The recent xmca messages weave an interesting mosaic, and a fascinating
one given the many different perspectives and socio-cultural positions of
the contributors...
Marie, I agree with what you said, but just your word "Far" Eastern made
my ears pop up... well, the East is not that "far" away these days... to
say "far east" implies... well, as if we live on the "ends" of the earth!
It takes about 12 hours' flight to travel from San Francisco to the "Far
East"... (or "West", for that matter... the Pacific Ocean is on the West side
of San Francisco :-)
So, I always can't help smiling helplessly when people say "Far" east... :-)
* * *
The abacus is an interesting cultural artifact, but it certainly combines
mediation by language and by concrete arrangement of object patterns. I
remember my father did his abacus calucating very fast... I almost
couldn't see the movement of his fingers and the tata-tat sounds were so
comfortably cheerful (certainly my own subjective response to this
activity... realted to father, father working swiftly and cheerfully,
father working at home with me cheerfully and comfortably... anyway,
sorry for this affective digression...)
The trick to this quick use of the abacus is... he's memorized a whole
series of what I would now call "verbal protocols"! He didn't need to
write it down... it was passed on to him orally from his village school
teacher... it's a neat set of verbal formulas, almost like a poem learnt
by heart (reminds me of David Olson's favourite topic: the oral
memorization practices of middle ages people before the technology of
paper and writing... and "the cognitive consequences" of writing...)
* * *
... also reminds me of Heidegger's saying that the tool becomes an
extension of our body and we're not conscious of it... like my father's
use of the abacus; the abacus is like part of his body; he didn't
think:... hm... now I'm using this abacus to mediate my calculation
activity... it's as natural as moving his legs to walk...
But the analyst (i.e., we) does talk of tools and mediation, to focus on
it, to make it an object of conscious reflection to talk about it,
research on it... to the man and woman in action/in activity, it's all
part of an indifferentiable whole... (well, I guess, to a novice, it's a
different matter: I remember my playig with the abacus, my moving of the
beads on it, my trying to make sense of it when I was a child faced with
this strange instrument...)
Well, so much for now...
Certainly enjoyed your discussions!!
And happy (Canadian) Thanks-Giving Day!
And happy (Chinese) Mid-Autumn Festival (or called "Moon" Festival... go
out and see the full moon tonight, and make a prayer for the fullness of
human relationships... our cultural practice!)
Best,
Angel
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Angel M.Y. Lin
Doctoral Candidate
Modern Language Centre
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada
E-Mail: MYLIN who-is-at OISE.ON.CA
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Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When ... we stand face to face in the cyber space? ...
--Adapted from: The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
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