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It has been suggested that portions of this article be split out into articles titled Memetics and Criticism of meme theory. (Discuss) (July 2013)

A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem) is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.

The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek μίμημα Greek pronunciation: [míːmɛːma] mīmēma, "imitated thing", from μιμεῖσθαι mimeisthai, "to imitate", from μῖμος mimos "mime") and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) 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.

Proponents theorize 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 behavior 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, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.

A field of study called memetics 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 academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible. Some commentators in the social sciences question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units, and are especially critical of the biological nature of the theory's underpinnings. Others have argued that this use of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal.

Dawkins' own position is somewhat ambiguous: he obviously welcomed N. K. Humphrey's suggestion that "memes should be considered as living structures, not just metaphorically" and wanted to regard memes as "physically residing in the brain". Later, he argued that his original intentions, presumably before his approval of Humphrey's opinion, had been simpler. At the New Directors' Showcase 2013 in Cannes, Dawkins' opinion on memetics was deliberately ambiguous.

History

le funny internet mémé xp

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dawkins, Richard (1989), The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 192, ISBN 0-19-286092-5, We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.
  2. Meme. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  3. Graham 2002
  4. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000
  5. Millikan 2004, p. 16; Varieties of meaning "Richard Dawkins invented the term 'memes' to stand for items that are reproduced by imitation rather than reproduced genetically."
  6. Dawkins 1989, p. 352 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDawkins1989 (help)
  7. Kelly, 1994 & p.360 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKelly1994p.360 (help):"But if we consider culture as its own self-organizing system — a system with its own agenda and pressure to survive — then the history of humanity gets even more interesting. As Richard Dawkins has shown, systems of self-replicating ideas or memes can quickly accumulate their own agenda and behaviours. I assign no higher motive to a cultural entity than the primitive drive to reproduce itself and modify its environment to aid its spread. One way the self organizing system can do this is by consuming human biological resources."
  8. Heylighen & Chielens 2009
  9. McNamara 2011
  10. GILL, Jameson (2011). Memes and narrative analysis: A potential direction for the development of neo-Darwinian orientated research in organisations. In: Euram 11 : proceedings of the European Academy of Management. European Academy of Management.
  11. Burman, J. T. (2012). The misunderstanding of memes: Biography of an unscientific object, 1976–1999. Perspectives on Science, 20(1), 75-104. doi:10.1162/POSC_a_00057 (This is an open access article, made freely available courtesy of MIT Press.)
  12. Dawkins 1989, p. 192 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDawkins1989 (help)
  13. Dawkins, Richard (1982), The Extended Phenotype, Oxford University Press, p. 109, ISBN 0-19-286088-7
  14. Dawkins' foreword to Blackmore 1999, p. xvi
  15. Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase 2013

References

External links

Richard Dawkins
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