ABSTRACT
Mimesis is a representation or imitation of an actual process. It might be expressed through art and literature or through the actions of humans deliberately imitating the behavior of others. Its source is the Greek mimesis, for ‘‘imitation.’’ Mimetic activities, according to Joseph Maguire, ‘‘provide a ‘make-believe’ setting which allows emotions to FLOW more easily and which elicits excitement of some kind, imitating that produced by real-life situations, yet without its dangers or risks.’’ All sports are, in effect, mimetic activities. They create tensions and
drama and evoke EMOTION of high INTENSITY; and, while they sometimes involve the actual rather than imagined RISK of harm or even DEATH, this is deliberately minimized. The ethologist Desmond Morris believes precursors of what we now call sports ‘‘filled the gap left by the decline of the more obvious hunting activities.’’ In his view, all sports are mimetic hunts and competitors are what he calls ‘‘pseudo-hunters.’’ (Ethology is the study of human behavior from a biological perspective.) In this sense, every COMPETITION is a stylized hunt and, as such,
involves strategy, fitness, CONCENTRATION, stamina, vision, and imagination. Many others have argued that sports resemble warfare. Greek and Roman competitions either side of the Christian era were explicitly designed to prepare competitors for combat and often concluded in death or wounding. The CONTROL of VIOLENCE that accompanied the civilizing process ensured that sports incorporated measures to minimize hazards, though Patrick Murphy et al. point out that the medieval and early modern British ‘‘mock fights,’’ bore ‘‘a greater resemblance to real fighting than their modern-day equivalents.’’ Obviously, the moods elicited by participation in sports are differ-
ent from those elicited by actual situations. Yet, there is resemblance. The ADRENALINE RUSH experienced in flight-or-fight situations is often replicated in sports, particularly high-risk activities such as EXTREME SPORTS. States of AROUSAL and, indeed, ANXIETY achieved through sports bear resemblance, at least in a quantitative sense, to states experienced in stressful predicaments. The point of sport is to
stimulate what Maguire calls the ‘‘pleasurable excitement’’ that comes from ‘‘achievement sports.’’ A mimetic describes a habitual practice that has the same effect as
something else. Exercise, for example, can be a mimetic. As Steven Joyal, writes on the treatment of OBESITY: ‘‘Physical exercise may function as a calorie restriction mimetic and this may help explain, in part, the positive associations between calorie restriction/ moderate physical exercise and improvements in surrogate markers of AGING.’’
