Cultural evolution and genetic evolution possess many qualities and characteristics that are very similar. Both must obey the rules of natural selection and most importantly be successful replicators. Memes are present in today’s culture because culture is merely a compilation of memes.  Today’s society is equipped with many different avenues for cultural transmission, such as language, newspapers, television, and the World Wide Web. These innovations have allowed novel memes to replicate and old memes to ‘stay alive.’ However some view cultural evolution as strictly characteristic of humans and animal culture as interesting oddities. On the other hand, others believe culture is prevalent throughout the animal kingdom. This paper is a review of literature that addresses certain issues associated with the concept of memes. A descriptive example of a novel meme will be reviewed and the question of genetic determinism Continue reading →