Project Two

Project2:

Meme

A meme ( /ˈmiːm/[1]) is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a

culture."[2]

A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one

mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the

concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to

selective pressures.[3]

The word 'meme' is a shortening (modeled on 'gene') of 'mimeme' (from Ancient Greek !"!#!$ Greek

pronunciation: [míːmɛːma] m!m"ma, "something imitated", from !%!&'()$% mimeisthai, "to imitate", from

!'!*+ mimos "mime")[4] and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The

Selfish Gene (1976)[1][5] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of

ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases,

fashion and the technology of building arches.[6]

Advocates of the meme idea say that memes may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that

of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition and

inheritance, each of which influence a meme's reproductive success.

Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less

prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread and (for better or for worse) mutate.

Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success. Some memes may replicate effectively even

when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.[7]

A field of study called memetics[8] arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes

in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that

scholarship can examine memes empirically. Developments in neuroimaging may however make empirical

study possible.[9] Some commentators question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in

terms of discrete units.

References

Balkin, J. M. (1998), Cultural software: a theory of ideology, New Haven, Conn: Yale University

Press, ISBN 0-300-07288-0

Bloom, Howard S. (1997), The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of

History, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press (published 1997-02), p. 480, ISBN 0-87113-664-3

Blackmore, Susan (1998), "Imitation and the definition of a meme"

(http://www.baillement.com/texte-blakemore.pdf) (PDF), Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary

Models of Information Transmission, http://www.baillement.com/texte-blakemore.pdf

Blackmore, Susan J. (1999), The meme machine, Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press

(published 1999-04-08), p. 288, ISBN 0-19-850365-2 [trade paperback ISBN 0-9658817-8-4

(1999), ISBN 0-19-286212-X (2000)]

Brodie, Richard (1996), Virus of the mind: the new science of the meme, Seattle, Wash: Integral

Press, p. 251, ISBN 0-9636001-1-7

Dawkins, Richard (2004), A Devil's Chaplain : Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love,

Boston: Mariner Books, p. 263, ISBN 0-618-48539-2

Dawkins, Richard (1989), "11. Memes:the new replicators", The Selfish Gene (2nd ed., new ed.),

Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 368, ISBN 0192177737

Dennett, Daniel C. (2006), Breaking the Spell, Viking (Penguin), ISBN 0-670-03472-X

Dennett, Daniel (1991), Consciousness Explained, Boston: Little, Brown and Co.,

ISBN 0316180653

Distin, Kate (2005), The selfish meme: a critical reassessment, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press, p. 238, ISBN 0-521-60627-6

Farnish, Keith (2009), Time's Up! An Uncivilized Solution To A Global Crisis, Totnes: Green

Books, p. 256, ISBN 190032248X

Graham, Gordon (2002), Genes: a philosophical inquiry, New York: Routledge, p. 196, ISBN 0-

415-25257-1

Henson, H. Keith: "Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War."

(http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296)

Henson, H. Keith: "Sex, Drugs, and Cults. An evolutionary psychology perspective on why and

how cult memes get a drug-like hold on people, and what might be done to mitigate the effects"

(http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html) , The Human Nature Review 2002 Volume 2: 343-

355

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