Idea - in Anthropology and The Social Sciences

In Anthropology and The Social Sciences

Diffusion studies explore the spread of ideas from culture to culture. Some anthropological theories hold that all cultures imitate ideas from one or a few original cultures, the Adam of the Bible or several cultural circles that overlap. Evolutionary diffusion theory holds that cultures are influenced by one another, but that similar ideas can be developed in isolation.

In mid-20th century, social scientists began to study how and why ideas spread from one person or culture to another. Everett Rogers pioneered diffusion of innovations studies, using research to prove factors in adoption and profiles of adopters of ideas. In 1976, in his book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins suggested applying biological evolutionary theories to the spread of ideas. He coined the term meme to dibe an abstract unit of selection, equivalent to the gene in evolutionary biology.

Read more about this topic:  Idea

Famous quotes containing the words anthropology, social and/or sciences:

    History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
    —W.H. (Wystan Hugh)

    After experience taught me that all the ordinary
    Surroundings of social life are futile and vain;
    William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)

    The well-educated young woman of 1950 will blend art and sciences in a way we do not dream of; the science will steady the art and the art will give charm to the science. This young woman will marry—yes, indeed, but she will take her pick of men, who will by that time have begun to realize what sort of men it behooves them to be.
    Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)