, Malinowski pro thought, understood and represented? For a long time, it was assumed that the other posed three mutually complementary methods of objectification: 15 co~ld be clearly recognised, understood and appropriately represented. This is now bemg callee!_ into que~tion. How, tor instance, when one is bound to one's own point of the documentation of statistical data collected through surveys and observ:itions, view and crnena, 1s 1t possible to represent a forci01 culture accurately without miss with the aim of working out rules and regular patterns. ing :he culture's own self-conception? ls the repres~ntation of a culturc.'s 'self-concep the svstematic and continuous recording, in a fieldwork joumnl, of observations tion_ at nil an adequate way to investigate it? Are there not ahvays parts of a society's made, of the behaviour of the people one is studying, reality left out by its own 'self-conception'? What is this reality? How can it be under the collection of typical narratives, expressions and magic formula. sto~d'I Can it be grasped by the representations associated with objectified research? Which aspects of a culture's reality do investigators perceive, and \~'hich arc distorted These procedures turn the other into 'au intimate and systematic object of scientific or left out of their field of vision by their very methods of enquiry? To what extent is observation: "'othering" through uistancing, contextualising, and enclosing (holism)'. 16 the ethnologist's image of the 01her in fact merely his m,vn repr~sentation, that is, a In his role as ethnologist, ?vlalinowski would work out a summarised representation of mere _constructi~n of the foreign? Even if this is only partially true, the fundamental the foreign society: as an outsider, he was able see the relevance of the characteristics question must still be raised as to what extent every science in fact creates the object of he observed. Malinowski then became a translator, chronicler, and spokesperson for its enquiry. Case studies constitute a central method of ethnologic research. Informa the foreign cultures he stucliecl; but in all these different functions, there was still no tion is gathered according to a process \Vhereby the ethnologist p;rticipatcs in the other interactive process at work hclw<.:en the researcher and the representatives of the for culture and records l11S observations in a written fieldwork account. Although in cul ei2.n culture. Only as ethnologist could he be active and creative. Monographs were the tural anth:opology, participatory observation and wrilten descriptions of th; other in fo;m of text best suited to lvlalinowski's attitude and research, and they have remained case studies still play a central part, we are now more aware of the reductions that stem a central form of ethnographic tcxtualisation, objectification and representation. In his from working in this way. Indeed, observing under these concliticms means the other is work 011 the other, Malinowski's hit upon the difficulties that all knowledge of the only ever seen in a particular way. Whatever the other expresses is 'read' like a text other must confront: the problem of constituting the object; the paradoxical relation ?nd l_atcr ~~nsfor'.11ecl into a written account. The ethnologists' task is to provide a between closeness and distance, particularity and generality; and the ethnologist's thick dcsu 1pt10n , yet understandmg and description of the other culture onlv ever double role as ficlu worker and author. These difficulties have since led ethnology to P:occcds_ from the other's text structure to the textual representation thereof 12 This reflect upon questions of textuality and discourse, as well as to experiment ·with new krnd of tightly phenomenological description is bound to the conditions that a) mani forms ofrepresentation. testations a_nd forms of expression of the other can be read and interpreted like a text; Clifford Geertz has contributed largely to discussions on the other and its possible b) tln~;eadmg can then be t'.anslatecl into a written form of text that tnily represents the re resentations. His work has been essential to the hermeneutic turn in c11/t11ral an other. To 4ucst1on the validity oftbese conditions is to potentially reduce the signifi th~opologv. Instead of the study of behaviour. the study of foreign life and world clc- cance and truth-value of material gathered in this way. 14 Berg/Fuchs 1993, p. 20 (trans. A. Lagaay). 12 Geertz 1983. 15 Cf. Malinowski 1953. 13 Clifford/Marcus 1986. 16 Berg/Fuchs 1993. p. 20 (trans. A. Lagaay). 132 133 signs has become central. What si "fl . . the questioning of authoritative images of individual cultures as presented by ethnol their feelings and actions? How cance and- importance do people attribute to ~~ ogy' .20 Representatives of an indigenous anthropology have been growing in number, importance arise out of a comb_cant_ esef ~on~ect1ons be described? Significance and . ma 10n o md1vidu 1 • t · . yet epistemologically, their works are still largely rooted in Anglo-Saxon-cultural an derstandmg between tradition and , . . a m erpretahon and collective un- nev, mterpretatwn- they , II . thropology. In the 1970s and 80s, what was diagnosed as a 'crisis of the subject' in therefore public Central to thi' k" d f , are socia y constituted and · s m o research · th · . human science, and soon resulted in a 'crisis of the object', also had its effects on those systems according to which p I fr is e mterpretation of the svmbolic who emphasised the other's right to speak and be heard. Privileged access to other world. Research focuses less o eop e I ~m- oth~r cul~ures perceive and interp;et their cultures could no longer be taken for granted, They too were confronted with the cru tations of their actions than (inn tpheopb: s i_nd1V1dual mtent10ns and their own interpre- . . • e o ~ect1ve meaning f th · · · . cial problems of constituting the object and representing the other, as well as questions· The aim 1s to investigate what . 0 e1r mtentrnns and actwns. . va1 ues meanings and . t . f b . relating to the ethnologist's subjectivity and control. · . available in another culture Th" . • onen at10ns o chav1our are . . · 1s mvo1 ves employi · . . descnptrnn' of actions and con . ng appropriate concepts ma 'thick versations whereb th b content of that which is describ d Th' . '. Y e o server concentrates on the Mimetic Approaches wri.tten account not the actual e · 1 "si~ificance of someone's speech is fixed into a ' ora event itself that · h spoken act into a text requires a rt . d' '. 15, t e speech act. To transform a Mimesis has gained increasing significance in the study of one's approaches to the speaker's emotional and niental ~ct ai~ 15t~cmg on the part of the observer from the · · m ent10ns F1xatio · · · · other. In ethnology, Frazer was one of the first to note this. In T~e Golden Bough, he a spoken act from the time and I b · · · . n m wntmg suspends the content of begins his explanation of 'sympathetic magic' by differentiating between 'imitative · P ace ound conditi O f k - . the speakers are no longer pl . 11 . ons a spo en s1tuat1on. Because magic', based on the law of similarity, and 'contagious magic', based on the law of absfractcd, anci its content th11ys1cady orl scemcally present, their language becomes contact. Their .functions are defined as follows: 'Ifwe analyse the principles of thought - · is ma e re cvant to d"ffi1 ~ pomt ~t~nology thus turns into a fonn of ,mai:Y erent addressees. At this on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: cxtract·1ts structure deci"ph·e ·t . ethnogr<1phy, or the attempt to read a text, . . ' r 1 s meanmg and r d h first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that an.. ethnographic iext. The id t· b . en er t e results of these processes in · ca o emg able to r'ad It i·k things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at social behaviour. institutions and iradition c • cu ure J ·e a text and interpret a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The fonner principle may. be phors and metonymies all becom I s as such is central. Language games, met3- . · . · e re evant to the an J • Th fi . called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. From the first t10n 1s to look at what accord· . th . a ysis. e irst level of mterpreta- . · ' mg to e ethnologist th I b · of these principles, namely the Law of Similarity, the magician infers that he can pro.: The results then uiiderao a hi· uh f. , e peop e emg studied have said. . o ' '" er 1eve 1 o mte t t" · . duce any effect he desires merely by imitating it: from the second he.inlers that what sonal constructions fictions·a~nd . . . rpre a ion m which the ethnologist's per- , . ' cnt1c1sms play a ce t I I G . ever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object nolog1sts wnte and work on· th . n ra roe. enerally speakmo eth- 21 . · . e translation of oth It "' c . was once in contact. whether it formed part of his body or not. ' . . own culture. How the nroc ·s d . er cu ures 1or the members of their • · •• · . r- c scs escnbed here act i 11 · · In the realm of magic, mimesis can serve to exercise power over the othe;. Simi IS a matter of debate to ·what t . , . . 