Philip G. Chase对meme和文化的界定

考古学家 Philip G. Chase 的 The Emergence of Culture: The Evolution of a Uniquely Human Way of Life 一书旨在通过分析最新的考古发现，来探讨文化的起源时间问题，为此，他首先花了一整章40页的篇幅来厘清gene、meme、行为和文化诸概念的关系，并给出了他自己对文化的定义。 Chase仿造生物学的基因型（ genotype ）和表现型（ phenotype ）概念对，提出了编码（coding）和行为（behavior）概念对，然后把影响行为的编码归为四类： 1）由基因决定的大脑编码。（比如由基因控制在发育期特化了的突触连接） 2）从个人经验中习得的编码。 3）从社会中习得的起源于（2）的编码。 4）通过人际互动，从社会中且只能从社会中创生（或曰涌现（emerge））的编码。 Chase把文化定义为包含了第4类编码的行为和观念系统，由此定义，文化包含了meme，但仅有meme不一定构成文化，第2、3类编码就是meme，但不是文化。在Chase看来，文化是基于个体，但在层次上超越于个体的一种结构，类似于水波和水分子的关系，单个水分子的运动和个别水分子之间的碰撞，无法用于描述水波，水波是大量水分子运动的宏观统计表现。 Chase指出，meme并非人类独有，鸟类和灵长类中都有发现，而文化是人类独有的。其最典型的代表是语言（很可能也是最早的文化系统），因而Chase把文化起源，替换成了语言起源，该书的后几张罗列和分析关于语言起源的一系列考古证据，主要涉及头盖骨内侧沟槽形态显示的语言脑区发展，舌下神经通道大小，喉软骨位置，等等。下面是他界定文化概念的两段文字： Recall that I use the term “culture” to refer to the totality of three related phenomena: 1. Codes that we create through social interaction inform and govern our behavior. These codes are emergent in character because they cannot be understood without reference to this interaction. The codes do not replace other, private, forms of coding, but are added to them. 2. Such socially created codes not only inform and govern our behavior but also frequently motivate it. Because this potentially leaves individuals open to exploitation by the social group that creates the coding, our willingness to be motivated by socially created coding can be seen as a susceptibility to cultural manipulation. 3. Cultural codes form all-encompassing webs of meanings, values, and dicta that incorporate into themselves almost everything that humans perceive, think, or do. Thus culture forms an inescapable intellectual framework for human life and human action. 他对四种编码的区分： We can think of coding in terms of four categories or levels: 1. Coding that is essentially determined genetically. Note that, like all coding, this is something in the brain, not the behavior it produces. 2. Learned coding. Because of the plasticity of their brains, mammals are able to create new codes in response to their interactions with their environments. 3. Socially learned codes. These codes are initially created by one individual through individual learning, but others then learn them from conspecifics, either by observation or through teaching. 4. Codes created through social interaction.