Re: Pluck and Culture Change

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In message <Pine.SOL.3.91.960426102949.15007A-100000@orichalc.acsu.buffalo.edu>
Thomas Brunton writes:

> Culture is a mental phenomena that can be shared or individual.

Do y'all (or youz) agree that unshared mental phenomena can be considered
"culture?" Isn't "shared" one of the design features of culture?

Example: A chimp, off by herself in the woods, figures out how to make a stone
tool by flaking, and uses her newfound skill to kill, butcher, and eat a young
baboon. On the way back to the group, she is shot by poachers. Was what she
thought/did an example of "culture"? On the other hand, termiting is certainly
culture, or maybe "proto-culture" since it is not transmitted symbolically (thru
language) among chimps but it definitely is transmitted socially and not a part
of chimp genetic programming.

Ronald Kephart
Dept of Language & Literature
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL USA 32224-2645
Phone: (904) 646-2580

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