The Selfish Law: A Memetic Study Of The Transition From Generational Morality To Individual Morality In Deuteronomy 24:16, Ezekiel 18, And Jeremiah 31:27-30

The transition from generational morality to individual moral responsibility in Judah during King Josiah\u27s time is present in Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. However, the fact that such an approach to morality would survive a period in which Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hittite cultures exerted cultural pressure on the Israelites to conform is rather astonishing. This thesis applies memetics – a theory that applies evolutionary models to cultural development – to the topic in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the transition from generational morality to individual moral responsibility. I argue, based on the insights that an evolutionary understanding of culture offers, that there were inherent aspects of the new approach to morality that gave individual moral responsibility a high fitness value, which allowed it to not only survive external pressures, but to survive into later rabbinic literature as the dominant form of morality. Primarily, this thesis posits that the survival of individual morality was dependent on the fact that the new morality affirmed cultural identity in contrast and opposition to Assyrian and Babylonian cultural dominance; it promotes an exclusivist mentality; and finally, it enabled Israelites to move away from the theological nihilism of generational morality

Prevention of Type II Diabetes in Honduras: El Cacao as a Case Study

University Honors Capstone Project Paper and Poster, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2016.Honduras is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the Western Hemisphere. Poverty affects access to quality healthcare and education, making it hard to manage chronic illness, specifically diabetes. Type II diabetes is on the rise in Honduras; it is estimated that currently up to 10% of adults are affected. This project will focus on reducing the prevalence of type II diabetes in Honduras, highlighting strategies for the prevention of the disease with a strong focus on education. El Cacao, a small village on the northern coast of Honduras, will be used as a case study, where I spent much of last summer as a medical volunteer. I will use much of my exposure to healthcare and the management of diabetes there as evidence to support some proposed strategies for diabetes prevention