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"Imitation" in contemporary anthropology comprises numerous topics whose relations have seldom been explored. In surveying mimetic phenomena that range from television parodies to postural mirroring, I offer reflections designed to stimulate exploration of "mimetic practice." The review encourages work at the nexus of sociocultural and linguistic anthropology, for without appreciating the communicative specificities of mimetic practice, one can neither narrate nor theorize adequately what mimesis does, and thus is. I chart directions in research by drawing out underappreciated findings from the ethnographic record, such as those that show that mimesis is not a matter of two-ness, as the original–copy binary suggests; that communicative dissonance often helps actors recognize when mimesis is in play and what action(s) it involves; that mimetic practice suffers (and sometimes benefits) from various instabilities (e.g., what is imitated, who imitates whom); and that reflexivity helps create, stabilize, and alter mimetic practices and projects.

A state-of-the-art view of imitation from leading researchers in neuroscience and brain imaging, animal and developmental psychology, primatology, ethology, philosophy, anthropology, media studies, economics, sociology, education, and law.Leading researchers across a range of disciplines provide a state-of-the-art view of imitation, integrating the latest findings and theories with reviews of seminal work, and revealing why imitation is a topic of such intense current scientific interest

The article "Ming Wong's Imitations" analyzes the installation Life of Imitation, created by visual artist Ming Wong for the Singapore Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. Life of Imitation restages a key scene from Douglas Sirk's 1959 melodrama Imitation of Life, in which the African American character Annie visits her daughter Sarah Jane who is passing as white. In Wong's restaging three male actors from different ethnic groups in Singapore reenact the scene, but switch roles at every cut. The article traces the shifts from the original literary source, Fannie Hurst's 1933 Imitation of Life to John M. Stahl's 1934 film of the same title to Sirk's version. Emphasizing melodrama's organizing structure of "too late," I show how Sirk shifted the melodramatic emphasis from the white mother/daughter pair's romantic conflict to the African American mother/daughter pair's racial conflict. Addressing the question whether such a shift implies a progressive politics, I turn to the contentious discussion of Sirk's earlier film work in Weimar and Nazi Germany, pointing to ideological and formal continuities. In contrast to these significant shifts in the different instantiations of the text, I propose that the different versions share the subordination and disavowal of ethnic difference in order to construct a racial binary, which then becomes the setting of the passing narrative organized around the 'tragic mulatta'. I illustrate my argument with the instances of ethnic passing of the writers, directors, and actors involved in the different versions of the text. However, I also show the appeal of racial passing narratives can have for a gay camp imagination, identification, and appropriation. I conclude the article with a discussion of Wong's double move in Life of Imitation of returning ethnic bodies that have been excised from the original diegesis to their significance and appropriating the gendered melodrama through cross-dressing. After a survey of the term "remediation" as it emerged from the discussion of new media, I show that Wong's piece belongs to a group of works by visual artists who remake film in digital media in the environment of the art space. I conclude with reading the effect of rotating the actors at each cut, which does not subvert spatial and temporal continuity, but challenges spectators' perception of ethnicity and gender, and produces unstable identities.

In diesem Artikel gehe ich der Frage nach, inwieweit Turings Konzept der "Imitation Games" sich für die Analyse politischer Diskurse heranziehen lässt. Damit verbindet sich die theoretische Frage des Identitätsabgleichs. Zugleich stellt sich auch eine methodologische Frage: Ist es möglich, allein aufgrund internaler Kriterien zwischen den Diskursen politisch Handelnder zu unterscheiden, die verschiedenen Kategorien angehören? Die Suche nach Antworten auf diese theoretischen und methodologischen Fragen beleuchtet zentrale Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen qualitativer und quantitativer Forschung.

Imitating the best strategy from the previous period has been shown to be an important heuristic, in particular in relatively complex environments. In this experiment we test whether subjects are more likely to use imitation if they are under stress. Subjects play a repeated Cournot oligopoly. Treatments are time pressure within the task and distractions through a second task (a Stroop-task) that has to be performed as well and influences payment. We measure stress levels through salivary cortisol and heart rate. Our main findings are that time pressure and distraction can indeed raise physiological stress levels of subjects within our task. More importantly from an economic perspective, we can also observe a corresponding behavioral change that is indicative of imitation. (author's abstract)

This paper develops a North–South trade model with heterogeneous labour and horizontally differentiated products, and compares the implications of two policies: Southern intellectual property rights (IPR) and Northern immigration policy, with the latter aiming to attract Southern talent as a means of pre‐empting imitation. Individuals self‐select into becoming entrepreneurs and innovate (imitate) in the North (South). The likelihood of imitation depends on product quality, imitator's talent and IPR strength. Several interrelated channels of competition are identified. Allowing high‐talent migration when IPR protection in the South is weak shifts imitation to low‐quality products and innovation to high‐quality products. The outcome is in stark contrast to the policy of strengthening Southern IPR, which limits low‐talent imitation in the South and encourages low‐quality innovation in the North. Migration also increases the income of low‐talent entrepreneurs, as well as the average quality of products imitated by high‐talent entrepreneurs in the South. Global income rises with migration, but is not guaranteed to rise with stronger Southern IPR.

Imitating the best strategy from the previous period has been shown to be an important heuristic, in particular in relatively complex environments. In this experiment we test whether subjects are more likely to use imitation if they are under stress. Subjects play a repeated Cournot oligopoly. Treatments are time pressure within the task and distractions through a second task (a Stroop-task) that has to be performed as well and influences payment. We measure stress levels through salivary cortisol measurements and through measuring the heart rate. Our main findings are that time pressure and distraction can indeed raise physiological stress levels of subjects within our task. More importantly from an economic perspective, we can also observe a corresponding behavioral change that is indicative of imitation.

Cet article présente plusieurs machines dont l'existence est intimement liée aux pratiques ludiques. Il montre que ces objets s'inscrivent aussi bien dans la recherche en robotique et en intelligence artificielle que dans les pratiques artistiques contemporaines. Il s'intéresse en particulier à l'espace de jeu ouvert par l'interaction avec les machines et propose de considérer cet espace comme le lieu privilégié d'une forme d'expérimentation anthropologique.