Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA26011 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 24 May 2000 15:11:14 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB1DA@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: What is "useful"; what is "survival" Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 15:09:11 +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
Isn't that what Chuck is arguing though, that sociobiology offers a simple
answer to such questions by evaluating all behaviours in terms of genetic
advantage/utility in particular environmental contexts?
My precise point is that things like seppuku can't be simply explained by
sociobiology, indeed if at all, other than as an abberation, mistake or
failure, which is no more satisfactory than Marx's dismissal of 'happy'
workers as false consciousness.
One can consider more curious and subtle cultural variences than suicide,
celibacy or human sacrifice, such as the ways one reads different kinds of
writing (e.g. left to right versus right to left). How did these apparently
arbitrary systems of writing spread over many different countries and
languages- where's the greater utility in left to right or right to left?
It is in this sense that I think something else is going on, on top of
natural selection not independent of it, influencing human behaviour, that
requires investigation.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Wade T.Smith
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 2:30 pm
> To: memetics list
> Subject: RE: What is "useful"; what is "survival"
>
> On 05/24/00 06:49, Vincent Campbell said this-
>
> >(The point about seppuku, was that this is a ritual behaviour that has
> >persisted for many generations explicitly involving suicide- how do you
> >explain it?)
>
> Perhaps with the same breath that explains Clinton's _not_ performing
> such a ceremony in the face of precisely a situation in which the
> nipponese culture would demand it.
>
> Which is to say, there is no simple explanation for the strength of a
> culture or the directions is allows.
>
> - Wade
>
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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