Mimesis

In ancient Greece, mimesis was an idea that governed the creation of works of art, in particular, with correspondence to the physical world understood as a model for beauty, truth, and the good. Plato contrasted mimesis, or imitation, with diegesis, or narrative. After Plato, the meaning of mimesis eventually shifted toward a specifically literary function in ancient Greek society, and its use has changed and been reinterpreted many times since.

Mostly recently developed by Girard.

**How it relates to memetic**

mimesis and memetics, sharing the same root word, often are confused. But they do tackle similar issues, human behaviour. but i think the main difference stems from GRITCULTS Law, that the main difference in argument is due to a difference in view of nature vs nurture. mimesis is more behaviour and action and based, and memetics deals with memes abstracted concepts.

girard had similar views on trying to tackle this.

old debate on usenet -

on the extended mind hypothesis that is often referred to in sociobiology touches on human extension by marshal mcluhan