1 a Y proceed JS an open question. it t larity is the condition for a successful magical. act. It strengthens the relation, cr.eated tl 1e" qua1 1ty. .and kind of a exh. ent m his own ca·sc s u d"1es a· eertz actuallv achieved ;,. .. · . pproac towards the oth · d . · . by the magician, between two objects, situations, or people. Magical influence over ior which he stands But th . . . er, an representation of the foreign · . . . . · - ere 1:0 no doubt abo t th · . ' something is achieved by effectively copying or representing it. Belief in the magic is t1ve. s: a new literarv methodol . . u e consequences ol the new perspec- 0 1 essential for it to work. However, Frazer was wrong to emphasise similarity pe_r se .as • · - , ' ogica and ep1sten 101 · I · 1n _cultural anthropology, with fruitful r · og1~a consc10usness has developed the central condition for magical effects created through mimesis. Similarity as such is . ', If there was a problerrntic split be~:1~:s for t?e s_c1~nce and its lev:l o~reflec!ion. not important. What matters is the connection between a representation, and the figure ski s work, and if Geertz tri'ed to d . . , n subJecttvity and obJecttv1ty m Mal mow- . . o JUslJcc to th· d'ffi 1 · . . on which it is based, in other words, the creation of a relation between two ·worlds:. cle, then as a result there has b . d ts I cu ty with the hermeneutic cir- ' een a emand for th th , , · . Mimetically relating my 'world' to the 'world' of the other constitutes a form of ap- room. The other sneaks b?"k ha b e o er s v01ces to be given more • · . • " ' c s ecome the pro f . . . . proach to th;.: other. · mtemat1onal ethnolog·), 17 Ace d" . . gramme o an important direction m · . · or mg to this move t th Taussig illustrates this with the example of the Cuna figurines, many of which, c Iaim, through its own laneuag th" · · . . 11:en, e other must attempt to re- through dress and appearance, are made to look like the white-skinned colonisers.22 The· extent of this eildeavo;r re:ch e ::ressmn of ns su~jectivity and representation. Toe mimetic act of representing the white colonisers in the form of figurines is a way tacks·and appea]sl8 via the dee es . om Franz Fanon s fundamentally political at- . · · · onstrnct1on of We t h, . . of reducing their size and threatening character. Magical performance then enables the the other - and the criticisms th f 1 . s em cgemomc discourses that fixed ereo w uch tend to do the samc'9 -, right through to Cuna to actually exert power over the white men whom they otherwise perceive as 17 Nandy 1983. 20 Berg/Fuchs 1993, p. 67 (trans. A. Lagaay). 18 Fanon 1964. 21 Frazer I 924, Vol. II, p. 52. 19 Said 1978. 22 Taussig 1993. 134 135 . · . · is the simultaneous approach towards, and distancing from hat constitutes m1mes1s · . d h b over-powering. There arc numerous examples in the literature of cultural anthropology w ' · · · the indecisiveness of the m-betwccn - a ancc on t c or- th nk.nown remammg m . . · Id b- of how the other is approached through representation. Through the act of creating ofa e u ' If d tlie other Any attempt to remam on either side wou e a d I. e between onese an · 1 representation, one's feelings and attitudes towards the other can be expressed and de er m , . · ,- 11 er of the self or of the other - and would put an end to t 1c form of transgression - GI 1 · scribed. The other is transferred into one's own symbolic world where one's relation . ctic movement. f 11 d ~l ship to it can be personified. Something becomes visible in the representation that may mim . . h to the other range between the extremes o Sey a an L iary- • M1met1c approac c 5 · · If Tl , not have been easily graspable before. Thus, to create a representation of the white . If b d 11 ment to the other, and its reduct10n to these . 1ere arto, on bd between se -a an o . . . h h h h'd man is not merely to imitate him, but rather, to enter into a mimetic act, out of which 15' h bl' . d-out faces of projective xenoph1ha, and on t e ot er, t e 1 e- t! ne hand t e isse - - h · · something new arises. The mimetic act is not a mere reproduction, but a creative ac ie O l b' Botli sides necessarily avoid real contact wit or examma1 ion ugs of xenop 10 ia. . tion. Producing figures of the ·white men is a way of coming to terms with their for ous m h 1- ·t case differences arc overlooked, rn the second, they are not - th other In t e irs · · h. l · eignness. Hidden behind the representation of the other are emotions such as irritation, 0 t e · . b h ses something is sacrificed: either the self or that w 1c 1 1s insecurity, and the desire to control the fascinating unknown by keeping it within the allowed. But m loll eta n'cw rclatior;s or discoveries. At most, xcnophilia allows for · Ne1thcr a ow or . · · , t· h, boundaries of one's own symbolic world. In mimetically representing the white men as fioreign. . f ti other The person fads to look beyond his imagi:: o t c d d expenence o 1e . . . . d f others, 1he Cuna arc not interested in understanding the motivations behind the white a re uce : d 1. arid does not seek contact \Vith the foreign outsi c o 1 d !11s relate emo wns, . . .· people's behaviour, or the values and symbols of their culture. Their concern is rather ot ier an , b xposed to the ambivalence of rmmet1c approaches. It the · · ae· he refuses to e e. . . . · to express and portray the sif,'Tlificance and meaning of the whites for the Cuna. The this 1mao , _ _ . c1· ·idual's "Xpectations and desires, h1s projected attract10n t:·1-toti.1ltilt1em1v1 ~, , . mimetic act of creating these representations constitutes for the Cuna a way of appro other ai s . . ti·o11 ··rid animosit)' and later produce the same fcelmgs m the . n turn mto reJec u , . h l priating the whites both imaginatively and symbolically. This stems from their need to ma) soo . . . , f imosity and violence develops. Both sides react tot e rn- h A mnnetic spira 1 o an h h . . clarify their relationship to them. ot er._ e other otentially intensifying the scale of violence throng t eir r:a~tions. tv!any different forms of representation constitute mimetic approaches towards the trcJ ot th 'p h , · netic crisis' a scapeiwat is sought to blame and v1ct!l111se. dcr to overcome t e mu ' ~ . t other. Not only do texts and images play an important part, but also gestures and ritu In or · . . 1 e on to such scapegoc1ts a soc1etv attempts to recrea e . f O • 15 mhercnt v10 enc , , , als, games and barter. ln the creation of representations, self and other are combined. In proJCC mb i l , broken The mechanisms at work here cannot be broken · l rder that 1as 6c:en · cl· There is always a performative side to any representation of the other: something is the socrn o . 1 I . ti ougl1 them Until then there can be no un The Globalisation of Education The expansion of the European Union involving ever more European countries means education in Europe can no longer simply be seen as a national undertaking but has be come an intercultural task. 1 The core question in this growth is how geographical, re gional and national differences and similarities in education and training will be dealt with. On the one hand, there is a need to maintain cultural differences between the various countries within Europe as one facet of the rich multiplicity of the continent; on the other hand, the political, economic and cultural developments in Europe entail the need for a common approach. . In the face of the globalisation of important areas o(life as well as world\vide po litical, economic, and cultural integration the need for such a common approach is greater than ever. In the long term, such developments will increase the tension be tween the local and the global, with people increasingly seeing themselves as members of a global village with joint responsibility for the fate of the planet, and yet at the same time being unwilling to give up their attachment to a local and national context. Conflicting values and a sense of insecurity are the consequences. At present, we can distinguish two tendencies within societal development, contrary but at the same time inseparably entwined, which. are_ both central requ_irements _for shaping education within Europe: one tendency 1s d1rected towards an mcrease m individualisation, the other towards an increase in globalisation. The highly differentiated societies within Europe give each individ~al _t~e ch~nce to live h_er/his own _l!fe, ye~ simultaneously force this choice on each md1v1dual.· The contradictory conditions ot present-day so cialisation are contained ·within this requirement: each one ofus is supposed to live an individual life under societal conditions, which, however, are not subject to the indi vidual's control. Thus, the demand made is to organise one's own life, with the expec tation that one organises it successfully. Each is to choose his own biography'; each is to actively create his own life, to construct it, to take up the responsibility for it being a success. In this scenario. tradition plays a subordinate role; what is expected is self determination and self-realisation. I WulfJ995. 2 Beck 1997. _ _ . _ _ . . 3 Consider the increasing significance of ~1ography :csearch m educat1on~I science. For an overview f relevant theoretical and 111ethodolog1cal questions and the connection between biography re ~carch and education in the German context, see Kriiger/Marotzki 1998. 139 . In addition, there is also the tension between the universal and the individual, nation state." For one thing, nation states incrensingly delcgak decision-making to which needs to be readjusted in the processes of education. On the one hand olobali supra-national bodies. A further reason for the los_s of sovereignty_ is that multination~I sation i~fluences most areas of human endeavour creating similarities acros~ ~ultural conglomerates disempower nation states by playmg one_ off aga1_nst_ l~c oth~r 111 this bound~nes; on the other hand, it encourages resistance against the levelling of differ process. Thus, for example, they develop their product~ m countnes with a !ugh level ~nces m the ~ame_ofthe individual's uniqueness and integrity. Finally, education in the of technological know-how, manufacture the products 111 _low-:vage countnes, and pay -1 st cer~tury 1s hcrng drawn into the conflict between tradition and modernism or post tax in countries with low tax-rates. Through dcstroymg Jobs m the country the com modern ism: hmv can one remain open to changes both now and in the future without pany is based in, and through tax-saving measures, tl:e company burdens the state with betraying one's own cultural tradition? How can the various developmental dynamics increased costs for constantly new unemployed Vih1le simultaneously the loss of tux be related to one another and adjusted one against the other'/ And which role do the paid severely limits the sta_te's ab!lily to produ_cc the financial means needed. The strat modem media play ill this development? e ,y pays off for multmat1onals 111 terms of mcreased profits. However, as a consc Th~ radical pluralism of worldviews and educational concepts has created an in q~~nce there is a lack of funds available for the areas of education, health and social crease m the complexity of educational thought and action, bringing in its wake, more ·welfare. than ever before, greater insecurity about the goal of education, and individual and so Globalisation ]ends to distances being overcome, and brings with it the knowledge c_ictal ~levelopment. How1c:ver, such insecurity should not only be considered as a threat of previously unknown, far-distant cultural and_socictal are_as. 7 These are no longer the smce it also generates the _willingness to question one's own values, perspectives and discrete territories which go to nrnke up the nation_ s~ate, \V1th all its borders and border actions 111 a more open-rmn will d1ssolvc as there is an increasing recognition of and encouragement of key qua!ifi · 0 which takes place exclusively within an upturned airtight 'container' cx- sorneti llllo . - . . .. callons like the ability to co-operate, reflect, and innovate, coupled wi!h the drive to - , »ri·no the territorv of one s111glc nation state. The various ongms, npproaches actly o.;o,e "' • .