From: Bruce Edmonds (b.edmonds@mmu.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 31 Oct 2002 - 12:37:22 GMT
There is an article about memetics in the latest volume of JASSS (just
out) see: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk
Derek Gatherer (2002)
Identifying cases of social contagion using memetic isolation:
comparison of the dynamics of a multisociety simulation with an
ethnographic data set
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation vol. 5, no. 4
<http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/5/4/5.html>
* Abstract
A simulation is presented of a grid of connected societies of
reproducing agents. These agents are capable of horizontal and vertical
transmission of non-genetic cultural traits (memes). This simulation
exhibits the theoretically predicted effect that horizontally
transmitted memes are less likely, overall, to be encountered in
geographical isolation than strictly vertically transmitted ones.
Furthermore, when horizontal memes are under cultural selection, and
thus behave 'contagiously', their likelihood of geographical isolation
is virtually eliminated. By contrast, natural selection has far weaker
effects than cultural selection in reducing geographical isolation. Thus
it should be possible to identify contagious memes by an examination of
their geographical distribution. The degree of geographical isolation of
17 categories of postulated cultural traits in an ethnographic data set
of 863 societies is then examined, and compared with the simulations,
using z-tests. Using this method, the empirical data can be sorted into
four broad categories, each with a different spectrum of probabilities
of mode of transmission and contagion.
Keywords:
Allomeme; Axelrod's Cultural Model; Contagion; Cultural Evolution;
Cultural Selection; Cultural Trait; Evolutionary Epidemiology Of
Culture; Meme; Murdockís Ethnographic Atlas; SIM.; Social Interaction Model
Regards.
--------------------------------------------------
Bruce Edmonds,
Centre for Policy Modelling,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Aytoun Bldg.,
Aytoun St., Manchester, M1 3GH. UK.
Tel: +44 161 247 6479 Fax: +44 161 247 6802
Email: bruce@cfpm.org Web: bruce.edmonds.name
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Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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