Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA03402 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:00:10 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745BBC@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: DNA Culture .... Trivia? Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 10:58:32 -0000 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
<Of course this previous research has not been done from a memetic
POV.
> That's not the issue. The issue that an aweful lot of memeticists don't
> seem to know much about culture. If these folks were serious about
> studying
> culture -- as opposed to exchanging memetic cliches -- they'd take the
> time
> to learn something about what has been done and use that to guide their
> memetic thinking. >
>
I think that assumes that there's a fixed notion of what culture
means. It's quite evident, however, that isn't the case, from ethologists
who regard animals as having cultures (something I doubt many cultural
studies academics are aware of), through sociobiologists who regard culture
as genetically determined, to postmodernists who essentially take a
relativist stance.
Add on to that the ways of seeing people are bringing from different
disciplines in the first place and its not surprising that some areas, which
may have been well researched, don't even occur to people to consider.
Blackmore is a psychologist, Brodie a computer bod, Lynch a former member of
Fermilab etc. etc.
Surely the important point is that, if nothing else, memetics opens
people up to different disciplinary approaches, whereas things like
sociobiology have merely seen people mounting the battlements to defend
their territory.
Vincent
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