Contagious ideas : on evolution, culture, archaeology, and cultural virus theory
"This is a book about the transmission of culture and the development of a 'Cultural Virus Theory' to explain the processes of cultural change. This was Ben Cullen's intellectual project and his ideas, presented here in an edited version of his writings, are an important contribution to archaeological theory." "Setting aside pre-existing frameworks for explaining culture change in archaeology and anthropology, Ben Cullen develops his own neo-Darwinian theory. Recognising that cultural traits are inherited by individuals independently of their genes and that selection acts on pre-existing variations, he explores ways in which cultural traits can be seen as self-reproducing entities analogous to viruses; the appropriateness of this analogy is the most distinctive premise of his Cultural Virus Theory." "The core of this book is taken from Ben Cullen's doctoral thesis. After completing that he began to apply his theory to the explanation of cultural persistence and change in specific cases such as megalithic religion and Renaissance art, and to introduce new refinements of the virus metaphor for human culture."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2000
Oxbow Books ; David Brown Book Co. [distributor], Oxford, Oakville, CT, USA, ©2000