Culture as an evolutionary arena

Measuring the Evolution of the Drivers of Technological Innovation in the Patent Record

“…Inkjet printing and PCR are both door-opening in this way, but stents are not. Even if people generally agree that technology evolves, there is controversy about whether the evolution of technology is in some interesting sense "Darwinian" or "adaptive" [1,12,15,22,25,30,42]. Much of the same controversy arises in connection with cultural evolution in general [13,14,35], and especially in connection with so-called memetics [2,17,18].…”

“Rhythm Changes”. Notes on Some Genetic Elements in Musical Culture

“…he psychological language of the preceding paragraphs should not be taken as an abandonment of my belief that the genetic elements of culture are to be considered as things in the external world, not as structures and processes in brains (Benzon 1996). Rhythm Changes is a property that some sonic objects exhibit, but most do not.…”

The evolution of music—A comparison of Darwinian and dialectical methods

“…The greatest problem that presents itself is, as Benzon (1996) has pointed out, the exact identification of those selective forces. One suggestion that Benzon makes is that internal conceptual coherence is an important factor.…”

“…This is because memetics does not posit any single mechanism for change, but merely that any kind of selective pressure can operate on memetic variation. Identifying the selective pressure is the greatest challenge (Benzon, 1996). Once a candidate selective force has been identified, one must then seek to examine all the situations in which it might have operated and the ensuing results.…”

“…Benzon's theory of Ranks is designed to apply to culture as a whole and not just to music (Benzon & Hays 1990;Benzon, 1993;Benzon 1996Benzon , 1997. Rank 3 is regarded as the level at which "Art" as a self-conscious process emerges, as opposed to the basic emotional expression of Rank 1, and the entertainment function of Rank 2.…”