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Re: [xmca] The Armlessness of Venus
I agree with David on this. Cinematography is not about artifacts. The
question I tried to pose first is what kind of sign is the film shot
of an artifact. Second, what kind of reflection is that of an artifact
when it enters a sort of syntagmatic relation. Let us imagine a hunter
seeing the trail of an animal printed on soil and then seeing the
trail of that animal's predator. We have a story coming out of those
reflections (effect and cause?). In order to be aware of the effect
cause we have to develop some kind of idea of the mechanisms of the
world, which comes from non-mediated observation, trial-and-error
activity (plus some kind of speech mediated activity such as
mother-child talk).
Right, Peircean semiology surpasses Saussurean (or Hjelmslevian)
linguistics and semiotics. Then let us replace the example of the
cinematography with that of the theatre play. What kind of artifact is
the sword in a theatre scene? Would not that artifact represent
another artifact, a sword that really cuts human flesh and kills?
Does not the availability of guns trigger the behaviour of shooting
people around? This reminds me of Borges' short story "The form of the
sword" in which the artifact plays the man.
I am not making a case in favour of some kind of diminished
semiotic/internalization capability of words. But what I am not ready
to buy at this point is that artifacts other than words belong to some
kind of different realm altogether.
Otherwise, great reflections on the historic iconic build-up of a statue, David.
Best
Arturo
On 20 October 2011 11:30, David Kellogg <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> In "Ways of Seeing", John Berger and his friends and students at the BBC were able to show that when people declare the "death of painting" what they really mean is the death of a particular kind of syntagm: in particular, the syntagm that says, in so many nonwords, "I see you".
>
> For roughly four hundred years, from the time of Veonese and Carvaggio until our own time, the function of painting was as a kind of display case: a display of possessions, including allegedly spiritual ones, a way of showing off the erotic capital of women and the capital capital of men.
>
> I think Arturo is right: the Kuleshov experiments were something new, but they were not what we think they were: they were not the introduction of a syntagm into artefacts. First of all, in order for the experiment to work at all, we have to see the film as a sign and not a tool for presenting real objects for display. This in itself would explain why the audiences of the Lumiere brothers fled the theatre and audiences today do not (without any reference to familiarity as an explanatory principle).
>
> In the Kuleshov experiments what is new is a new syntagm: it is not a matter of "I see you" (and Brecht's rejection of the "fourth wall" in drama is also a rejection of "I see you"'). Nor is it entirely a matter of replacing "I see you" with "he sees her" (or "He sees the dead child, the steaming borscht, the bubbling fountain in the desert," etc.) . The new syntagm is "We see him looking at her".
>
> First of all, an obvious point. The very use of the word "syntagm" means were are not looking at a general artefact, and certainly not a tool, but a sign, and a sign presupposes not a hard environment but rather a context. It also presupposes a sign maker, and an interpretation which is based on interpreters knowledge of the context and the intentions of the sign maker (what Peirce calls the interpretant, the sign or representamen, and the object).
>
> The object (that is, the intention of the sign maker) has to be imaginatively reconstructed by the interpreter for the sign to make any sense at all. I don't think that tools in a tool kit or objects in a museum have any syntagmatic relations qua things. The syntagmatic relationship may leave its mark on things, but it is not any more in the things themselves than a footprint is somehow inherent, in an intrauterine form, underneath the sole of my foot. Only language-laden creatures like you and me can put tools in a toolkit or objects in a museum into any kind of syntagmatic relationship.
>
> Secondly, a less obvious one. The "new" syntagm of us looking at him looking at her is just as fragile and historical as the old one of me looking at you. In fact, it is already disappearing before our very eyes: the tendency in computer generated SFX has been relentlessly away from us looking at him looking at her, and back to "I see you". The whole point of James Cameron and "Avatar" and his multi-zagillion dollar budget is to try to turn back the march of human consciousness and undo cultural memory, to go back to the halcyon days when people actually ran screaming from movie theatres at the sight of a train entering Saint Lazare station.
