Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA12676 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 2 Jun 2000 14:40:25 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: frost.umd.edu: debivort owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 09:38:11 -0400 (EDT) From: "Lawrence H. de Bivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> X-Sender: debivort@frost.umd.edu To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Jabbering ! In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174589F@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.21.0006020925320.29909-100000@frost.umd.edu> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Fri, 2 Jun 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
>If memetics is a theory of cultural evolution then some agreement has to be
>reached about what a culture actually is. It seems to me, from many of the
>postings on this, that the term is used quite differently in different
>disciplines.
For what it is worth, the definition of 'culture' that I use is:
The collective phenomenon of how people(consciously or unconsciously) make
decisions, choose behaviors, and arrive at judgements. Collected, these
individual actions create societally-coded patterns that can characterize
a group of people and distinguish them from another. Among the elements
that go into these individual actions are: information and sensory
channels, beliefs (including knowledge), values, and an ability to know
(not always exercised) where a person is in the process of taking these
individual actions.
>I'd quite like someone to clarify for me how they use the term culture to
>describe behaviours of caterpillars or apes or whatever.
Do caterpillars do things like 'choosing behaviors', arriving at decisions
and judgements? Do apes? I think the issue of whether they have 'culture'
hinges on this...
- Lawrence
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