I'm looking for an idea that is passed on from parent to child, for the most generations in a row.
It cannot be something we need to do to survive, like eating. Something like making fire could qualify, but I don't like it because it's also indirectly required for survival.
This question resolves to whatever response sounds oldest to me.
Aug 25, 10:18pm:
To be more precise: it should not have a direct benefit for survival. I want to find a meme that propagates because of itself, not because of the benefit it provides.
Close date updated to 2024-06-21 5:45 pm
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*Aboriginal. Almost 10,000 years of tradition! https://www.sapiens.org/language/oral-tradition/ seems to be a good article, Wikipedia probably has something good too but I'm struggling to find it.
Question about meme. As I understand it "Religion" is not a meme. A religion is a meme Catholicism is a meme, but religion as a whole is not a self contained reproducing mind virus.
I think throwing would not be. But skipping a stone would be, there is a specific technique. Which is taught. (It can be and is independently discovered but it is also taught)
@stone They need to eat to survive. But they don't need to eat that way. The OP said fire could count for humans but most of us need to cook our food in order to live.
The way this question is worded it will be something taught by a nonhuman parent to their child.
So I am going to say pack hunting techniques among dolphins and Orcas.
Orcas have been around 11 million years. They teach their young specific hunting techniques. Not every pod hunts the same way or the same things. They do need to hunt to survive but they don't need to hunt as efficiency as they do. So If fire qualifies for humans hunting sharks, as an example, should qualify for Orcas.
@DanSparkman well, I guess I do allow non-humans, but I don't like a hunting technique as it helps with survival.