Re: Evolution <-> Historical mediation (???)

Linnda R. Caporael (caporl who-is-at rpi.edu)
Wed, 27 Aug 1997 18:03:56 -0400

A coincidence or omen? Just a few days ago, Mike suggested that I use
xmca as a forum for assistance/feedback on a book that I'm writing. Then

Edouard Lagache wrote:
>
> So where does that leave us? Do we need to rewrite a few million years
> worth of human evolution to properly incorporate the cultural-historical
> paradigm? If we don't, how can we appeal to notions of evolution when
> trying to understand human development in our mediated world?

and David Dirlam wrote about the time scales of evolution, culture and
ontogeny.

The book that I'm working on has to do with these issues. It begins with
the idea that "selection of alternative alleles in the population gene
pool" is too impoverished a notion of evolution, at least for humans.
So, yes, we do need to do a bit of rewriting. Natural selection is the
result of *relations* between an entity (genes, cell lineage, organism)
and its specific, situated, environment. An artifact can be part of an
entity (eyeglasses) or part of its situated environment (street
lights). Artifacts are also important because they enable groups to
coordinate their behavior.

I suggest replacing the genecentric view of evolution with an
alternative notion, "repeated assembly" (of relations), which occurs on
the time scales to which David alluded. This alters the idea of separate
systems to interlocking or integrating systems. The example I use to
give the idea of the interlocking scales is language. In the usual view,
the ability to learn a language is innate and the particular language
acquired is learned. I view these as two inherited resources necessary
(there are others obviously)for language acquisition. They are
repeatedly assembled on different time scales, evolutionary, cultural,
developmental, and in daily life.

An early version of this work is at
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?6.01

I have a later version, which will appear in Personality and Social
Psychology Review later this year. It is probably clearer than the the
paper on the web.

David, if you have reprints of your two MCA articles, could you send
them to me?
Linnda

-- 
*************************
Dr. Linnda R. Caporael
Department of Science & Technology Studies
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180
voice: 518/276-8519  fax: 518/276-2659