~ . . . achieve, -with, in addition, strengths in intercultural and media areas. As well as con es of a culture are such thnt 1t makes more se11se to imagme them overlappmg an d fiocus . . I ' I 1· , . 6 Wulf 1998. Liebau/Miller-Kipp/Wulf 1999. 4 Beck 1997. 7 8 Bilstein/Miller-Kipp/Wulf 1999. 5 See above Part I, chap. 3, 'Work as Gesture and Ritual'. 9 Castells 1996. 140 141 ments. The new tasks facing education are to be found within this process: the devel t. The demands made by these processes in globalisation and individualisation sa 100· · · 1· · f h"ld d opment of new accounts of the other, new reference points, and new transnational h tained and lasting effect on the education and socrn 1sa1Ion o c 1 ren an loyalties and alliances. Ecological and peace movements have developed initial forms ave a sus onalities and diversities. ansmg. . tirom h"1s are mam·r, o ld, as are h e teenagers. The Comm . t t of transnational associations together with the corresponding actions by segments of -ntended side effects of the educatmnal processes. . uni JJ< · l · I · 1 d l 1 the population. Curiosity and the Foreign in Today's Education: Wit 1m t 1e socta ~n cu tura , Today the processes of globalisation pervade all areas of life and have increased reated by globalisation, the increasing contact to and confrontation with the processes C . o . . f: ·1 · the complexity of life-worlds and the ways in which people live. They have an intlu · b omes more and more important. 1 As we have seen, success or at ure m forezgn ec th 1· f "fi I f; en~e on the young generation through, above all, new media, new ways of communi dealing with the foreign is a decisive factor in dete~ining e qua 1ty o h e .. n as ar cation, and the world market; these processes make their effect felt across all cultural d t. on is supposed to prepare the next generatmn for the challenge of hfe under as e uca 1 • f h · d b differences, however great, though what they achieve is similarity, not sameness. . - tal ditions which are globally m the process o c ange. a more intense e ate soc1e con . . I • k There would be resistance against an attempt to reduce similarity to sameness in order · - h b th the foreign and foreigners belongs to one of the mcrcasmg y important tas s to ~m~oth over differences, and within this framework one would justifiable try to withl O d t'on Yet what is foreign and what is familiar? Where do the commonali- wit n e uca i • • • • • . mamtam the value of the integrity and uniqueness of the particular. In view of this de · d diversities lie when we consider what 1s foreign and what 1s own? · . · velopment, education has to occupy itself increasingly with the task of supporting ties an · in task of education will be to awak en curiosity· · a b out th e fiore1gn · an d Th e ma . d Th' . h .. you~g people in meeting the demands which have developed from the enormous ex - · · "thout sacrificin2. it to mere superficial knowle ge. 1s 1s t e prereqms1te mamtam 11 w1 - • • pans1~n ofknowledge and help them unfold their personal abilities through knowledge. . ,ncounter with the foreign more an ennchment and less a threat. One of ofmak mg an e • . • . . expenment and experience. Thus, they will be bdtcr able to cope with the increased · tant thouah most difficult tasks facmg education 1s how to encourage the most 1mpor '°' . . . • complexity of life and better able to organise and make decisions about their own lives. . - th unknown and develop methods of heunst1c learnmg. When reforms m interest in e h" d · h J In .this situation, one of the most difficult tasks within education is balancing the de - planned differences in the value of measures ac 1eve m t e onger or educat10n are , . . . h h . m~ndfo~ eq_uality of opportunity and the need/or competition: equality of opportunity uld be taken into account, since what 1s effective m t e s ort-term 1s shorter-term Sho . d · . b .· brmgs with 1t the demand for special resources to promote socially disadvantaged chil · t·"ectual in the long-term and vice versa. Thus, e ucat10n nee. ds to e· I 1 frequent y me ' • • . • C • dren -whereas the support needed for life in a competitive society demands the devel rspecl!ve ofhfelon" learning which should be planned ,md ap- Iooked at f rom the Pe " . , . . . . opment of skills needed for self-assertion. The former aims at developing solidarity, . d. ly This will itself involve developmg a vancty of forms oflearnmg. Phed accor mg . . . . .· the la~er at i~dividuality. These two goals are frequently seen as mutually exclusive, · nd Di'lemmas in Education: Education today 1s mfluenced by vanous Tenszons a . . . allowmg no simple compromises to be made. . conflict formations and dilemmas: · · The Scenario of the Future? The Increase of Individualisation and Globalisation: tensions, At present, we can distinguish two main tendencies within societal development. con tensions will increase hetween the local and the global. with peop. 1 In the Iong t enn , . . • . . . le t:ary QU~ at the same time insepsrably entwined, which are both central requirements · · ,] seeing themselves as members of a glohal village with JOmt respon~ Progressive y . b . -11- · · , for shapmg education: one tendc.:ncy is directed towards an increase in individualisa . . .c tie f:ate of the planet and yet at the same tune em 2. unw1 mg to gl\'e up· sibt1 1ty 1 or 1 , • - _- . · . ti?n, the_ other !?wards an increase in globalisation, In many parts of the world many th . ttachment to a local and nal!onal context. - · · · highly differentiated societies give each individual the chance to live her/his own life, elf a · between the universal and the individual needs to be readjusted in the 2 The tension d I b 1· · f·1·s-: yet simultaneously force this choice on each individual. The contradictory conditions · , of education too. Rather than the tendency towar s a g o a 1sat1on o · 11e nrocesses - d . - · • 1 k- of present-da~ socialisation arc contained within this requirement: each one of us is y•. - ·t d to areas such as economics an po1 1llcs, t 111s process 1s a so ta mg being 11m1 e . • . supposed to hvc an individual life under societal conditions which. however are not ·th' culture and education On the one hand, globalisation mfluences most lace w1 111 • · . . . . - . subject to -the individual's control. Thus; the-demand made'is to 0 ;-ganise o~e's own P f h an endeavour creatmg s1m1lant1es across cultural boundanes and; on. areas O um · · f d"ffi · life, with the expectation that one organises it successfully. In this s-cenario, tradition encourages resistance agamst the leve 11·mg o· I erences m t h e the oth er hand , . . . . plays a subordinate role; what is expected is self-determination and self-realisation. Of the individual's uniqueness and mtegr1ty. · · : The abilities to reflect and make decisions has become the most important qualities name ·t 'ntury education will be drawn ·mto t he con ti·ict · b·etween trad"t· 1 10n ·an d 3 In the nex ce , . . . . h . . tor the way we organise· our lives and the decisions we make. Life, nowadays. for · · r post-modernism bringing with 1t questions like: ow can one remam moderm s m o . . , . . many people is a life in a material world without reference to transcendence. Each in oth now and in the future without betraymg one s own cultural open to c h an ges b . dividual is solely responsible for the difficulties arising in their own situation and any . • ? How can the various developmental dynamics be related to one another. errors made in dealing with them. . trad1t1on.. ted one against the other? And w h"1ch roI e do . th e mod em med" ta . p Iay .m and ad ~us . . · On the other hand, growth in individualisation is increasingly determined by the this development? pro_cesses of ~lo~a(isation. The result is a reciprocal n:lationship: the present-day forms of mcreas~d md1v1dualisation have become possible through globalisation processes, yet gloha1Isat1on processc.:s, in turn, require a growth and intensification in individuali- 10 Dibie/Wulf 1998. 