Re: A question of selves

Robert Serpell (serpell who-is-at umbc.edu)
Fri, 29 Oct 1999 12:29:03 -0400

Arguably, the body is just one possible delimiting frame of reference.

In a social ontogeny of selfhood such as that proposed by Nsamenang (1992)
as representative of a West African worldview, the self begins with a
spiritual selfhood in the prenatal phase and culminates after the death
of the body in an ancestral selfhood.

Robert

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, Paul Dillon
wrote:

> Vera,
>
> That was beautifully expressed and provides an answer to my question insofar
> as it reduces the status of the selves that Judy named to facets of a
> system. I suppose that any facet itself, etc. would be capable of becoming
> a system of similar facets, holographic or fractal reproduction, etc. But .
> . . is the body that is born, lives and dies an encompassing system that we
> inevitably presuppose and whose trajectory demarcates the domain of all that
> can occur as experience of self? Higher mental functions still embodied
> mental functions?
>
> Paul H. Dillon
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vera P. John-Steiner <vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu>
> To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>; Vera P. John-Steiner
> <vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu>
> Date: Thursday, October 28, 1999 2:38 PM
> Subject: Re: A question of selves
>
>
> >It seems to me that the selves of which Judy writes are different facets
> >of the functional system of self. When focusing on a coherent account
> >of one's life, one aspect of remembered experiences is mobilized. In
> >conversational contexts an other facet emerges, that of a very immediate
> >awareness of the otherwith whom one co-constructs utterances, thoughts,
> >and opinions. These govern the practice of voicing. Audience,
> >artifacts, purpose all contribute to mobilizing the subset of
> >possibilities that are part of the dynamics of the "self,
> >or what Wenger refers to as "identity as a focus of social selfhood."
> >In my class on collaboration, students speak of the simultaneously
> >experiencing mutuality and autonomy; they embrace Penuel and Wertsch's
> >statement about the irreducible tension of the individual and the
> >social.
> >Vera
> >---------------------------------
> >Vera P. John-Steiner
> >Department of Linguistics
> >Humanities Bldg. 526
> >University of New Mexico
> >Albuquerque, NM 87131
> >(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
> >Internet: vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu
> >---------------------------------
> >
>

Robert Serpell tel: ( 410 ) 455 2417
Psychology Department 455 2567
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore MD 21250 fax: ( 410 ) 455 1055