Re: Activity and Money (2)

From: Paul H.Dillon (illonph@pacbell.net)
Date: Sat Dec 16 2000 - 07:42:12 PST


Nate,

I responded to Andy's message before reading yours. It should be pointed
out that virtually all traces of Mayan "high culture", e.g., culture
associated with indigenous states, were destroyed during the period of
colonialization. For all their contemporary cultural specificity, in
particular the conservation of the Mayan language, Mayan economic systems
from at least 1760, when the last free Mayan groups were subordinated within
a system of hacienda feudalism which itself was a product of world
capitalist development. My point here is that one should not generalize in
these cases about transition between cultural systems associated with
distinct modes of production as much a transition between stages of
development that different groups already within the capitalist world system
go through, much like ex-slaves in the U.S. learning math in the period
after the Civil War (up to the present?).

Paul H. Dillon

----- Original Message -----
From: Nate Schmolze <vygotsky@home.com>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 4:28 AM
Subject: Re: Activity and Money (2)

> Andy,
>
> Your message reminded me of a MCA journal some time ago. It was a piece
on
> historical change by Patricia M. Greenfield with commentary by Gaskins in
> V. 6, # 2. While I think Greenfield focuses on the "developmental"
aspects
> of historical change such as increased independence, creativity etc,
> Gaskins commentary nicely brings out the historical changes of the market
> within a Mayan community.
>
> Now what is interesting in both pieces is how certain actions by children
> that we (the west) seem to value emerged through market forces that more
> closely resemble modern capitalism. Greenfield, focusing on the
> developmental aspect of historical change does not bring those connections
> to the front, but the connections are there nevertheless.
>
> This seems to also point to the "ethics" you brought forward in that the
> capabilities in children that we seem to value emerged from the historical
> change of a "barter" economy to modern capitalism.
>
> I think the Mayan research would be very interesting to pursue with the
> ethics your bringing forward. For example, the connections between a
> culture moving toward modern capitalism and its implications for
> psychology. Gaskins in "Children's Engagement..." makes that connection
> more or less explicit with a questioning of how education (pre-school)
> relates to or at least prepares children to the values of the market
place.
>
> I think in psychology and developmental literature we like to talk of
these
> capabilities as having a life of their own so to speak, but it seems
> important from a critical-ethical standpoint to come to terms with how
they
> emerge historically. In addition, as I see Gaskins pointing towards that
we
> examine how fostering this or that capability in children produce or
> reproduce a particular kind of culture. For example, the developmental
> capabilities we seem to value coincide with the developmental changes in
> Mayan children as it changed to an economy where the market had a more
> determining role.
>
> Nate
>
>



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