142 143 and skills in order to develop a conduct of life, which is more productive_ Here, the 4. There is an increasing tension between long-term and short-term considerations, i.e. humanities and their knowledge arc of central importance both in achieving these aims \~hat makes sense from a _short-term perspective might be \vrong when looked at and reforming education and society. There is, moreover, a need for developing com !rom a long-term perspective. Many of the financial cuts in education would fall petence in acting socially within different social areas. Education has to focus on the . mto this category. improvement of memory, reflection, imagination, health, communication skills and the 5. Within education~! reforms, the tension between the need for competition and the particular needs and abilities of the individual social subject. conc~m for equality of opportunity cannot be overcome once and for all. All the Given that there are 900 million illiterates and 130 million children without the op sol~t1ons offered are merely simplifications of the problem. Within the framework portunity to visit school, greater efforts are needed to improve basic education without ofhfel?ng learning, there is a need to balance the three forces of 'competition', 'co- reducing secondary and university education. International efforts have to be increased opcrat1on' and 'solidarity'. · in order to help poor countries extend the quantity and quality of education. The suc 6. The extraordinary expansion of knowledge creates a tension between itself and hu cessful introduction of educational reforms depends on the commitment shown_ by man beings' capacity to assimilate it. The educational system, therefore, has to sup communities - including parents, teachers, principals, the general public and the inter port young people to help them cope with the challenges inherent in acquiring new national community. The report stresses that, for the success of educational reforms, knowledge as ~ell as helping them develop their own personal proficiency. decentralisation and the active participation of teachers are both crucial. · 7. There 1s a tension ben:veen the spiritual and the material. Only if education can bal The report recommends the international community take the following steps: _ ance the potential conflict between the spiritual and the material, can it help young people adequately to prepare themselves for life in modem or late modem societies. educate women and girls for equality, give one quarter of all development aid of international organisations as support in Th~ ai_m of education ought to be to enable young people to balance these tensions in education, their_ hves and contribute towards the shared future of mankind. Education needs to be allow no reduction of debts and credits if the finances for the educational sec{or_ c_ons1dered as a process of life-long· learning and as a value in itself. Although educa have been reduced, to • c b ta) · I 1·1· I t1011 has accept the challenoes emcruinrr1c- firom soc·1e , econom1ca an d po 1 1ca introduce worldwide modem information technology, deYelopments, it ought not to he reduced only to those. Furthermore, education has to increase consideration on NGO's for international co-operation. resist. the economisation ofth'e e ducc1 , 1·10na I t-1e Id and encourage an awareness that there 1s more to education_ than mer el Y econo1111c· cons1"d eratmns.· Through education,· young The UNESCO report of the Dclors commission consists of the following chapters; people need to be prepared for the diversity and heterogeneitv fo~md in the different their titles indicate the character of the programme they are proposing: regions of the world. · Learning·. · the treasure wz"th· in. I n th' 1s s1tuat1on· · of growing societal and educational From the local community to a world society. Worldwide interdependency and co~plexity, UN~SCO has Jir~sented a report on education in the 20th century, which globalisation have a strong influence on the daily life of most people. This situafio,n delmeates four pillars oflearnmg: learning to know, learning to do learning to live to is a challenge to culture, education and society. There is a danger of the gap increas-. gether, learning to be. Leaming ought to be based on living toge[her with others and ing further between a minority of human beings, who can creatively shape _these help to shape communal lives constructively and in the spirit of peace and social jus new conditions of life and the majority of human beings, who are helpless vis a vis tice. Mutual understanding is to be encouraged and skills needed to form one's life these innovations.. Finally, an improvement of mutual understanding, responsibility, productively are to be fostered and developed. Of particular importance among the and solidarity is needed, to which educatioi;i can contribute. . · many, - _-tv1°es· of knowled. ge is· t l1e scn.:nt1· "fi 1c knowledge required for shaping societal 0 _ From social cohesion to democratic participation. Educational policy must take_ a chan..,c.•· The_ development·ofth». v con1pete- . nee t o· ac· t m· various· societal· areas 1s· to be en- broad perspective; it should not contribute to the social exclusion of individuals and courage~. 1 hu_s, such demands are directed to the specific skills and needs of the indi- population groups. Ed_ucation o~ght_ to combine, on the one hand, societal demari.ds viduals,.. . . . ,o. . their health_, memor";, r"flc ec t·10n, 1magmat1on· · · and aesthetic· and commumca-· and, on the other, an tnd1V1dual · s right to personal development Education cannot ttve a~il!ties. ~u_ch learning ought to contribute to the multidimensional concept of solve the.central societal problems, but it can help to cope with them better. Schools e~uc~tion, avo1~m~ the economisation of education; this is a dominant perspective in fulfil their societal tasks only when also they contribute to the education of minority vtewmg e~ucation m what is often referred to as the neo-liberalism of the capitalistic groups. An education dev~lopi?g. demo~racy: citizenship and civil behaviour has to world society. · · · · take place in all schools, smce 1t 1s precisely m school_ that students can learn demo ._ Ma~y hopes f~r improvement have centred on the UNESCO report's main con- cratic behaviour, including the understanding of the other and how to make compe ctpts• ol the . leammo-, "" socict,·'J and 'J'i'_1 e )ong Jcammg' · • fior everyone. with· the requ1s1te· · tent judgements. Education needs to assist ~tudents and adults to develop the ad3ustments. . . m torm 'and cont en t...,or m· d.1v1 ··d uaI a b·1·1 1t1cs · and potential.· Leammg· shotil d cultu~.:il prerequisites necessary for the structuring of information and the under- be related to people Iivin o tl1gethe d t ·b l · · · · l • • to ran conn ute to s iap1112 this construct1velv m t 1e standing of their historical context. spmt ofpeacc and •soci·t\ ' •1 -tI"tt"0 ce. Th e aim· nee d s to he to improve. ~ mutual understandmg· . ]45 144 - ·From economic growth to human development. A new concept of development is Choices for education: The political factor. The quality of the educational system ·needed, generating a framework within which actual living conditions can better be influences the orientation and quality of society and therefore there is a need for taken into consideration. More research is needed on the future of work and changes public debate on educational issues, which involves decision makers in it. The qual in the world of work caused by technological developments. The relation between ity of educational institutions is improved through decentralisation and relative auto · policies of development and education need to be reconsidered and improved. Fur nomy. The state and the community should remain responsible for education with ther efforts are needed for the enlargement and improvement of basic education in finance provided by the state and the public. Private support is desirable, but cannot all areas of the world. by itself replace the state or the community. The financing of education has to take a The four pillars ofeducation. The four pillars of learning to know, learning to do, lifelong perspective into account Educational technologies offer more possibilities learning to live together, and learning to be should all lead to a better general and than are at present in use. focused education. There needs to .be further development of skills which would en International co-operation: educating the global village. Today, international co . able people to act adequately in.different local, regional and international situations. operation is needed in the field of education. Investments in education are invest Mutual esteem and the ability for competent co-operation ought to be developed and ments in the future of the society. There should be explicit positive support for girls · therefore there is a concomitant need for many different types of knowledge and and women in education. New information technologies should be developed and ways of learning and acting in the educational system. improved. One aim of international co-operation ought to be the internationalisation - ·Learning throughout life. Strategies oflifelong learning have to be developed since of curricula and the use of new technologies. NGOs should co-operate ,to improve more and more competence is expected from the social subject. This in tum entails educational development. . the development of adequate programmes and strategies within a learning society. - From basic education_ to university. Worldwide efforts in education need to be fo It is not my aim here to offer a detailed critical review of the UNESCO Report of the .. cused on basic educational skills with special attention given to primary education Delors Commission on the future of education. Nevertheless, I feel it would be useful and the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic. Such a worldwide concern for to raise a few questions which may serve as a point of departure for a more substantial · ·basic education would take into consideration the specific conditions of different critique, such a critique being understood as an attempt to improve the report's rele- countries and populations. Furthermore; there will still be a need for writing and vance for education and schooling in different part of the world: . . reading programmes for illiterates. To help transmit basic scientific knowledge, better curricula are required. _The teacher student ratio has to be improved or com- To what extent does the report fulfil its intention to create a general perspective _fo1 . pensated for by new teaching technologies, Within the context of lifetime learning, human development on the basis ofleaming and education? ·· secondary school education ought tei be reconsidered, with educational counselling Isn't the report itself - in spite of the contributions from different parts of.the work ' used to help improve educational opportunities