Re: [xmca] Vygotsky-text-context-thinking

Cathrene,

Perhaps my phrasing was less than perfect, but you mis-read my intention.

'Cultural impoverishment' as I meant it was not a charge against any 'people' (in a collective sense) in any part of the world. It
was a charge against an economic and political system that denies large numbers of people (in many parts of the world) of access
to the means of becoming literate - which, in today's world, means access to the possibility of schooling.

It is in that sense, only, that |I think it is reasonable to talk of 'cultural impoverishment' - to describe a process of
limitation of possibility, not as an argument to look down on some people and thereby provide an excuse for excluding them from
any of the rights we claim for ourselves. Whatever justification was offered for them, the anti-Catholic laws were reactionary.

I think it is reasonable to draw a damning contrast between, say, the military spending of the British or American governments and
spending on primary and secondary education in Africa and elsewhere, or between the wealth and incomes of financiers in the City
of London and the budgets for adult literacy in Europe. That was my point.

Colin

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>>> Cathrene Connery <cconnery@ithaca.edu> 07/09/08 9:57 PM >>>

Colin,
I would assert that individuals who do not formally read or write are
politically marginalized, however, I am curious what measure, standards,
or means allow you to contend that "pre-literate" individuals or peoples
are "culturally impoverished"? Your sentiment sounds a little too much why
my illiterate ancestors left Ireland after the anti-Catholic laws were
enacted.
Cathrene

Eric,
>
> No one, I hope, would suggest that to be 'pre-literate' is to lack highly
> developed mental functions. However, to be
> 'pre-literate' in today's world - thanks to phylogensis, to be sure - is
> to be culturally and politically impoverished. Most
> preliteracy today is a political scandal, along with other forms of
> impoverishment.
>
> A handful of billionaires are worth more in money terms than forty whole
> countries. Read this, and employ those higher mental
> functions!
>
> Colin
>
> Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read the
> Manchester
> Metropolitan University's email disclaimer available on its website
> http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer
>>>> <ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org> 07/09/08 2:30 PM >>>
>
> Colin:
> you wrote:
>
> We can 'converse' across the oceans, and
> with the dead and the not-yet born, in ways that 'pre-literate' peoples
> could not imagine. To enable the largest possible part of
> humanity to have access to the fruits of literacy is, thus, to empower
> them
> socially, rather than to 'engineer' them.
>
>
> I like the sentiment, I truely do, but I have met many so called
> 'pre-literates' that have highly developed mental functions and carry out
> incredibly complex activities. This development is the ontogenetic
> process. When you generalize to the vast digest of human literary output
> I
> step out into the abyss and state this would be the phylogenetic
> development of the human species and not an individual's ontogeny. Does
> that make sense or do I float unsupported?
>
> eric
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Jul 9 14:53 PDT 2008