Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA10925 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 8 May 2000 18:31:48 +0100 Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 10:29:05 -0700 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Central questions of memetics To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3916F961.F5E05EE5@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en]C-PBI-NC404 (Win95; I) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: ja,en References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB14D@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Vincent,
> Sport, is in fact an ideal topic for memetics, as it can demonstrate just
> how tenuous sociobiology's genetic advantage argument must be. Perhaps it
> makes sense for the professional sports people (atheleticism undoubtedly
> offers genetic advantages), but what about the rest of us who spend lots of
> our time and resources (financial and emotional) simply spectating? I like
> sport, I have nothing 'against' it, but I am interested in the level of
> investment people place on sport.
Rewarding displays of prowess by praise and adulation would seem
to me to have benefits in relatively small social groups for
those whose well-being depends upon the use of that prowess for
the good of the group. In modern sports that link is lost,
however. OTOH, as a ritual of social cohesion, sport still
provides some benefits to the fans in their relations to each
other. OC, that kind of benefit is not confined to sports. One
Dead Head can immediately appreciate another.
Best regards,
Bill
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