and social justice. On the tertiary in the Epilogue - too European centred and in need of further elaboration to be rele· level,- universities should be able to teach the specific knowledge required for social vant for educational planning and practice in Asia, Africa and South-America? .. ::and economic life nowadays; in addition, they should be equipped well enough to Doesn't the universal character of the report reduce its relevance for the differen· ·. prepare students for university careers. Universities should be open to all those who regions of the world and wouldn't a regionally more specific report be a better helJ meet !he entrance requirements. On the university level, there ought to be more in for the improvement of education and schooling? . . . . ' :tematmnal: co-operation, ·although each university should retain its autonomy in Aren't the underlying philosophical and anthropological assumptions about the per teaching and-research. On the level of both secondary and university education, fectibility of human beings too optimistic? And isn't that optimistic view itself 1 ·. there ought to be a large variety of programmes available. · handicap for practical educational work, since it tends to give practitioners a. bac - Teachers in search ofnew perspectives. Teachers, in many areas of the world, find conscious, which might in tum paralyse their innovative energy? themselves both economically and socially disadvantaged. Both of these aspects ·need to be changed in order for teachers to be able to fulfil their important societal Whoever considers education in the next century runs ·the risk, as in the UNESCO re task: Co-operati~n between different sites of learning and differently qualified peo port, of over-stressing the utopian side of educational thinking and doing. The optimis· ple _is needed to improve the variety of learning and education processes in various tic hope in the perfectibility of young people transforms the nature of their reality, 1 · societal areas. reality equally characterised by resistance and incorrigibility. A large number of edu Si~ce the outcome of schooling depends largely on the quality of the teachers, cational reforms have shown that young people are not prepared merely to let them contmuous teacher in-service training is needed. A national and international ex selves be led in the direction which the older generation believes is right for- them. Ir change ~f teachers can considerably help in _two ways: by helping students cope addition, the problem of unwanted educational side effects ensures that the gap· be better with the demands of society today and improving the feeling of solidarity tween such utopian hopes and wishes and the reality of educational practice can neve1 . · between the generations. be fully overcome. Educational theory and practice will forever be confronted with thii discrepancy since it lies at the very heart of human existence. 146 . ,. :..:..:-, Outlook Educational Anthropology: A New Perspective on Education Historicity, Culturality, Trans-Disciplinarity Our considerations so far have shown clearly that education is not possible without assumptions about humans or without anthropology. The human images implied in education and the connected ideas of educational anthropology differ considerably according to particular historical and cultural situations. Worldwide new demands on education thus underline the importance of anthropological research into the respective historical and cultural foundations of education and socialisation. In view of the com plexity of current social and individual developments, it is vital that historico-eduea tional anthropology develop on an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary level as wel as on the level of European or global co-operation, and furthermore, that its effects or the understanding of education and educational behaviour be evaluatecl. After havinf elucidated the fruitfulness of educational anthropological research and reflection· in thi three examples 'Perfectibility·, 'Social and Educational Mimesis' and 'Global and In tercultural Education', we will now tum to research in the field of history and his torico-anthropology, and analyse possihilities for further devclopmeut. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new interest in educational anthropol ogy. Much of the work born of this new wave of interest is, however, notably differen from previous studies in this field. Three terminological groups can be said to hav1 characterised this change: historicity and p/11ralitv, culturality and inler-culruralif) multi- and trans-disciplinarity. The combined result of these elements has been a mov, towards historico-cducational anthropology, the current and future development o which is revealed in the context of historico-anthropological research in history an, cultural science. The present article aims to provide a general overview of the evolu tion of educational anthropology. Our study will focus on the following: the historico-educational turn in anthropology, _ the emphasis on double historicity, and the relevance of historical anthropolog within historical research. the cultural and inter-cultural nature of historico-educational anthropology withi cultural studies. the trans-disciplinary and transnational character of historical anthropology. 14 The Historico-Educational Tum in Anthropology theory of learning, in which human beings are considered in terms of their abilities7; and as a theory of individual development.8 lt was in tum conceived as a sub-discipline Sin~e th~ early d_ays of modem ~ducational science in the seventeenth century, and es of anthropology9, and as an area of inter-focultative communication. 10 pecially m the eighteenth and nmeteenth centuries, anthropology and education have Loch 11 and Bollnow12 distinguish 'educational anthropology' from 'anthropologi been closely co_nnected. Different conceptions of what constitutes human flexibility, cal education.' Bollnow considers 'educational anthropology' as an integral and basic, human complet10n and perfection have defined the educational theories of Rousseau empirically determined anthropology that treats educational phenomena from the point Campe, Kant, Pestalozzi, Humboldt, Herbart and Schleiermacher. Between J 750 and of view of their relevance for questions that aim at a general understanding of humans. 1850 anthropological research developed into a constitutive feature of cducation. 1 In Attempts to emphasise the educational relevance of anthropology fall under this_ cate accordanc~ with his anthropological assumptions on the concept of nature, society and gory, as well as investigations into the human need for education. Works belonging to human bemgs, Rousseau developed an experimental programme for the education of the category 'anthropological education' are those that propose to work out the anthro the natural human being. According to Kant, the task of education is to work out the pological relevance of educational science and contribute to a phenomenology of edu ~nthropological difference between human existence and one's sense of moral duty. cation. This distinction between educational anthropology and anthropological educa Man only ?ecomes human thro~gh education. He is nothing more than what education tion has not, however, been widely accepted. mak_es o_f~m~. lnso~ar as edu.cat10n teaches a man some things and lets others develop More sustained interest has been shown in the idea of an 'anthropological perspec m him, 1t is impo~s1ble to _tell the extent of his talcnts.' 2 For his theory of education, tive in education', according to which various starting points can be related-to eacl:i ~umboldt emphasised the importance of the ineluctability of the individual, its neces other and compared. Bollnow defines this perspective as follows: 'we are not talking_ol sity_ to co~fro~t- and _work out the ~orld, and the anthropological connection between the foundation of a new discipline, nor of a particular branch that would have a partic.u language, mdividuahty and education. Schleiermacher's view of the indecisiveness of lar task within the general realm of education, but rather, of a particular perspectivf anthropologica! co~ditiot?S l~ads to a theory of upbringing and education that takes into that is to run throughout, yet which does not itself carry a particular characterisati()r account the h1stoncal quality of educational reality (E · h · kl" hk "t) d that would bring individual educational questions together in a new light. The anthro h fi , d . . "rz1e ungswir 1c e1 , an t ere :1rc oes not define educat10nal aims according to normative anthropological as pological perspective has no system-generating function as such( ... ), but what it does sumpt1ons.3 is to work out individual aspects of anthropological connections seen from particulai In Germany, throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies the field of educational pomts• o 1- view.• ,13 . . _ . anthropology con_sisted ~f many different approaches. The s~bject was neither clearly If we try to systematise educational anthropological thought from the fifties_ to th1 separate from ph1losoph1cal anthropology , nor from th e an th ropo Iog1es · o f ot h er sci-· seventies, five different positions emerge. Two additional perspectives characterise th( ences such as psycholo"v socioloo)' b" I d. · 4 · · . . . _b,, b , 10 ogy, me 1cme, and theology. Neither was 1t developments of the eighties and nineties. fundamentally. d1stmgu1shable. from other pos1·11·ons w·th"1 m ed uca t"10na I science.· Ed uca- tJonal anthropology was perceived alternately as the a th I · l ~ d f f 'I. The integral position considers human beings in terms of homo educandus et_ edu education;5 as em irical !h . . . n ropo og1ca ioun a_10n o . . . • P_ . eory and phllosophtcal category analys1s; 6 as the basis for a cabi!is: man is a teachable being, in need of education (Flitner, Roth. Liedtke). · 2. The philosophical position regards man as undetermined hy instincts. Man is ·: wholly undetermined question, an 'open system' _(Bollnow, Derbolov,Loch). I Wulf 1996a. 2 . Kant. 1982, p, 699. 