Editing Meme (section)

== Origins ==

[[File:Richard dawkins lecture.jpg|175 px|left|alt=|thumb|[[Richard Dawkins]] coined the word ''meme'' in his 1976 book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]''.]]

=== Early formulations ===
Although Richard Dawkins invented the term ''meme'' and developed meme theory, he has not claimed that the idea was entirely novel,<ref>{{cite web|last=Shalizi|first=Cosma Rohilla|title=Memes |url=http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/formerly-hyper-weird/memetics.html |access-date=8 October 2021 |website=Center for the Study of Complex Systems |publisher=[[University of Michigan]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611125712/http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/formerly-hyper-weird/memetics.html |archive-date=11 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past.<ref name="mneme">{{Cite journal |last=Laurent |first=John |url=http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/1999/vol3/laurent_j.html |title=A Note on the Origin of 'Memes'/'Mnemes' |journal=Journal of Memetics |date=1999 |volume=3 |pages=14–19 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413222038/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/1999/vol3/laurent_j.html|archive-date=13 April 2021}}</ref>

For instance, the possibility that ideas were subject to the same pressures of evolution as were biological attributes was discussed in the time of Charles Darwin. [[Thomas Henry Huxley|T. H. Huxley]] (1880) claimed that "The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huxley |first=T. H. |date=1880 |title=The coming of age of 'The origin of species' |journal=Science |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=15–20 |doi=10.1126/science.os-1.2.15 |pmid=17751948|s2cid=4061790}}</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]] (1922) observed the similarity between intellectual systems and living organisms, noting that a certain degree of [[complexity]], rather than being a hindrance, is a necessity for continued survival.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chesterton |first=G. K. |author-link=G. K. Chesterton |date= 1990| orig-date=1922 |chapter=III. The Case for Complexity |editor-last1=Marlin |editor-first1=R. P. |editor-last2=Rabatin |editor-first2=G. J. |editor-last3=Swan |editor-first3=J. L. |editor-last4=Sobran |editor-first4=J. |editor-last5=Azar |editor-first5=P. |editor-last6=Mysak |editor-first6=J. |editor-last7=Paine |editor-first7=R. |editor-last8=Marlin |editor-first8=B. D. |title=The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton|volume=III|url= |location=San Francisco|publisher=Ignatius Press|pages= 37–40|isbn=0-89870-310-7}}</ref>

In 1904, [[Richard Semon]] published ''Die Mneme'' (which appeared in English in 1924 as ''The Mneme''). The term ''mneme'' was also used in [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]'s ''The Life of the White Ant'' (1926), with some parallels to Dawkins's concept.<ref name="mneme" /> [[Kenneth Pike]] had, in 1954, coined the related terms [[Emic and etic|''emic'' and ''etic'']], generalizing the linguistic units of [[phoneme]], [[morpheme]], [[grapheme]], [[lexeme]], and [[tagmeme]] (as set out by [[Leonard Bloomfield]]), distinguishing insider and outside views of communicative behavior.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kenneth |last=Pike |title=Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior |orig-year=1954 |edition=Revised |date=1967}}</ref>

=== Dawkins ===
The word ''meme'' originated with [[Richard Dawkins]]' 1976 book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]''.

Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist [[L. L. Cavalli-Sforza]], anthropologist F. T. Cloak,<ref>Cloak, F. T. 1966. "Cultural microevolution". ''Research Previews'' 13(2): 7–10. (Also presented at the November, 1966 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.)</ref><ref>Cloak, F. T. 1975. "Is a cultural ethology possible?" [[Human Ecology (journal)|''Human Ecology'']] 3: 161–182. {{doi|10.1007/BF01531639}}.</ref> and ethologist J. M. Cullen.<ref>"[https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-selfish-gene/chapter-11-memes-the-new-replicators The Selfish Gene: Chapter 11 – Summary & Analysis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114235259/https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-selfish-gene/chapter-11-memes-the-new-replicators |date=14 November 2021}}". ''LitCharts''.</ref> Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.

