I confused how memetics worksCould you share your knowledge?

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Memetics explores how ideas, behaviors, and cultural phenomena spread and evolve similarly to genes. The discussion highlights a resource that provides insights into this concept, emphasizing the role of human language as a cultural replicator. A referenced article from Nature Reviews Genetics discusses how human languages can be analyzed using statistical methods from phylogenetics, revealing parallels between linguistic and biological evolution. This approach allows researchers to construct phylogenetic trees that map the history of cultures and uncover patterns in language evolution influenced by social factors. The findings suggest that linguistic phylogenies may offer valuable insights into human behavior and anthropology, potentially more so than genetic data.
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I confused how memetics works..
Could you share your knowledge?
 
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todo said:
I confused how memetics works..
Could you share your knowledge?

This is a good example.

Nature Reviews Genetics 10, 405-415 (June 2009)

Human language as a culturally transmitted replicator by Mark Page

Human languages form a distinct and largely independent class of cultural replicators with behaviour and fidelity that can rival that of genes. Parallels between biological and linguistic evolution mean that statistical methods inspired by phylogenetics and comparative biology are being increasingly applied to study language. Phylogenetic trees constructed from linguistic elements chart the history of human cultures, and comparative studies reveal surprising and general features of how languages evolve, including patterns in the rates of evolution of language elements and social factors that influence temporal trends of language evolution. For many comparative questions of anthropology and human behavioural ecology, historical processes estimated from linguistic phylogenies may be more relevant than those estimated from genes.
http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v10/n6/abs/nrg2560.html
 
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