Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA00712 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 12 May 2000 12:31:19 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB183@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 12:29:26 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Bill,
I think you're right, but in a way isn't that one of the key questions of
memetics- what is happening to us now that our physical environment has been
transformed into something very different from our ancestral,
hunter-gatherer environment? Are all our peculiar cultural habits a
feature, as Wilson would say I suppose, simply the result of genetic driving
which can't keep up with the pace of environmental change, and thus are
often 'mistakes' (like the examples you give), or is something else
involved? Does something having a use in our ancestral environment explain
its specific form (or forms) of existence in the contemporary environment?
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Bill Spight
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 12:18 am
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Central questions of memetics
>
> Dear Vincent,
>
> > At a small
> > social group level, you've got bond-forming and maintaining, but how
> many of
> > his fans does Michael Jordan know (and vice versa)? And I'm sure we're
> > familiar with the concept of widows & orphans in sport, the families of
> > fanatical sports followers who definitely suffer as a result, we're
> talking
> > about behaviours which are quite widespread around the world, relating
> to a
> > myriad of different sports, that seemd to defy being satisfactorily
> > explained by genetic advantage
>
> Isn't sports fanaticism atavistic? I. e., it is not very fit in a
> modern civilized environment, but it probably was in the smaller
> social groups in which humans have lived for most of our
> existence (and it expressed itself differently too, I expect).
> Much the same can be said for the sweet tooth, which is more
> fitted for an environment where you pick fruit from trees, rather
> than one with donut shops.
>
> And thanks for the joke. ;-)
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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