[[File:Kilroy was here (re-drawn).gif|thumb|right|"[[Kilroy was here]]" was a [[Graffiti|graffito]] that became popular in the 1940s, and existed under various names in different countries, illustrating how a meme can be modified through replication. This is seen as one of the first widespread memes in the world.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gardner |first=Martin |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-05-bk-5402-story.html |title=Kilroy Was Here |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=5 March 2000 |access-date=8 October 2021 |archive-date=11 October 2021  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011161432/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-05-bk-5402-story.html |url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Dawkins used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a [[self-replication|replicator]]. He hypothesized that one could view many cultural entities as replicators, and pointed to melodies, fashions and learned skills as examples. Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behavior. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the [[cultural evolution|evolution of culture]] to the natural selection of genes in biological [[evolution]].<ref name="selfish"/>
Dawkins noted that in a society with culture a person need not have biological descendants to remain influential in the actions of individuals thousands of years after their death:<blockquote>But if you contribute to the world's culture, if you have a good idea...it may live on, intact, long after your genes have dissolved in the common pool. [[Socrates]] may or may not have a gene or two alive in the world today, as [[George C. Williams (biologist)|G.C. Williams]] has remarked, but who cares? The meme-complexes of Socrates, [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]], [[Copernicus]] and [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]] are still going strong.<ref name="The Selfish Gene 30th Anniversary Edition section on survival" /></blockquote>

In that context, Dawkins defined the ''meme'' as a unit of [[Cultural Transmission|cultural transmission]], or a unit of imitation and replication, but later definitions would vary. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about [[memetics]].<ref name="machine">{{harvnb|Blackmore|1999}}</ref> In contrast, the concept of genetics gained concrete evidence with the [[DNA#History|discovery]] of the [[DNA#Biological functions|biological functions]] of [[DNA]]. Meme transmission requires a physical medium, such as photons, sound waves, touch, taste, or smell because memes can be transmitted only through the senses.

=== After Dawkins: Role of physical media ===
Initially, Dawkins did not seriously give context to the material of memetics. He considered a meme to be an idea, and thus a mental concept. However, from Dawkins' initial conception, it is how a medium might function in relation to the meme which has garnered the most attention. For example, [[David Hull (philosopher)|David Hull]] suggested that while memes might exist as Dawkins conceives of them, he finds it important to suggest that instead of determining them as idea "replicators" (i.e. mind-determinant influences) one might notice that the medium itself has an influence in the meme's evolutionary outcomes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hull |first=David L. |title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |isbn=9780192632449 |editor-last=Aunger |editor-first=Robert |edition=1st |pages=43–67 |chapter=Taking memetics seriously: Memetics will be what we make it}}</ref> Thus, he refers to the medium as an "interactor" to avoid this determinism. Alternatively, [[Daniel Dennett]] suggests that the medium and the idea are not distinct in that memes only exist because of their medium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel C. |title=From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds |date=2017 |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/957746925 |publisher=HighBridge Audio |isbn=9781681684390 |oclc=957746925 |access-date=11 January 2023}}</ref> Dennett argued this in order to remain consistent with his denial of [[qualia]] and the notion of materially deterministic evolution which was consistent with Dawkins' account. A particularly more divergent theory is that of [[Limor Shifman]], a communication and media scholar of "[[Internet meme]]tics". She argues that any memetic argument which claims the distinction between the meme and the meme-vehicle (i.e. the meme's medium) are empirically observable is mistaken from the offset.<ref>{{cite book  |last=Shifman |first=Limor |title=Memes in Digital Culture |date=2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9781469063256 |oclc=929971523}}</ref> Shifman claims to be following a similar theoretical direction as [[Susan Blackmore]]; however, her attention to the media surrounding Internet culture has enabled Internet memetic research to depart in empirical interests from previous memetic goals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lankshear |first1=Colin |last2=Knobel |first2=Michele |date=2019 |title=Memes, Macros, Meaning, and Menace: Some Trends in Internet Memes |url=https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/memes-macros-meaning-and-menace |journal=The Journal of Communication and Media Studies |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=43–57 |doi=10.18848/2470-9247/CGP/v04i04/43-57 |s2cid=214369629 |issn=2470-9247 |access-date=11 January 2023 |archive-date=4 January 2023  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104172842/https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/memes-macros-meaning-and-menace |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Regardless of Internet Memetic's divergence in theoretical interests, it plays a significant role in theorizing and empirically investigating the connection between cultural ideologies, behaviors, and their mediation processes.