Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA02282 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 19 Mar 2001 16:21:00 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745CF0@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: The Demise of a Meme Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 16:17:52 -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
This is a dreadful tale, that makes one feel guilty for laughing at the
apparent gullibility of people. But it highlights the problems of societies
run by the ancient rules of the medicine man in increasingly modernised
societies.
Of course, the memetic quality here, might be that the meme will survive
those shot and killed, because as here, it won't be the magic that's blamed
but the magician (or the recipient of the magic) for not performing the rite
'correctly'.
It would be interesting to monitor this rite, to see how long it persists,
before people realise that unless the rite involves putting on a
bullet-proof vest, it doesn't work. The interesting thing is that,
rationally speaking, very few of any shamanic culture's rituals will really
work so they must be very skilled at the art of magic in the showbiz sense
of the word.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: gvidan@EUnet.yu
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 10:16 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: The Demise of a Meme
>
> This Ghanaian magic spell would be a real meme(plex), right? Look at
> how it became extinct... And, please, tell me if I can safely equate
> Popper's
> World 3 entities with memes, as both are apparently causal? Apologies in
>
> advance if my query's already been analyzed and replied to...
>
> Thursday March 15 12:18 PM ET
> Man Shot Dead As Bulletproof Magic
> Fails
> ACCRA (Reuters) - A Ghanaian man was shot dead by a fellow
> villager while testing a magic spell designed to make him bulletproof,
> the official Ghana News Agency reported.
> Aleobiga Aberima, 23, and around 15 other men from Lambu village,
> northeast Ghana, had asked a jujuman, or witchdoctor, to make them
> invincible to bullets.
> After smearing his body with a concoction of herbs every day for two
> weeks, Aberima volunteered to be shot to check if the spell had
> worked.
> One of the others fetched a rifle and shot Aberima who died instantly
> from a single bullet.
> Angry Lambu residents seized the jujuman and beat him severely until a
> village elder rescued him, the Wednesday report added.
> Tribal clashes are common in Ghana's far north, where people often
> resort to witchcraft in the hope of becoming invulnerable to bullets,
> swords and arrows.
>
> Djordje Vidanovic
>
>
>
> On 17 Mar 01, at 18:16, Robin Faichney wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Mar 16, 2001 at 08:44:26AM -0500, Wade T.Smith wrote:
> > > On 03/16/01 05:29, Robin Faichney said this-
> > >
> > > >The concept of memelessness is most
> > > >certainly a meme.
> > >
> > > Of course the _concept_ of memelessness is most certainly a meme.
> > > But memelessness is not.
> >
> > Duh
> >
> > --
> > Robin Faichney
> > Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org
> > (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)
> >
> > ===============================================================
> > 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
> >
>
>
> Dr. Djordje Vidanovic
> Professor of Linguistics and Semantics
> University of Nis, Serbia
> --------------------------------------
> djordjev@junis.ni.ac.yu
> gvidan@EUnet.yu
>
> ===============================================================
> 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 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 Mar 19 2001 - 16:23:24 GMT