Let's see if the following vignette helps in unpacking this notion -- how
"social" is the following?
In the spring of 1976 I began the construction of a home in the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado that I completed late in that fall. With the exception
of infrequent visits to town for supplies I was almost completely isolated.
Some of the tools I knew how to use from previous work as a carpenter,
others such as the froe, adze and draw knife I had to figure out (and have
the scars to prove it but the tools were preferable to using my teeth). Now,
there is indeed a cabin in the Rockies that I built - I was clearly the
primary agent of it's construction but ... was I really acting individually?
Who made the tools? Where did my knowledge of them and/or my ability to
deduce their use arise? From whence came the notion of a cabin or for that
matter the (whacky) notion of building one alone?
Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind some alternative answers to that last
question myself (I already have some of my own but they still don't make a
lot of sense when I try to speak them aloud) :-)
Regards,
Rolfe Windward
GSE&IS
ibalwin who-is-at mvs.oac.ucla.edu