ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a reconstruction of Gabriel Tarde’s elemental sociology based on the description, analysis and articulation of his three main concepts: imitation, invention and opposition. Tarde argues that imitation is the key to the “social mystery” and proposes hypnotic somnambulism and microbiologic contagion as models to understand it. According to him, to imitate is to repeat an example born from specific inventions that propagate from one individual to others. Social currents can also relate to each other conflictingly, giving rise to competitions, controversies, crimes or wars. The contagion of beliefs and desires which deploy, oppose and adapt themselves constitutes the fabric of social life.