3. The phenomenological perspective views man as homo disrinctus, that is, define, 3, In the twentieth century in Germany th I · · · · as either adult, child, teacher, pupil, father, mother ... (Langeveld, Rang, Lassahn). N hi ;: 1 · p .. 1 . 1 . ' an ropo og,cal mvest1gat1ons were pursued by Hermann 4. The dialectic-reflexive point of view regards human beings as zoon politikon, tha 0 _ in :•s '." agogisc ie Me~chenlamde (see Nohl 1929), Otto-Friedrich Bollnow. in his hook Wesen rltr St1mmungen (sec Bollnow 194 J) d H · · ·· ·· is, in terms of social and individual self-realisation (Buber, Levinas, Adorne 1968) 0th · . - • an emnch Dopp-Vorwald (see Dopp-Vorwald · er attempts to establish educational th I ti Klafki). . educational sc,·enc· · 1 d M . an ropo ogy as a undamental and integral parl of e me u e artrnus J Langev 'id' A 1 . ., . work bv Andreas Fl" . : c S 1111ropo 1ng,e ues Kun/es (1964) as well as 5. The implicit position considers human beings as imago hominis: man appears i1 h. 1 ' 1 • ' · itner ( 1963 ), He 11 mch Rotl1 (1966; 19 71 ), and Werner Loch ( I 963; I96&). The the mode of images (Scheuer]). 6e1h~:~P;1;;tnttopolo~rcal works of Max Scheler (1928), Helmuth Plessner (1928) and Arnold 5 d ( ) rongly rnflu:nced educational anthropology between 1955 and 1975. Schcler's WOf s accuratelv sum up their premj, . 'I · . h fi . ae. n our approximately ten thousJnd year old history. we st are 1now mkt e rr age rn which man has become completely and fully "problematic"· in which he 7 Loch I 980. no onger nows what he is yet at th · ' . • e same trme knows that he does not know' (Scheler 1955, S Derbolav I 980. p. 62• trans. A . LaFaay) In the face of th d - f . . 0 1 9 Bleidick 1967. · ft, . d ' • • • e eta, o sc1rnl1fic knowledge, educational anthropologv 1s o en III anger of forgetting this wise insight. · 10 Schilling 1970. 4 GadamerNogler 1972-74. 11 Loch 1963, p. 82. 5 Liedtke 1980. 12 Bollnow 1980, p. 45. 6 Zdarzil 1980. 13 Bollnow I 980. p. ·19 (trans.,~.. Lagaay). 150 15 6. Th_e t_extural point of view conceives the human being as anagram. Man becomes thropology, and the discovery of the fruitfulness of negative and dcconstructivc an po1et1cal text (Derrida, Foucault, Geertz). thropologies, were only later to emerge. Indeed only later did anthropological critieisrr 7. The J?_lural-hisrorical position views man as homo abscondilus. People arc consid itself become a constitutive part of educational anthropology. ered m terms of plurality, reflexivity and double historicity (Kamper and Wu!C Wiinsche, Mollenhauer. Lenzen, \\lulf).' 14 Plurality and Historicity Of the various positions of educational anthropology in the fifties, sixties and seven ties, the following points of criticism emerged, leading, amongst other things, to the \Vhereas biological anthropologies aim to identify and study universal human charac development of liiotorico-edueational anthropology. 15 One objection was that tradi teristics, historico-educational anthropology emphasises the historicity of that which i~ twnal cducat_ional anthropology failed to consider sufficiently its own historical and studied, as well as the historicity of the subject undertaking the study and their researct ~ocial cond1t1ons. Not enough thought had been put into the mutual relation between its questions and methods. Thus, historico-educational anthropology underlines the doubl{ lundamental concepts ancl the social developments on which these depend. This was historicity of its endeavours, which, although equully relevant to biological anthropol true of terms such as 'openness', 'plasticity', and 'determination'. Furthermore, ogy, the latter tends to overlook. Genetics. ethology, and socio-biology all aim to gair a11hough educational anthropology took into account the historicitv of its own endeav knowledge ahout humans that goes beyond time and cultural conditions. In so doing ours, it did not sufficiently emphasise the 'double historicity' factor. ·History', more they tend to neglect the historicity and cultural determination of their own question, over. was considered in terms of th<.: history of arts and ideas (i.e. the rcar'm of hu- and methods, as wdl as the historicity - proven in evolution theory - of their objects o 111:mitics), but not in terms of social and societal historv. or thi; historv of mentalities. investigation. 17 Similarly, in aiming to state general truths about humans, philosophica Another objection was of the prevailing assumption \;ithin educ::itio1;::il anthropology anthropology, inspired by biological anthropology. overlooks the historical condition that one could simply ms_crt mto the context of educational science the anthropological alitv of its assertions. knowledge of the huma111t1_cs. and integrate it into a general body of knowledge, which -Research in the realm of historical anthropology has led to a new understanding o would be ot relevance to issues of upbringing and education. This was said to create history. 10 Historical anthropology complements the history of events, as well as struc intcr-disciplinarv knowledge. Yet the question of how to integr.:ite appropriately into tural ~nd social history. Whereas factual history concentrates on the multiplicity an< the concerns of cdueat10n, the knowledge acquired within another discipline, was Jell dynamics of historical actions and events, structural or social history deals with eco open. _lncleed, it 1s extremely doubtfol whether one can speak of a wholeness or :rnthro n~mic, social and political struclurcs. In his famous book about the Mediterranean pological knowledge. Moreover, the claim that educational anthropology has anything Braudel adds to these forms of history the idea of a geographicallv conditioned dee1 19 to state about the m_1turc of humans_ children, or educators, is extremely prnhkmatic. 1" structure, or geuhistoirc. To understand the changes in this field, one must take int< ln _general_ such cl:rnns about human beings tend to refer exclusively to an abstrnctecl account the considerable time span (longuc durec) in which things developed. The an bemg (white_ European, male) or to children and educators of similar cultural circles, thropoJogical tum in historical science has meant a change in oricntation,20. whercb: in ?thcr words lead to_ un~cceptable generalisations involving p:micular fictions and the social structures of social reality. as well as subjective moments in the behaviour. o cl:ums to power. In claurnng to concern itself with humanitv as a whole and the asso social subjects are thematised.21 'History always occurs in the interplay between previ ciated cont_ingc~cics and_ continuities, early educational anthropology 1:ndcd to disrc ouslv stated structural conditions (lifo, production and power relations. etc.) and th, gar_d the s1gmflcance ol notions of difference, discontinuitv ancl pluralitv. Tt either stru~turnlising practices (interpretations and actions) of the agents. '22 This develop clmmed to be able to make statements about the nature of hu;nan beings in.general. or ment has led to the creation of several new journals.23 Many of the works published i1 to gain universal_ t:rnpirical knowledge about people in the context of their upbringing these stem from the school of the Anna/es, wilh its three generations or historians: I and educati?_n. Either way, educational anthropology failed to consider the constructerl Febvre and Marc Bloch: 2) Fernancl Brauclel, Ernest Labrousse, Pierre Ch:mnu, Em character oJ its O\:'n ide:is, premises and concepts. Educational anthropology could also be criticised for its exclusively philosophical or scientific orientation· neither did it 17 W,ikctils 1990; F.ihl-Eibesfeldt 1988; Meier 1938: Dawkins 1989. O f' take. into• _ account. 1,·t,,1··1r"~ ' J or ue.'Sth e1· JC orms o 1· ,mow,. ledge, nor was its· · research - de- I 8 Dressel 1996. spite alt1rmations_ to the contrary - empirically oriented. Representatives or educational 19 Brnudcl 1995. anthropology attributed almost universal validity to their concerns and frames ofrelcr 20 Burke 1'192: Je Certeau 1991; Braudcl ct al. 1990: LcGoffl978: 1988. ence .. the limits of :vhich they did not rctlect. Educational anthropology tended to re 2t Erbe 1979: Siissmuth 1984: Rtise11 1989; Habermas/Minkmar l'N2: Middell/Sarnmlcr 1994: Cor _uard itself as a pos1t1vc anthropology. Insight into the impossibility or normatiYe :m- rad/Kessel 1994. 22 Dressel 1996. µ. I 63 (trans. 1\. Lagaay). 23 E.g. Post and !'res cm: Comparalin- St111lies in Sncict.l' ond Hisl01y; .Journal of /111erdiscipli11m 14 Wulti'Zirfas t994, p. 19 (trans, A. Lagaay). History; Saeculum: Jahrbuch for Universalgeschichle; Zeitschrift fur Historische Anthropologi1 15 Wulf 1994; p. 19 (trans. A. Lagaay). and with a slightly different orientation, Paragrana. Internationale Zeitschrift for Historische Ai 16 Kamper/Wulf 1994. thropologie. 