Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 15:39:28 +0200
From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl>
Subject: RE: implied or inferred memes
To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
John:
It may
not need to, though - it may be that the one triumphs over the other
(think of the celibate Cathars, or the Shakers).
Derek:
Interesting examples, since the fate that befell the 2 sects was rather
different; the Shakers disappearing through non-reproduction and the Cathars
being physically repressed and in some cases actually exterminated. If I
remember my history rightly, Catharism proved very stubborn - despite
celibacy and the danger of violent death, it was a couple of hundred years
before the last Cathars at Montsegur were destroyed.
Incidentally, there is some evidence that early Chrisitanity was celibate
(notably the apocryphal gospels of St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. Thomas, all
of which allude to the total sinfulness of sex and, in the latter case, the
undesirability of women).
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