Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA09990 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 30 Oct 2000 19:06:47 GMT Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 18:42:17 +0000 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: culture as niche construction? Message-ID: <20001030184217.A2517@reborntechnology.co.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745AC3@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745AC3@inchna.stir.ac.uk>; from v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk on Mon, Oct 30, 2000 at 03:00:18PM -0000 From: Robin Faichney <robin@reborntechnology.co.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Mon, Oct 30, 2000 at 03:00:18PM -0000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
> Hiya everyone,
>
> Just came across an article in this week's New Scientist about this guy
> Scott(?) Turner who argues that we should see things like beaver's dams, and
> termite mounds as effectively part of an organism's physiology.
>
> The magazine linked this idea to a theory about how things like beaver's
> dams alter an organism's environment to the point where it influences the
> genetic evolution of that organism (and I would guess other organisms also).
> This is called niche construction, which I (probably poorly) understand as
> meaning the manipulation by an organism of its environment to the extent
> that it creates its own niche, rather than simple evolving to fit into an
> independently occuring environmental niche.
>
> Some proponents of this view have suggested that human culture is the same
> thing- niche construction. (I forgot to bring the magazine into work with
> me, so I forget the names of the authors who've published this in an
> academic journal- apologies for tardiness on my part).
See http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~rva20/Darwin.html#Ch3 (In Robert Aunger's
new book)
-- Robin Faichney robin@reborntechnology.co.uk=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 30 2000 - 19:08:11 GMT