152 15 manuel LeRoy Ladurie; 3) Philippe Aries, Georges Duby; Jacques Le Goff, Arlette talities emerge under specific social and cultural conditions; they pre-structure the so Farge, Roger Chartier, Michel Vovelle, and Fran9ois Furet.24 cial behaviour of social subjects without completely determining it. Mentalities are Recent developments have led to a new direction in historical research, oriented open to changes and historical evolution. Insofar as upbringing and education are in towards people's fundamental situations and elementary experiences towards 'consis volved in maintaining and changing people's mentalities, historical research into men tent, anthropological conditions' (Peter Dinzelbacher), towards 'basi~ human phenom tality is of great significance to historico-educational anthropology, to the history of ena (Jochen Marti~), a~d t?wards 'elem_enla1?' human modes of behaviour, experience education, as well as to the general science of education. a~d fundame~tal s1tuat10ns (Hans Medick), m other words, to a considerable expan Historicising human phenomena often considered unchangeable has allowed for a sion of qucstmns, themes and methods of research. As opposed to the anthropologies new kind of openness towards human history. There is a growing awareness of histori that emphasi~e the univers~I cha_racter_ofhuman fundamental phenomena, the purpose cal conditionality and the changeability of anthropological structures, as well as the of the _new held of studt 1s to mvest1gate the specific historico-cultural character of historical and cultural variety of human occurrences. This focus has created a new in each given phenomenon. -J No longer is there talk of the invention of childhood in the terest in historical and cultural differences, and consequently, an awareness. of 'the 26 earl~ modern_ age , ~ut rather, of childhood in a particular place, at a particular histori history from below', calling in tum for research into themes and circles of people that 27 cal tune_ and_ ma part1~ular culture. Especially good examples of research into histori were previously excluded. To this end, new sources are discovered and investigated c_al detail with the claim of it being universally relevant are provided in LeRoy Ladu with new kinds of questions. This is well illustrated in the works of the 'New Histori ne' s w~rk ,vfon,taillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village 1294~1324,28 and cists' _; 4 Carlo Gmzburg s The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos ofa 16th Century Milfer. 29 Re~~arc~ into historical change in 'human elementary experience' or the history of mentalities is. o~en much !e~~ detailed.30 This is generally due to the inadequacy of Culturality sources t~at Ii:111t the possibility of historical knowledge. However, it is not the only st reason. Hi oncal knowledge emerges from the tension between events and narration, Within historical anthropology, there has been a large expansion in the realm of rele b~twee~/eality a_nd fiction, between structural history and the narrative accounts of vant themes, and a new diversity of research strategies. One of the reasons for this-is h1storv· · 'there 1s no border!· b · . . 32 , . , ' . me etween narrat10n and descnpt10n': Accounts of the fact that historical anthropology is not a systematic anthropology but rather, an 5t hi ory are al_w~ys a form of controlled fiction and construction. Peter Dinzelbacher anthropology of differences and possibilities. In the interplay between differences and has shown tln~-rn his_Europiiische Mcntalitatsgeschichte which describes human ele possibilities, culture becomes a central factor. With its ·redisc~very' and ~ew assess mentary expene~ces m three articles on Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern ment of culture,-historical anthropology has given nse to a considerable variety of con Age., !he foll~~rng themes are d~alt with: individuality/family/society; sexuality/love; cepts and terms. This has been furthered by the reception of European cultural anthro bod) c1 nd soul, illness; ~tages of life; dying/death; fears and hopes· happiness pain and pology by Anglo-Saxon research.35 . · ·. · . luck· work and celebrations· com · ti' · h · ' ' .' , . , mumca on, t eforczgn as opposed to the self; power; These investig;itions can be seen as part of the effort to develop a cultural science law, nature1env1ronment; space· time/history The · t t d th h. · t ry of· I. , . ' • purpose 1s o s u y e 1s o that crosses the bound::iries of individual disciplines.36 Indeed, cultural science is now menta ity, as the totality of the contents and mod f th' k' d fi th t d . _ . . es o m mg an ee1· mg a e- used as the generic term for multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary research in the-Arts termme a certam commumty at a certain time M t I"ty ·r,- · If· f ',J The fact that historical ch . h . en ~ ~ mam ests itse m ac ion . and 1-lumanities, within whose realm, historico-anthropological research is of central _ . ange m t e realm of mentalities only ever takes place over a · rt nce 37 · · very long tnnc has often been emphasised Far fr t · . 1 d ffbl ks t I" 1mpo a . · . . . . _ . ties -are mutuall . t r k d d . . ' om ,~~ng c ose o . oc. , men a i- Before looking more closely at the centr::il d1mens1ons of a h1stonco-anthropolog1- . . h Y m er m e an permeable. Mentaht1es shape actions m concrete cal concept of culture, let us clarify the character of research in this field with a brief s1tuat10ns; t ey contain orientation and 1 • • • • • • . . . . cec1s10n makmg signals for social bdrnv1our. description of a series of relevant studies entitled Logic and Passion that were under I hey are specific to particular cultures, classes and groups.-Like forms of habit, mcn- taken in the eighties. The project consisted of twelve studies, concerning and investi 24 Burke 199 I. gating the emergence and significance of present day lasting cultural changes, as well 25 van Diilmen 1995; Liidtke/Kuchenbuch 1995; Daniel 1993; Martin 1994; Medick 1989; Brown ;s perspectives for future de~clopments. Ir;. eontras_t to the work: ~f ~istorico-31:1thro 1991. . pology within the field of history, these mtemat1onal, trans-d1sc1plmary studies of 26'Arii:s 1965. historical anthropology' strongly emphasise the significance of philosophical analysis 27 Baader 1996. 28 LeRoy Ladurie 1978. and reflection of the chosen anthropological themes. 2'.1 Ginzburg 1992. 30 Raul ff 1989. 34 Veeser 1989. JI Lenzen 1989; Muller/Rusen 1997. 35 Kertzcr/Saller 1991: Borneman 1992; Herzfeld 1997; Ingold 1996. 32 Koselleck 1990, p. 1 I 3 (trans. A. Lagaay). 36 Brackert/Werfclmeycr 1990: frUhwald et al. 1991; Aug.:; 1994; Hansen 1993: 1995: Hartrn~nn/Ja- 33 Dinzelbacher 1993, XXL nich 1996; Bohme/Scherpe 1996; Konersmann 1996; Kramer _1997 ._ . · 37 Wulf 1997. '.54 155 The starting point of the research is the realisation of the inadequacy of abstracted concepts of education, its institutions and fields of prnctice. 40 Studies in this reulm anthropological norms, yet despite this the persistent desire to enquire into human stand o_ut in t~eir double histo_ricity, plurality and cultural scientific character. Whereas structures and phenomena. There is a certain tension in these investigations between the notions ot double h1stonc1ty and plurality have often been defined, there has been. history and human sciences. They can neither totally be seen as contributions to the as yet, no adequate definition of culture within the context of historico-eclucationai history of anthropology as a discipline, nor as the contribution of history to anthropol anthropology. Indeed, recent expansion of the concept of culture (mention of. for in ogy. Their concern is far more to relate the historicity of their own perspectives and st~ncc, free-time culture. subculture. cultural industry, food culture, the culture of en methods to the historicity of the objects of their study. Their results belong therefore to terprise, love culture. funeral culture. etc.) has made any attempt to define it all the the realm of human sciences, yet, because inspired by a critique of anthropology more difiicult. 1n the !'ace of this development, there is a danger that the term 'culture· founded in historical philosophy, the studies give rise to the formulation of new pa_ra rm1y lose its capacity to differentiate. Considering the fumlamcntal importance or the digmatic questions. Despite their focus on European cultures, there is the undcrlymg notion or culture wi_thin the _rc_a!m of historico-educational anthropology, it is right assumption that in principal historical anthropology should be limited to neither par thereiore, to begm with some m1tial dcfimtions of the term. ticular cultural contexts nor particular epochs. Rather, reflection on the historicity of Sartre has a very general concept of culture in mind when in Les A1ots he writes· historical anthropology opens up the possibility of overcoming both a certain Euro 'Cul!ure doesn't save anything or anyone, it doesn't justify. But it's a product of man: he projects himself into it. he: recognises himself in it: that critical mirror alone 0- 1·1·. - centrism within human sciences, as well as a merely anliquated interest in history, thus . . . , 41 ...----, . . (. crs enabling unsolved problems of the present to be considered. him l11s image._ Liehlen, on the other hand, unclerlmes the productive aspect of cul- Acknowledging the epistemological achievements or scientific disciplines as well tun:. Man, as a 'being full of deficiencies'. yet open to the world and llcxiblc, is forced as of philosophy, the studies in Logic and Passion deal with such themes and problems 'to create himself and his world, which is the meaning of culture'. The benefit of this as: the 'body', the 'senses'; 'time', 'soul', 'love', the 'beautiful', the 'holy', the 'world', view is that 'il avoids the ( ... ) separation between action and thought, between ·'so and 'silence'.33 The aim is to overcome the boundaries of different disciplines, all d ciety" and "culture'', and contributes therefore to the foundation of a social theory that formulate trans-disciplinary questions, objects of investigation and methods of at might at last succeed m abandomng this dualism. Thus all forms of human action could proach. Authors from over thirty different scientific disciplines have been involved m fx: seen as a whole, that is. as always simultaneously instrumental and practicalistrnte the research, their collaboration aiming to increase the sophistication of their knowl gic, as signiJ-ying, as 11cll as necessarily "spiritual" and thcrdore "cultural" through- edge. Whilst taking into account the fact that much of the knowledge we have of cul out'-12 ~ tural science is attached to national traditions of culture, thought and science that have Despite the consistency of this conception, its weakness lies in a certain Jc1ck of grown out of historical processes, the works mentioned attempt, Lhrough continuous eoncn:tcness within Gehlen's work, To poinl out that human beings create themselves_ collaboration that crosses national boundaries, to develop trans-national discourses that even physiologically, through culture. may be true and relevant, but it is not sufficient. accept heterogeneity and difierence. These studies have stimulated other cultural sci More satisfactory is a perspective in cultural anthropology that considers the mul entific investigations in many subjects within the realm of social sciences and humani tiple differences bdm:en h\1man cultures. This. however, 'makes the drawing of a line ties, and they have had a lasting ir;fluence on educational anthropology. between what is natural. universal, and constant in man and what is conventional. local Nowhere has this influence been clearer than in the historico-educational tum and variable extraordinarily difficult, In fact. it suggests that to draw such u line is to within educational anthropology. In the course of this development, educational an falsify the human situation. or c1t least to misrender· it seriously.' 