ABSTRACT
The third chapter is dedicated to a Siberian tiger that enhanced the author’s observational skill when she practiced the so-called ‘animal exercise’ that was revealed as a striking mimetic experience. Many anthropologists look at mimesis in the context of globalisation and often through the lens of highly abstract concepts. Yet, it is arguable whether they are apt to grasp the mimetic skills this animal exercise grants. Again, it is worth considering the exercise against the backdrop of neuroscientific findings. It is an education of attention guided by a non-human that results in a hypnotic state, allowing for mimetic experiences that bypass the so-called ‘higher cognitive functions’ of the human brain. Acting teachers implicitly question human superiority by demanding that actors forgo these ‘higher’ brain functions, and this raises the question about what we lose when using them. The animal exercise helps to avoid critical distance and teaches ‘being present’, a fuzzy category, but acting teachers claim that animals have that capacity as they attract the attention of humans immediately. In theatre, the expression ‘being present’ is synonymous with ‘being in contact’, which is also important when doing anthropological research.
