Interesting how the discussion of Thibault brought in the dimension of play
in addition to language/sociocultural mediation. I was stunned that a
dictionary would include under phylogeny the entry Nate turned up:
The historical development of a tribe or racial group.
That seems so 19th rascist to me, and definitely runs athwart the conceptual
system stemming from Vygotsky.
It also seemed interesting that in general people seem to have trouble taking
seriously the cultural-historical school's idea that humans are hybrids of
biological and cultural "genetic domains." It seems so foundational to me
I would have trouble thinking without it.
But the borders and categories are sure open to dispute! I note that an
upcoming article in Brain and Behavioral Science is going to have an article
on culture among killer whales and dolphins, por example. For those interested
in this line of inquiy, Mike Tomasello's book, *Cultural Learning* is likely
to prove interesting because he is one of the very scholars around who works
simultaneously with chimps and little kids.
Note, too, that at SRCD there was a session on "Developmental Evolutionary
Psychology*.
I guess the somewhat dated book edited by Bruner and Joly on play would be
a good source for those interested in the comparative analysis of play, and
Jolly's own book, *Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution*
has lots of interesting materials on the general topic of hominization.
Hmmmm, I wonder what MCA article we should ask to have made available for
further discussion.
mike
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