43 thropology has acquired the central notions of historicitv and oluralitv, and taken an 1-Iuman beings arc not to be found 'behind' the diversity or their historical and orientation towards cultural studies. This has led both t~ the d,iscoverv and investiga cultural t:xpressions, but far more within these. The attempt to idcntifv 'marriaec · _ tion of numerous new questions and themes that are of fundamental rel~vancc to issues 'family'. or ·trade' as cultural universals, implies a high level of abstr~ction. and is of upbringing aml education,39 that in tum point to new perspectives on the central therefore onl_Y ,relatively productive __ Carefol investigation of these kind of social phe nomcr1ci in d1fterent cultures shows its extraordinary variety, and provides information about the multiple forms of culture and ways of being. ·out of ,uch reformulations or the concept of culture and or the role of culture in human life comes, in turn, a dciini- 38 Kamper/Wulf 1982-1992. 39 Die Seele uls Puliti!.um (Sonntag 1988): Der Andere 1md die Spruche (Wimmer 1988); D,mkrn als Ethos und Uethnde (Oauk 1989); Melancholie, Fiktion. Histurizitat (Lenzen 1989); Technik uNci 40 For examples ,of the fruitfulncS'., of an historico-anthropological pcrspecti\'c a;id method within Kiirper (Derr 1990); Karper zmd Gcschlechr (Hoppe 1991); Mimesis. Culture. Art, Societv (Ge education:il science, sec: ,\frtholngie clcr f.:inclhcit and Vatcrschafl (Lenzen 1985: J 'l91 ): Jch-!den bauer/Wulf 1995); Priisenz der Ewigkeit. Eine Anrhropologie des G/iicks (Zirfas 1993); Praxis ,md !itdl. Z,rischcn Fiktion 1111d 1'm1srrnktio11 (Stross 1991): Die pcidagogische Umgct, 1111 ,, (Gohldi Asthelik (Gcbm1er/W11lf 1993): Theorien des Schenkens (!Zost 1994); Piidagogische Anthropologie i 993): ,,{sth,·rischc Sozwlisarion uml Erzichung (Sclrnmacher-Chilla 1995): Rildimg ~nd Schrifr und Evu/11/ion (Uher 1995): Aisthesis!Asthctik (Mollenhauer/Wulf 1996); Das zivilisiertc Tier. Zur (Sting 1998): (;cdtichrms rmd !/rld1111g (D1eckm:inn/Sting/Zirfas 1998). historischen Anrhropologie der Gewalt (Wimmer/Wulf/Dieckmann 1996); Violence. Nationalism, 41 Sartre 1964, p. 2:,4. Racism, Xenophobia (Dieckmann/Wimmer/Wulf 1997); Spiel, Ritual, Geste. Mimetisches Han 42 Rehberg 1990, p. JO I (trans. A. Lagaay). deln in der sozia/en Welt (Gebauer/Wulf 1998). 43 Geertz 1993, p. 36. 156 157 tion of man stressing not so much the empirical commonalities in his behaviour, from satisfactory. Rituals and ritual behaviour play a complex socialising role. This is true place to place and time to time. but rather the mechanisms by whose agency the of families ancl school as well as of the ritual handling of new media and youth rituals. breadth and indeterminateness of his inherent capacities are reduced to the narrowness ln this context, ritual behaviour is seen as a complex form of social action carried out and specificity of his actual accomplishments. ( ... ) Undirected by culture patterns - or performed by the members of a community. one that expresses. represents or creates organised systems of significant symbols - man's behaviour would he virtually un their community or society as well as can contribute to change and development. From governable, a mere chaos of pointless acts and exploding emotions. his experience the point of view of historico-educational anthropology, it is of pm1icular interest to virtually shapeless. Culture. the accumulated totality of such patterns, is not just an consider how the physical, scenic, expressive, and socially productive aspects of a rit ornament of human existence but - the principle basis of its specificity - an essential ual arc shaped, how processes of inclusion and exclusion proceed, and how societal condition for it. ' 44 relations of power and hierarchy arc created and transformed. Sahlins' inquiry into the mechanisms according to which cultural patterns are de Growth in our awareness of the diversity of cultures and the central rok culture velop1;;d points in a similar direction. He emphasises the fact that 'the cultural schc:mt: plays in shaping life circumstances lrns also resulted in an increase in the importance of is variously inf1ccted by a dominant site of symbolic production, which supplies the the foreign in historical anthropology. This is true of both diachronic and syn chronic major idiom of other relations and activities'. He concludes that there is 'a privileged research. The experience of foreignness is indispensable for the attempt to find out institutional locus of the symbolic process, whence emanates a classificatory grid im anything about the mentalities of people of another historical time. It is this that allows posed upon the total culture'. The peculiarity of Western culture is 'the institutiorn1li fo; the particularities of human phenomena under investigation to be understood. One sation of the process in and as the production of goods'. Thus, our cnlture stands in major difliculty for historical researchers is that they must work with sources that they contrast to a ·primitive' world 'where the locus of symbolic differentiation remains themselves have not created and have no inDw.:11cc upon. Their possibilities arc limited social relations. principally kinship relations, and other spheres of activity an: ordered to considering the available sources from different perspectives, evaluating them in ·by the operative distinctions of kinship' .45 new constellations and with different questions in mind. Insofar as they arc interested Rather than assuming cultural homogeneity, historical and ethnological research in establishing the particular character or tlie people they are studying, rcflcctilm on the emphasises the multitude of cultures. working with a more differentiated concept o( difference between their own situation and the hi,,torical circumstances of the people culture. This is all the more true the more a particular studv is concerned with concrete being studied is a determining foctor in the quality of the historical reconstruction. Re cultural practices such as rituals, gestures, games, and festivities. Unlike what has been construction of this kind creates ·contrast images' to phenomena of one's own time claii:necl for ::i long time in cultural anthropology, it is not sufficient to read ditTercnt and can tht:rcforc contribute to a more accurate perception of present day phenomena. c~lturcs as a text:"16 what is of higher interest is the inquiry into pcrforrnative dimen Researchers in ethnology. on the other hand. largely create their own sources. There is sions of cultural production. how these are represented and expressed in practical ritual a multitude of problems conncctcd lo the work of representing and processing as text. knowleclge."17 /\ consequence of this ·performativc turn' is an incre:isecl interest in the the linguistic and visual data that one has acquired throughout a period of fieldwork. lf. swging 0 ( social events and performances. The significance of ritual acls as a f 60 Geertz 1983: Wolfl981; Sahlins 1985. 61 Veyne 1996. 62 Thour.h less anthropologically oriented, Gumbrechfs and Pfeiffer's multi-, inter- and trans-disci rlinary studies ( 1986: I 988; 1991) in cultural science on the topics Sryle, Malcriality in Co111muni cation, and Paradoxes, Dissonances and Breakdowns point in a similar direction. So too do the various Jtrnlti-, inter- and trans-disciplinary studies published under the title Poetics and Herme neutics. The spectrum of topics includes Nochahmung ,md lllusion (Imitation and Illusion, JauB 1964); lmmanente Asthetik - Asthetische Reflexion (Iser I 966): Die nicht m2hr schonen KunSle (.lauG 1968); Terror und Spiel (Fuhnnann 1971); Geschichte - Ereignis und Erzdhlung (Koselleck/ Stempel 1973); l'osi1ionen der Negalivitiil (Weinrich 1975); Text ,md /Jpplikalion (Fuhrmann/ JauB/Pannenberg 1981); Funktione11 des Fikliven (Henrich/Jscr I 983): Das Geciprach (Stierle/War ning 1984); Epochenschwellen und Epochenbewu/Jtsein (Herzog/Koselleck 1987); Jndividualiliil , · rlColby/Swcdcr I 99~. • ,. . (Frnnk/1-laverkamp 1988); Memoria (HaverkamplLachmann 1993); Das Ende (Stierle/Warning 6j Jesso_ . · 1 1994· Friebertshiiuser/Prengel 1997. 6c"1 Denz111/L111co n ' I 996) . 16 · ]62 Bibliography Adorno, Th. \V.: Gesammellc We,ke, Vol. 7, Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkarnp 1970. Adorno, Th. W .: .i,the1isch,• Theorie, Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp 1973. Alexander, J, C./Seidman, S. 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(eds.): Diskussion Piidagogische Anthropologie, Miinchen: Wil Ziegler, L.: Von dcr Ahmung, in Ziegler, L., Spatlese eigener Hand, Miinchen 1953, pp. 93-106. Zimbrich, U.: Mimesis bei Platon. Unlersuchungen zu Wortgehrauch, Theorie der dichterischen Dar .1·tellungLang 1984. und zur dialogische11 Gestaltung bis zur PoliJeia. Frankfurt!M., Bern, New York, Nancy: Zirfas, J.: Prtisenz und Ewigkeit. Eine Anthropologie des Gliicks, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer 1993. k d on the English translation of this book, in par Zuckcrkandl, V.: Mimesis, in Merloir 12 {1958), pp. 225-240. My thanks are due to those who wor c t f the chapters as well as carefully read, ticular to Alice Lagatdw:o t~:l~~::~. ::: p;epared it for publicationb '~~esi~~~~; corrected and re-wor c t, e(~ ter four) was originally translated y nan Anthropological Concept c n of chapters one, two and three. Cathy Shail helped on the transf~- a 10 176