>
> Fortunately, I think it cannot be done. Despite the Cole Porter song, the armlessness of Venus is now irrervocably bound up with the cultural memory that is her charm, and nobody will ever succeed in putting arms back on her again. I am reminded of this every time my wife puts pins in her mouth and raises her arms to pin her hair behind her head in a gesture that no male has ever naturally mastered; the moment when a woman's arms fall upwards or downwards or away from her form is as much an indelible part of male cultural memory as the disrobing which was once the real raison d'etre of "I see you" in painting.
>
> David Kellogg
> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>
>
> --- On Wed, 10/19/11, Arturo Escandon <arturo.escandon@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Arturo Escandon <arturo.escandon@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [xmca] The Armlessness of Venus
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 6:48 AM
>
>
> But the tool may well enter a syntagmatic relation with other tools,
> such as within the network of objects of a collection. I am also
> thinking of the museum and the art exhibition as well. Eventually,
> all who can abbreviate Duchamp's urinary operate with it pretty much
> as they operate with a word.
>
> And what is cinematography but a rendition and reflection of objects,
> including landscapes, "nature", as well as signs and symbols. I am
> thinking on the syntagmatic of Einsenstein and Kuleshov before filming
> carried any sound at all. You see the face of a man and a dead child
> and you conclude that the mad is sad. You see the same face of a man
> and then you see a girl in a "lascivious" position, and you conclude,
> well... something else. When were faces, dead children, spoons, etc.
> internalised? They were internalised before or after the film? Before
> or after the two film "shots" required to have a syntagma?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gLBXikghE0
>
> Yet the public escaping from the train arriving at the railway
> station, theme of the film made by the Lumiere Brothers, had
> internalised the train as what? Why people no longer escape from
> cinemas when they see a train or a bullet coming towards them?
>
> By the way, Baudrillard has a great chapter on collections in "The
> system of objects", more profound than many scholarly papers available
> in the market of journal articles.
>
> Best
>
>
> Arturo
>
>
> On 19 October 2011 16:50, David Kellogg <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> In Tool and Sign, Chapter Four, Vygotsky and Luria make the case that when functions (e.g. self-directed speech) are internalized, they are really structurally and functionally very different (that is, thinking is really not structured the way that speech is, and it has a very different function as well). The "unity" of verbal thinking and social communicative thinking is a genetic and a historical unity rather than a structural or a functional one.
>>
>> I think the problem Andy is complaining about is a real one, but the source of it may actually lie in the ahistorical use of a trans-structural, trans-functional unit of analysis, namely the artefact. Let us accept that tools, words, songs, and even thoughts are artefacts.
>>
>> They are not artefacts in the same way; they don't have the same structure or even the same function. The tool acts nonreciprocally on the environment and the thought qua thought has no such power. Thoughts cannot seem to help transforming each other, while tools left in a tool kit do not seem to rub off on each other much at all. .
>>
>> To say that they are the same because of their common history doesn't really help us very much either, for two reasons. First of all, that history is just as much about differentiation as it is about unity: the differences between the way Homer thinks and the way we think are just as much a part of our understanding Homer as are the similarities. Secondly, structural and functional deformation (that is, exaptation) is as much a part of the artefact as invention and use. The armlessness of Venus really is part of our cultural memory of this artefact.
>>
>> When I first went to China, EVERYBODY knew, almost by heart, the eight great operas of the Cultural Revolution. You could (and people did) get on a bus and start singing Xi Er's aria:
>>
>> "My rage is a tall mountain...."
>>
>> And half the bus would break out into:
>>
>> "My hunger for vengeance is a wild seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea!!!!!!!!!!!"
>>
>> That cultural memory is still there, but it has been transformed in an interesting way, which reminds me not a little of the armlessness of Venus.
