culturgenn.
/ˈkʌltʃədʒ(ə)n/, U.S. /ˈkəltʃərdʒ(ə)n/ Biology and Sociology.
In the terminology of C. J. Lumsden and E. O. Wilson: an element of behaviour or cultural artefact whose repetition or reproduction is transmissible from one generation to another and may be subject to a selective process; a cultural trait considered as a theoretical unit of cultural evolution (and thus analogous to a gene).Now largely displaced by the similar concept of the meme (meme n. 1).
ΚΠ
1980 C. J. Lumsden & E. O. Wilson in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77 4382/1 During socialization in a cultural species, individuals transmit an array of behaviors and artifacts, which for convenience will be termed ‘culturgens’.
1990 Man 25 219 The sum total of memes or culturgens current in a population at a given time is said to comprise its ‘culture’, the ideal analogue of the gene-pool.
1999 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 5 628/1 Lists of memes, culturgens or instructions tend to be limitless ragbags of the most heterogeneous items.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1980