Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA08376 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 19 Feb 2002 01:31:42 GMT X-Sender: unicorn@pop.greenepa.net Message-Id: <p04320414b8974c232034@[192.168.2.3]> In-Reply-To: <429FA3E8-24C8-11D6-A677-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> References: <429FA3E8-24C8-11D6-A677-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 20:26:43 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: "Francesca S. Alcorn" <unicorn@greenepa.net> Subject: Re: Words and memes: criteria for acceptance of new belief or meme Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>On Monday, February 18, 2002, at 04:50 , Francesca S. Alcorn wrote:
>
>>There is a line of thought that says that magical
>>thinking/emotional thinking is a sort of short-hand for combining
>>emotional needs with reality
>
>A line I've always liked. It's kind of empirical....
>
>>But I assure you, to the people in my village, a witch doctor and a
>>shaman were two very distinct people. One was a hitman, the other
>>a doctor.
>
>Yup, good witch, bad witch. Depends on who bribed the constable
>first. Reputation. Favors. Influence. Not efficacy.
>
>>You draw a line (empiricism) which lumps them together.
>
>The line I draw is evidence. Neither has any.
>
>- Wade
I am not arguing for the truth of their beliefs, at least not in the
sense that you mean. But I am arguing for their "fitness" in terms
of what they offer the group. To borrow a term from attachment
theory there is a "good-enough" memetic cosmology which allows it's
believers to function quite successfully in their environment for
many generations. And the advantages which it confers on it's
adherents are social/emotional as well as scientific.
If you want to look at truth, then both the witch doctors and the
healers had an element of it on their sides. Ground glass was one of
the poisons which the witch doctors used. And the healers were
starting to work with Western medical workers to teach them about the
local pharmacopeia. There was even a show on pbs recently about the
Zulu defeat of the British, and the drugs which they gave to the
warriors before the battle. Pretty potent stuff. Every
self-respecting cosmology has an element of truth to it, otherwise no
one would buy it.
This is part of the argument *for* cultural diversity: every culture
has uniquely evolved to exploit it's local environmental niche. When
we destroy these cultures we lose all kinds of knowledge and ways of
relating which we, unfortunately, appreciate only in hindsight, when
it is too late.
frankie
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