Michael Taussig in the book Mimesis and Alterity uses the word – note the capitalization – the Other. In his book, he has classified the more technologically-adept and “modern” society into one category of culture and the more “primitive” culture into the Other. In this context, the Others he describes in the book can be said to be the alterity. In the case of Robert Flaherty’s study of the Nanooks of their behavior towards the modern technology of film, the white Indian society is the alterity of the modern culture Flaherty represents. In this example, the white Indians are the subject of observation and scrutiny because they are radically alien from the society Flaherty comes from. Thus, in an anthropological sense, the word alterity is used to classify a culture or society that is completely opposite from that of another. In the philosophical sense, the word alterity can be used to distinguish the original and the mimicked version of the original. If Victor Talking Machine Company’s “the talking dog” logo is said to be the original, the alterity if this would be the Cuna mola version of the logo. And sometimes through mimesis, as seen through the Cuna mola, the alterity not only assumes the power of the original but also adds on to form a greater impact to the audience.

This page is a tag of:

Comment on this page