From: <Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 14:24:19 +0200
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Mimicking in animals
Gatherer, D. (Derek) wrote:
> Mario:
>
> >Reading Jablonka's examples on rats and black birds, given the examples
> >of song birds mimicking acoustic patterns (songs) I mentioned in
> >JOM-EMIT (cultural speciation), given the example of the Japanese
> >macaques washing the sand off the potatoes (origin of language), my
> >impression is that Blackmore's claim for mimicking by humans only is
> >invalid. It is just another attempt to find the one and only clue which
> >makes us different from animals. <snip>
>
> Derek:
>
> Sue doesn't actually claim that. She does acknowledge that 'we can count
> birdsong as a meme' (p.49) She does admit that apes raised by humans can
> exhibit imitative behaviour (p.50), and that dolphins may do so too
> (pp.3-4). What she argues against is the wholesale attribution of imitative
> behaviour to animals who are probably only engaged in local enhancement
> learning.
How do you make the difference?Where would the blackbird behaviour fit in?
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