----- Original Message ----- From: Vincent Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 3:40 PM Subject: RE: new article (another quick point) > Typically, after posting my quick response earlier, I was struck by another > theory put forward that fits in with this kind of idea, and I'm suprised the > author didn't mention it. > > Agriculture is generally regarded to have been the catalyst for the > emergence of cities, and it has been argued that the combination of > agriculture and large dense urban populations led to requirements for other > things too, not least money, and also writing. For example, some 95% of > writing found in ancient Sumer concerned trade. > > But this also turns the argument on its head in some ways. if if wasn't for > the discovery/ invention of farming, large scale communities of humans were > unlikely to develop. So qualitative factors can beget major population > shifts, which in turn beget qualitative shifts in social trends. A while > ago in New Scientist there was a piece about the discovery of fire-making > that was speculating on these kinds of issues, i.e. how and to what extent > did fire-making impact on human evolutionary development (in that case I > think this was meant in genetic as well as social terms). > > BTW, nice to see fortunate coincidences of discussions on the list appearing > in press or on screen. I don't know if you caught, or what you thought > about the Channel 4 programme 'The Difference', which focused on both > genetic similarities and differences between ethnic groups, where the milk > drinking tolerance was discussed. Also New Scientist a couple of weeks > back mentioned that tribe in Papua New Guinea where they got the CJD like > disease from eating dead relatives (it was in the news because several > elderly survivors of that period, the 1950s, have begun to die from the > disease, leading to fears that people previously thought immune to > vulnerability to such diseases may just have very long incubation periods > instead, so every meat eater in the UK is going to die from vCJD... > perhaps). > > Also, has anyone else seen the Rose & Rose book 'Alas, Poor Darwin'? It's > an attack on evolutionary psychology mostly, but there's a chapter called > 'Anti-Dawkins', and Mary Midgely has written a piece about memes (flicking > through it in the bookshop it didn't seem a strong argument to me against > memes, but there you go I'm biased, although I did agree with some of the > criticisms of Blackmore's Buddhism). > > Vincent > > ---------- > > From: Gatherer, D. (Derek) > > Reply To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 8:49 am > > To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' > > Subject: new article > > > > The transition from quantity to quality: A neglected causal mechanism in > > accounting for social evolution > > Robert L. Carneiro > > American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024 > > Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 97, Issue 23, 12926-12931, November 7, > > 2000 > > > > Students of social evolution are concerned not only with the general > > course > > it has followed, but also with the mechanisms that have brought it about. > > One such mechanism comes into play when the quantitative increase in some > > entity, usually population, reaching a certain threshold, gives rise to a > > qualitative change in the structure of a society. This mechanism, first > > recognized by Hegel, was seized on by Marx and Engels. However, neither > > they > > nor their current followers among anthropologists have made much use of it > > in attempting to explain social evolution. But as this paper attempts to > > show, in those few instances when the mechanism has been invoked, it has > > heightened our understanding of the process of social evolution. And, it > > is > > argued, if the mechanism were more widely applied, further understanding > > of > > the course of evolution could be expected to result. > > > > Available at: > > > > http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/23/12926 > > > > =============================================================== > > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the > > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission > > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) > > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit > > > > =============================================================== > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit > > MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ MD Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
