Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA18625 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 6 Feb 2002 04:33:01 GMT Subject: Re: Meme bonding Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 23:27:33 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-Id: <20020206042721.3332E1FD4E@camail.harvard.edu> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Philip Jonkers -
>I can't imagine that termites communicate their collective archeticural
>culture to other termite communities.
But birds don't do that either- to other colonies, that is. In most
cases, a colony of birds is a species.
The whole species thing is problematic with memes and cultures. In many
ways, humans have used memes as speciation tools. When the color of the
skin is the same, or the eyes are the same, the us vs them instinct (or
whatever it is), took over and created cultural behavior....
Termites architectural 'culture' is wholely dependent upon their
environment. And it can be said that humans culture is largely dependent
upon their memetic environment.
Like bonding in young animals, we bond to the first signs that fill our
genetic voids for cultural information, be it native language, social
norms, speech accents, etc. And the termite uses what it sees, too.
- Wade
===============================================================
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 : Wed Feb 06 2002 - 04:44:59 GMT