Recommended: On the Origin of Teepees

Why this book -- On The Origins of Teepees: The Evolution of Ideas (and Ourselves), Jonnie Hughes, 2011 -- ended up on the remaindered shelves is a mystery to me.  It is a very good book! Hughes explores the evolution, mutation and transmission of ideas (memes) as a parallel to the evolution, mutation and transmission of genes. There are similarities, and subtle differences. Why Teepees?  Hughes is looking for a meme (idea) parallel to Darwin’s evolution of finch beaks in the Galapagos – a idea introduced at one point from a common ancestor and then evolving separately in isolated and separate communities, like the spread of the teepee design among Great Plains Indians.  This reads a bit like the old classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair, a serious meditation embedded in a travelogue.  Well worth reading.