Re: negative zopeds

Clay I Spinuzzi (spinuzzi who-is-at iastate.edu)
Sun, 12 Oct 1997 01:30:41 CDT

>Peter, Thanks for raising the militia example, I'd been searching for a simila
>r one. It seems that this
>thread is weaving through some familiar territory (what scales up and how with
> CHAT, cultural relativism,
>the relationship with non-humans). At the same time, there's something fresh
>about framing it in terms of
>zoped and questioning the often-unconscious positive spin we put on the term d
>evelopment. At least to
>surface these questions, particularly in terms of what termporal frame we are
>using, seems very positive.
>To me, anyway!
>
>L*

Perhaps a similar one--and one that should give us pause--can be found in
Luria's _Cognitive Development_. In the introduction he points to "the
Moslem influence" as a reason for what he considered the retarded social
development of the illiterate and semiliterate peasants he studied. Would
this be an (admittedly undeveloped) example of a negative zoped? What are
the consequences for our own labeling of zopeds as positive *or* negative?

-----
Clay Spinuzzi
206 Ross Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50013
spinuzzi who-is-at iastate.edu
http://www.iastate.edu/~spinuzzi