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  Watch out for Link Rot mind stretched Beware of Link Rot

TJ Olney -- Associate Professor of Marketing

What people have said about past seminars  2004  and  2005 

Winter 2006 Calendar for convenience


Print Ads | TV ads | | Readings for the first Class! diamond readings...

Honors Seminar: Perspectives on the Evolution of Material Culture -- Winter 2006

Metaphors, Memes, and Myths -- how they grow, replicate, and mutate to shape the course of our lives.

Coming soon to a seminar room near you.... Perspectives on the Evolution of Material Culture Winter 2006 Tuesday and Thursday   3:00-5:00PM   3 credits

"the consumer as someone engaged in a 'cultural project' the purpose of which is to complete the self." Grand McCraken


Class meetings TR 3:30-5:20PM pm Chemistry Building Rm 485 ( a bit large, but we can cope.)
  We will be reading Gregory Bateson's Mind and Nature which students find very difficult, it is not long, so if you have an opportunity to buy and read it before next Winter you will understand it much better when we read it together. TJ

Books physically required for Winter 2006
Other readings for the course are available on the internet.

  1. Bateson, Gregory, Mind and Nature
  2. Lynch, Aaron, Thought Contagion
  3. Gladwell, Malcolm, The Tipping Point
  4. McCraken, Grant, Culture and Consumption, 2nd ed.

Other readings for the course are available on the internet. Oh, I already said that. Did you notice it both times...
  • 1) by lackoff that discusses only The Conceptual Theory of Metaphor , without the tie-in to philosophy. or as a single long document.
  • 2) The Metaphors of Dreams -- George Lakoff
  • 3) On Metaphors of Drugs- George Lakoff
  • 4) On how we think about war -- George Lakoff
    My bookstore link Note that some of them are available online for substantially reduced prices. It doesn't matter whether you get the hardcover or the paperback.

    Today?(maybe) This link leads to some of the things that were discussed in my last two seminars, many of which will be touched upon by this different focus in Winter 2006 as we explore issues of cultural evolution.

    See the syllabus from here on.
    Syllabus readings by day click here.
    A very brief course outline

    Term Paper topics
    energizer bunny
    Other interesting frames

  • Cultural Selection by Agner Fog
  • The Ecology of Intentions: How to make Memes and Influence People: Culturology   by Adam Westoby (1944-1994)

    Communication model diagram
    Meaning Transfer 
    Print ads
    TV ads

    The evolving interesting book list and links to other book lists, not required books.

    email for TJ Olney

    Births to women by marital status Census Data -- as abatract and separate graphs Or as one document with graphics

    A new page -- a syllabus if you will -- is linked to this sentence.

    Office Hours Tu 4-5PM We 1-3PM Th 4-5PM or by appointment (office hours subject to change)

    Honors Seminar material will continue to appear here...

    Before the first class, please read the following online articles:
    Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond by Jay Epstein (three parts)

    See your campus email for a free working link
    The first part is at
    Have you ever tried to Sell A Diamond (part 1)

  • Have you ever tried to Sell A Diamond (part 2)
  • Have you ever tried to Sell A Diamond (part 3) " The other two parts are linked from the first.

  • The links on diamonds that follow are interesting, but not required for the first class. If you find that the article was an eye opener and want to explore further, read some or all of the following.

  • Wired Magazine article on the New source of man-made diamonds.

  • The Official Diamond Trading Company Web site.
  • Can you tell these stones from one another? Some people can.
  • How to tell diamonds from the other real things.

    PR for "Guys Only" to Read (You'd better read both!)

  • PR for "Gals Only" to Read
  • Not Forever at Salon.com
  • Misery mining pit is the baby of BHP Billiton's Ekati family. The first diamonds from Misery were sold in December 2001...      Of the run-of-mine production, 35 per cent is sold to the Diamond Trading Company, formerly De Beers.
  • Government paper about commercial gemstones.
  • US government paper about industrial diamonds.
  • On bended knee, a book about customs of proposing marriage-- PR from the above.
  • Ekati's self-promotional web site. English or French

    See the syllabus from here on: Syllabus
    I am thrilled to be hosting this honors seminar and I am sure that we will have an extremely interesting quarter, but, given the nature of the course, we will have to make some of it up as we go along. This can be especially beneficial to anyone who needs to increase their own tolerance for ambiguity, an increasingly necessary character trait in an increasingly ambiguous world. :-)

    If you have any suggestions for TV shows or popular movies that are ripe for analysis, and have a couple of taped episodes, please talk to me, bring me the tapes so I can preview them and we will go on from there.

    Advertising vs Propoganda... When the government is the sponsor and the message is loaded.

    Topics of interest -- systematically, metaphorically, memetically, and mythically.

    • How organizations help members define themselves
    • Memetic inheritance of idiosyncratic meanings over time... Case studies
    • The American Dream as metaphor, as meme, as myth.
    • The Puritan Ethic as metaphor, as meme, as myth.
    • alternatives to commercial culture -- how else can we find meaning
    • ecological issues arising from a culture of consumption
    • privacy issues -- Where does the idea of privacy come from? What is it's significance and how is that changing
    • technology -- how does technology change the meaning of our things and our ideas
    • The Heretical views of Noam Chomsky
    • history of commercialization through metaphors, memes, and mythic frames.
    • commercialization as an export -- how is the meaning transferred?
    • the nature of money -- What is it? Metaphorically, memetically, mythically?
    • gender issues -- metaphors, memes, and myths of gender and how they change the meaning of situations and ambitions
    • people and their stuff -- how does physical stuff communicate Metaphorically, memetically, mythically?
    • drugs and consumer culture (both licit and illicit) What metaphors, memes and myths surrround the substances that alter physical and mental functions of human beings?
    • time and work and the relationship to consumer culture -- Metaphorically, memetically, mythically?
    • advertising and commercial culture -- Metaphorically, memetically, mythically?
    • Visual rhetoric: The role of images in the creation and transfer of meaning.
    • The Seminar Theme Song!

    Jana Stanfield -- I'm not lost, I'm Exploring Her other songs