>>
>> One of the biggest perks in my new job is twenty-four hour access to a cable TV channel which provides Chinese opera from the manland. Just as Western opera is mostly about sex and violence, Chinese opera dwells obsessively on the theme of writing: people are always writing and reciting poems, taking college entrance exams, and sending and receiving messages.
>>
>> Lately there has been a wave of new operas written for the ninetieth anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party this year and the nationwide campaign to "sing red songs for the party". The original revolutionary operas, which my wife was raised on, had a genuinely anti-intellectual bent: for example, in the opera "Liu San Jie" the eponymous heroine rescues her lover and herself from some crafty scholars through an elaborate festival of "Shan Ge" (ritual insults).
>>
>> Last night, the modern revolutionary opera heroine, though, was a young communist returning from abroad: she was literate, knew foreign languages (and the daughter of the Guomindang villain). It is as if the absence of writing the cultural revolution was simply a pause for breath in the thousand years of cultural memory represented by the Chinese stage.
>>
>> Of course, writing is an artefact, and so is speech. But they are not, contrary to what Derrida contends, artefacts by virtue of a common origin in some kind of Ur-grammar of absence-presence. Speech is mutually transformative the way that thoughts are, while writing is far more impermeable and far more able to transform the environment in long lasting ways.
>>
>> David Kellogg
>> Seoul National University of Education
>>
>> --- On Tue, 10/18/11, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
>> Subject: Re: [xmca] Cultural memory
>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>> Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 11:15 PM
>>
>>
>> That is a very interesting article Mike. Nonetheless, I
>> raised cultural
>> memory as a means to an end, and I suspect that the topic is
>> not
>> sufficient to achieve what I need. Over the deacades, Mike,
>> you must
>> have had many occasions to convince someone that artefacts
>> which are
>> products of a culture have an essential and not a secondary
>> role in
>> communication and social relations in general. What is your
>> answer to
>> "interactionism"?
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> mike cole wrote:
>>> Is the work of Jim Wertsch of any relevance in this discussion?
>>>
>>> I tripped over the following for those also following this thread with
>>> interest:
>>>
>>> http://www.collectivememory.net/2011/04/collective-memory-narrative-templates.html
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 8:18 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
>>> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Of course I know that song and voice are material artefacts, Tony.
>>> Indisputably, as you say.
>>> I realise that the distinction, if indeed a distinction can be
>>> made, between speech and forms of enduring artefact, is a
>>> secondary one, and not one of principle, the point is: how to
>>> explain to someone for whom "material" and "mediation" and
>>> "artefact" are not significant categories*? For most people,
>>> speech is something people do (which it is as well) and the fact
>>> that they draw on an existing language is "Oh well of course" but
>>> not an issue of any significance. If you want to communicate with
>>> someone you have to use a common language, of course. And if you
>>> move the topic to the prior existence of the common language, the
>>> response is that this common language was created in the same way,
>>> by people talking to each other (which of course it was) and the
>>> prior existence of something not created in the given interaction
>>> is never seen as essential to the situation. Infinite regress.
>>>
>>> Do you see my problem?
>>>
>>> Andy
>>> (And Derrida was just pulling our leg I think. Like Baudrillard
>>> saying the Gulf War never happened. I could never take that
>>> argument seriously.)
>>> * I thinik that for a lot of people "material" is something talked
>>> about only by dogmatic marxists or naive realists, while
>>> "mediation" is nothing to do with person-to-person interaction,
>>> and "artefact" is not significanly different from "natural."
>>>
>>>
>>> Tony Whitson wrote:
>>>> Andy,
>>>>
>>>> Song, as you describe, is indisputably material -- but it is not
>>>> a physical thing in the same sense as a flute or a song sheet. It
>>>> seems to me you make your position unnecessarily vulnerable by
>>>> treating materiality as more a matter of physicality than it
>>>> needs to be (cf. the baseball examples).
