Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 6 Miklukho-Maklaya Street, Moscow, 117198, Russia.
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology, Department of Embryology, 1, b. 12 Lenin Hills, Moscow, 119991, Russia; Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova str., 26, Moscow, 119334, Russia; Scientific Center of Children's Health, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Lomonosovsky prospect, 2/62, Moscow, 117296, Moscow, Russia.
Biosystems. 2021 Jun;204:104378. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104378. Epub 2021 Feb 16.
Charles Darwin, the founder of the idea of natural selection, believed that this selection is not limited exclusively to biology: changes in language, consciousness, and technology are also adaptive. The transmission of culture is not a human prerogative. To date, several approaches for the understanding of the biological basis of cultural evolution were developed. Memetics stands out among other interdisciplinary theories that consider the development of culture and society through the prism of biological phenomena, because it is based on the concept of the biological replicator, meme and the mechanisms of cultural evolution are understood by analogy with biological evolution. The concepts of the biological and cultural replicators are similar; however, the nature of memes and the specific mechanisms of their replication are still poorly understood. In this review, we consider the strengths and weaknesses of the memetic approach to the study of cultural phenomena in the context of the cultural and technological evolution of mankind.
查尔斯·达尔文是自然选择思想的创始人，他认为这种选择并不仅限于生物学：语言、意识和技术的变化也是适应性的。文化的传播并不是人类的特权。迄今为止，已经开发了几种理解文化进化生物学基础的方法。在考虑通过生物现象来发展文化和社会的其他跨学科理论中，模因学脱颖而出，因为它基于生物复制子的概念，并且通过类比生物进化来理解文化进化的机制。生物和文化复制子的概念相似；但是，模因的性质及其复制的具体机制仍未得到很好的理解。在这篇综述中，我们考虑了在人类文化和技术进化的背景下，模因方法研究文化现象的优缺点。
