Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA15400 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 2 Mar 2002 13:45:56 GMT Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.0.20020302083558.00a75920@mail.clarityconnect.com> X-Sender: rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2002 08:38:27 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Ray Recchia <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com> Subject: RE: Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.20020302131534.006fdafc@pophost.nor.com.au> References: <1197112253-7226105@smtp.clarityconnect.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hello Jeremy,
Excellent. This is exactly the kind of thing I am interested in. Do you
know of any other studies of possessiveness in different cultures that have
been done?
Ray Recchia
>At 02:19 PM 1/03/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >
>Snip.....
>
> >
> >Using a family example I can remember all too well how quickly 'my'
> >daughter learned the word 'mine'. When you think about it recognizing
> >something as a possession is a rather sophisticated notion.
> >Ray Recchia
>
>Snip.....
> >
>Thanks Ray
>This is my point exactly. Whilst Grant sees possessiveness as an
>exclusively natural trait, I suspect, from my work on traditional cultural
>narratives, that it is largely conditioning.
>'My' children also learned the 'mine' concept early whereas the near tribal
>children that they associated with did not develop it until much later. My
>hypothesis here is that I taught the trait to my children at the
>pre-linguistic stage by removing 'my' possessions from them. For example,
>"Don't put Daddy's keys in your mouth", or "Careful with that honey it's
>mum's"
>The people with whom we lived however did not a) have as many possessions
>as we did and b) they did not value the possessions to the exclusion of the
>child's enjoyment and freedom of action. That this caused cultural
>difficulties between infants was disturbing and enlightening. As you can
>imagine, when the children played together, the Aboriginal children wanted
>to play with whatever toys that they saw and my kids wanted to protect
>their 'possessions'.
>One of the key indicators in my mapping of cultural cnemes (or menomes - I
>haven't decided yet) is what happens to personal goods after death. It
>turns out that in the so-called civilised (individuated) world we leave our
>possessions to whoever we want to, whereas many tribal people either
>distribute goods to the group or burry them with the body.
>As you say Ray, recognising something as a possession is a rather
>sophisticated notion. It is still 'my' position that notions (memes) are
>more nurture than nature (genes).
>Jeremy
>
>
>
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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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