Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA20383 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 1 May 2002 16:41:58 +0100 Message-ID: <570E2BEE7BC5A34684EE5914FCFC368C10FC92@fillan.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: future language Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 16:35:47 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] X-MailScanner: Found to be clean Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<Taliban aside, hearing something apathetic towards loss of cultural
> diversity on a list about cultural processes is sort of like hearing
> someone
> on an entomology list say that it's not all that big a deal if many of the
>
> world's insect species go extinct. We could learn lots about European
> derivative culture and extrapolate this to those lost cultures and their
> language much like we could learn lots about fruitflies and extend these
> findings (beyond the genetics research if you catch the drift of my
> sarcasm)
> to cover what all those uncatalogued insects may have been like.
>
> Loss of learning opportunities is less lamentable than that the people
> affected may have been lost with their unique cultural attributes. That's
> an
> even worse consideration as I'm sure you'd agree given your ethnic
> cleansing
> comment above.>
>
Fair point, well made. I'm not entirely convinced of the ethics of
maintaining cultures with dubious practices for the sake of learning about
cultural evolution, but I see what you mean.
>> Perhaps I should stop before someone leaps on a plane to
Scotland (I
>>wouldn't the weather's terrible today) to ram my keyboard down my
throat...
<Nah! Besides the fear that I might see someone wearing a kilt
eating haggis
> is enough to keep me off the plane ;-)>
>
I can honestly say that haggis, when made properly is very tasty,
but kilts and bagpipes I've never warmed to.
Vincent
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