Message-Id: <199706081614.MAA11215@brickbat8.mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 12:17:28 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: bbenzon@mindspring.com (Bill Benzon)
Subject: Re: An experiment in memetics
>The goal of the experiment is to check if the variation between replication
>events for a meme can be non-random, and if this particular non-randomnes
>can be atributed causally to the expression of the meme.
>
Omar,
The sort of thing you describe as an experiment has been done, probably
many times. A classic source is FC Bartlett's 1932 "Remembering" (Oxford U
Press). As I vaguely recall, a ghost story taken from one culture was told,
in chain fashion (A to B to C to D etc.) by folks in a different culture.
As the story went from person to person it became more and more consistent
with the beliefs of the folks telling & retelling the story and less
reflective of the beliefs of the folks in the source culture.
William L. Benzon 201.217.1010
708 Jersey Ave. Apt. 2A bbenzon@mindspring.com
Jersey City, NJ 07302 USA http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/
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