culturgen

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Introduced by Charles Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson in their book Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process (1981); from culture +‎ -gen.

Noun[edit]

culturgen (plural culturgens)

  1. One of the propagating mutating cultural units that form the subject of memetics.
    Synonym: meme

Usage notes[edit]

The term has fallen in popularity, and now the slightly older term meme (coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene) is almost universally used instead.