Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 14:51:46 GMT
From: SOC MicroLab UEA <A.Rousso@uea.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: memetics-digest V1 #8
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Has anyone got any comments about urban myths? I'm writing
an article on them. The hardest part is checking their
veracity (but that's another story). However, it struck me
that they are a paradigm example of memes - the core content
remains the same while the minutiae change, regardless of
the number of times they are transmitted. This sets them
apart from chinese whispers, where the core content can
change as well. Is the "Kentucky fried rat" story true, or
is it just such a popular myth that everyone seems to have
read about it once? And why do these things always seem to
happen to people we know? Are urban myths just the
office-culture equivalents of medieval legend? Any takers?
Alex Rousso.
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