Originally, Dawkins described meme as “a unit of cultural transmission” or “a unit of imitation” which may include “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches”.ĭawkins further explains: “Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.” It came from the Greek word mimema which means that which is imitated. The term meme was introduced by Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, in 1976 in his work The Selfish Gene.
What is a Meme? And Why is it Called That?
