RE: culture as niche construction?

From: Vincent Campbell (v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Oct 31 2000 - 12:19:03 GMT

  • Next message: Robin Faichney: "Re: culture as niche construction?" 

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From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: culture as niche construction?
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 12:19:03 -0000
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    Thanks Robin,

    Yes, Laland was one of the guys mentioned in New Scientist, but in relation
    to a piece in Behavioural and Brain Sciences I think it was, earlier this
    year. I don't know if that piece mentioned memes, as this chapter will do.

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Robin Faichney
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 6:42 pm
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: culture as niche construction?
    >
    > 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
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    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >

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