meme

(noun)

Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

Related Terms

Examples of meme in the following topics:

  • Animals and Culture

    • The acquisition and sharing of behaviors correlates directly to the existence of memes, which are defined as "units of cultural transmission" by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

  • Cultural Transmission

    • A meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. " A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena.

  • High and Low Culture

    • Popular culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century.