Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA01068 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 10 Mar 2002 12:39:16 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: cheetah.nor.com.au: Host 237.digital.ppp.telstra.dataheart.net [202.147.129.237] claimed to be green-machine Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.20020310232722.006fd59c@pophost.nor.com.au> X-Sender: jeremyb@pophost.nor.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 23:27:22 +1100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au> Subject: Re: Cultural traits and vulnerability to memes In-Reply-To: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAAEGNCMAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> References: <3.0.1.32.20020309135954.00706dd0@pophost.nor.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 10:52 PM 8/03/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Yes, sounds good Jeremy. I'm abouyt to hit the sack and will pick up on this
>this weekend.
>
>Cheers,
>Lawrence
>
Hi all
A few years ago I started looking for the underlying reasons for
inter-cultural misinterpretations. One of the 'tools' used in this inquiry
was a list of values drawn up by an anthropologist, W H Edwards. These
values were, in general, ordered differently in Indigenous Australian
cultures than in mainstream Non-indigenous Australian (Western) culture.
These included values concerning possessions, environment, land, time,
innovation, change and other social markers. I then added some of Vladimir
Propp's folk-tale elements which appeared significant to the formation of
'traits' such as the inheritance of wealth and status, the importance of
the individual, if there was a journey, if there was an interdiction and so
on. This rough grab-bag of 18 features and value responses formed a
questionnaire that a story could 'answer', either in the affirmative,
negative or other, in response. The stories I questioned were foundational
spiritual and moral stories, contemporary short-stories and current media
stories. The answers made a pattern which could be read.
The fascinating thing about the results of the study was that each of the
stories questioned, regardless of their age or function, conformed to the
'pattern' which was formed by using Edwards' list to answer the questions
on behalf of the respective cultures.
What I now suggest is that cultural values are encoded into formational
stories which have been retained by the culture for the purpose of
propagating those value/perceptions in successive generations. I originally
called these whole patterns memes but now I think that they are much more.
If we take just one feature, time for example, and look at the way it is
viewed. To most of us it is linear, laid out from start (In the beginning
God created the.. etc) to some perception of a finality (most of our
stories follow a similar rhetorical pattern also). To other cultures time
is cyclical, inverse and who knows what else. IMO just the notion of time
in a culture is a megga-meme that gives rise to all of the memes that form
or develop as a result of our underlying concept of time.
To use a biological metaphor, each cultural artefact bears the imprint of
that culture in the same way that each cell of a physical entity has a
strand of code which identifies it as 'belonging' to the entity. The 'map'
created by the presence or absence of features in formative narratives is
therefore akin to the genome maps.
So I guess that makes me firmly anti determinist 'cos I think that traits
are programmed in to us for the purpose of making us vulnerable to
culturally appropriate memes and defensive against culturally inappropriate
ones.
I hope that this makes some sort of sense as I am a bit tired too.
Cheers
Jeremy
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