Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA17620 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 28 Sep 2001 15:46:39 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D046@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: book suggestion Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 15:42:08 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
More on books,
I've just received a copy of Gary Taylor's 1996 tome 'Cultural Selection'
which looks like a lit. crit. approach to the topic, no mention of memes in
the index, so we'll see.
Anyway, sat here looking through a Lawrence Erlbaum publishers catalogue of
books on media & communication (as you might expect as a media studies
lecturer I get these all the time), I spy a book called 'The Biology of
Communication' by Michael Beatty & James McCroskey (2001). It is apparently
about 'communibiology', a 'theoretical framework for developing and testing
biologically-oriented communication theory'.
Has anyone heard of communibiology before? It looks/sounds like a dreadful
word to me, but there may be some meat to its bones. Or it may raise
people's hackles more than a limping Thompson's gazelle would a
cheetah's....
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Scott Chase
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 10:09 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: book suggestion
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
> >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> >To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
> >Subject: book suggestion
> >Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 15:55:11 +0100
> >
> >Hiya everyone,
> >
> >Just received a copy of Lee Cronk's 'That Complex Whole: Culture and the
> >Evolution of Human Behaviour' (1999, Westview Press, ISBN 0813337054)
> >
> >Cronk appears to be a cultural anthropologist not aversed to views about
> >the
> >origin of culture stemming from evolutionary theory, and is also
> pro-memes.
> >Flicking through his bit about memes just now he seems to partly offer a
> >cultural traits line, partly a mind virus line, partly a sexual selection
> >line. I'll need to read it more closely to work out his position.
> >
> >Linking to the discussion about the cultural/natural position o f war, he
> >does have a couple of interesting things to say about war (p80). In
> >reference to the relationship between reproductive success and conformity
>
> >to
> >cultural practices, he refers to the apparent nature of reproductive
> >success
> >for male Yanomamo being related not to wealth or hunting skill (as it is
> >for
> >some other tribes), but from fighting prowess- particularly if they've
> >killed others. He stresses that this doesn't make it a universal
> principle
> >for reproductive success, though.
> >
> >I'm waiting on another book, that I think someone on the list
> recommended.
> >More on that when it arrives.
> >
> >Vincent
> >
> >
> I've been reading Gary Cziko's _The Things We Do_ (2000. MIT Press.
> Cambridge, Massachusetts, ISBN 0-262-03277-5). He talks about circular
> causation and physiological homeostasis where effects supposedly feedback
> to
> causes, a view less simplistic than the standard unidirection linear cause
>
> leads to effect view. Not too bad of a book so far, but I could not pass
> up
> this particular quote (p. 178-9):
>
> (bq) "The human immune system's primary function is to protect our bodies
> from microscopic pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and chemical toxins
> that are collectively known as *antigens*. It does this by producing cells
>
> called *antibodies* that are able to recognize invading antigens and bind
> with them so that other cells produced by the immune system can find and
> neutralize or destroy them." (eq)
>
> There's something not quite right with this passage considering that
> antibodies are proteins and that cells known as B-lymphocytes produce
> antibodies. I'm not sure you can equate pathogens with antigens. If I'm
> not
> mistaken, antigens are molecules and as such could be contained by a
> pathogen. A given pathogen could contain more than one antigen.
>
> This gaffe aside the larger point in this part of Cziko's book of
> intraselection operating within an organism over its lifetime was not
> lost.
>
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>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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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
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