We hate memes, pass it on…

Quite a long post, this, but a useful handy reference as to why we should be wary of 'memes' as an idea for interpreting and discussing culture (which, it is argued, is already something of a reification, though I'd dispute that as the last word). The headline reason: "memetics sucks the air out of the room for a serious consideration of the ways that culture, knowledge, technology, and human evolution might be interrelated. That is, like a theory of humours and vapors in illness, it provides pseudo-explanations in place of just getting the hell out of the way of serious thought"
Check out the whole thing here: We hate memes, pass it on… � Neuroanthropology

The reasons given for skepticism:

• reify the activity of brains
• Attributing personality to the reification of ideas
  Doesn’t ‘self-replicating’ mean replicating by one’s self?
• Moreover, ‘self-replicating’ means, by definition, replicating by itself. Has anyone, ever, anywhere, seen an idea ‘replicate’ itSELF?
• The term ‘meme’ applied to divergent phenomena 
• A host will not evolve traits in order for parasite to benefit
  Gradual cultural transmission not like infection
• Objective ‘science’ inconsistent with normative judgments about memes
• Resistance to memetics is not ‘anti-Darwinism’; Darwinism not a religion

The latter, of course, is a statement of intent: in effect it adds up to an accusation that some Darwinists have become religion-like in their thinking and behaviour.