Lingvocultural Transfer: a Myth as a Meme
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2018-2-7
- Pages
- 80-86
Abstract
This author considers the intergenerational transmission of the idea of myth in the framework of the cultural-historical dichotomy "communication-transfer", examining it from the point of views of the unit of cultural inheritance (meme). The author notes that for an individual, the most interesting memes are capable of transmitting information from a tradition to a tradition, from a generation to a generation, whereas the least attractive myths exist at the moment of communication and are unlikely to be replicate by other generations. The authors hold that a linguocultural transfer of information in time and space is never ideal, and replicators create deviational variants of myths that somehow differ from each other. Such an imperfect process of intergenerational information transfer contributed to the emergence of a large number of variative religious trends, astrological forecasts and so on. The author describes the semiotic system of myth, the main feature of which is its targeted orientation. Such a system of myth promotes the description of the impact of external phenomena on the inner world of man through far-fetched pseudo-historical legends. It is noteworthy that the idea of unconditional belief in supernatural forces remains relevant in the modern world, despite the evolutionary development of society. The vitality of myths, as shown in the work, results from the linguocultural transfer of information from one generation to another, due to the attractiveness of the memes of this or that myth for the human psyche.
Reference
Barthes, R., 2008. Mifologii [Mythologies]. Moscow (in Russ.).
Debray, R., 2010. Vvedenie v medialogiyu [Introduction à la médiologie]. Moscow (in Russ.).
Dakinz, R., 2013. Rasshirennyi fenotip: dlinnaya ruka gena [The extended phenotype. The long reach of the gene]. Moscow (in Russ.).
Dakinz, R., 2017. Bog kak illuzia [The God delusion]. St. Petersburg (in Russ.).
Leach, E., 2001. Kul'tura i kommunikatsiya: Logika vzaimosvyazi simvolov. K ispol'- zovaniyu strukturnogo analiza v sotsial'noi antropologii [Culture and Communication: the logic by which symbols are connected. An introduction to the use of structuralist analysis in social anthropology]. Moscow (in Russ.).
Proskurin, S. G., 2011. Network structures in language and culture. Obshchestvo setevykh struktur [Social network structures]. Novosibirsk. pp. 233—280 (in Russ.).
Tul'pe, I. A., 2012. Mifologiya. Iskusstvo. Religiya [Mythology. Art. Religion]. St. Petersburg (in Russ.).