Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics. Imitation is also a form of social learning that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. It allows for the transfer of information (behaviours, customs, etc.) between individuals and down generations without the need for genetic inheritance."
Read more about Imitation: Anthropology and Social Sciences, Neuroscience, Mirror Neuron System, Animal Behavior, Child Development, Automatic Imitation, Deferred Imitation
Famous quotes containing the word imitation:
“Language as a real thing is not imitation either of sounds or colors or emotions it is an intellectual recreation and there is no possible doubt about it and it is going to go on being that as long as humanity is anything.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“All men are really most attracted by the beauty of plain speech, and they even write in a florid style in imitation of this. They prefer to be misunderstood rather than to come short of its exuberance.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)