>>>>
>>>> The Talmud example brings to mind Plato's objections to recording
>>>> & transmission via writing (a bit ironic, no?, from the
>>>> transcriber of Socrates' dialogues), which I would never have
>>>> attended to but for Derrida, in D's treatment of the traditional
>>>> prioritization of speech over writing. D's argument for
>>>> "grammatology" is that speech itself is fundamentally a kind of
>>>> "writing" first; but in a sense that I would say is material, but
>>>> not necessarily physical.
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, 19 Oct 2011, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Yes, I think it is the case that those currents of thinking that
>>>>> do not have "mediation" in their lexicon are just "quite
>>>>> different" and it may be, as Deborah suggested, a question of
>>>>> "agreeing to disagree". Probably, in the end it is the value of
>>>>> work produced by the different traditions of psychology which
>>>>> will tell. Within the bounds of philosophy, it may be irresolvable.
>>>>>
>>>>> I had thought of song in this way as well. It is not "enduring"
>>>>> in the same way as the song sheet or the flute, but song seems
>>>>> to have a visceral quality which plays the role of making things
>>>>> endure. The famous remark of a kid who was learning their times
>>>>> tables at school: "I know the tune, but I haven't learnt the
>>>>> words yet."
>>>>>
>>>>> Interesting point about the Talmud. I did not know about
>>>>> resistance to writing it down. What a great insight from that
>>>>> time. Hopefully they wrote it down! :) There is a lot o
>>>>> scripture which could certainly do with a bit of lived
>>>>> reinterpretation!
>>>>>
>>>>> Still thinking!
>>>>>
>>>>> Andy
>>>>> Helen Harper wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Andy,
>>>>>> It seems as if your sparring mate is conceptualising the
>>>>>> process of 'transmission' in quite a different way from you, so
>>>>>> it might be that you just end up seeing quite different things.
>>>>>> But it might be relevant to the discussion to point out that
>>>>>> even oral traditions are invariably formalised and
>>>>>> 'objectified' to some extent. All the oral cultures that I've
>>>>>> ever encountered or read about use song cycles, chanting,
>>>>>> special intonative patterns, repetition and other such
>>>>>> metalinguistic tools. These tools can make the language
>>>>>> 'special' and worth transmitting; they are also more easy to
>>>>>> repeat and presumably act as mnemonics. The special forms are
>>>>>> found in high culture, but they're also found in everyday
>>>>>> activities, particularly transmitting things to kids (what's
>>>>>> often referred to as 'baby talk' in linguistics can involve
>>>>>> some grammatical simplification, but also invariably involves
>>>>>> an exaggeration of phonological patterns, lengthening of vowels
>>>>>> etc - in short, a metalinguistic awareness that objectifies the
>>>>>> language to some extent).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There was an orally transmitted Jewish tradition - which later
>>>>>> became written down and formalised as the Talmud. My
>>>>>> understanding is that there was enormous resistance to writing
>>>>>> it down (even though the literate tools existed) because the
>>>>>> oral tradition was highly valued as a way ensuring that 'law'
>>>>>> was seen as something to be discussed, interpreted and
>>>>>> reinterpreted - i.e., it was required to be transmitted, but
>>>>>> understood as something that needed to be constantly reinvented
>>>>>> in order to be valid. But even this law still needed to be
>>>>>> memorised and, as such, objectified.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Probably no help to you, but helped me to think through the
>>>>>> idea of 'maintaining culture by voice alone'.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Helen
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 18/10/2011, at 11:33 PM, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Well, I think that, even though I have a technical objection,
>>>>>>> this avenue does not offer me a definitive proof. Were I to
>>>>>>> rely on the argument that "a people removed from their land
>>>>>>> requires a written language in order to maintain their
>>>>>>> culture," then the Hmong people would offer a counterexample,
>>>>>>> even if the Jews did not, having the Old Testament, etc.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I need another argument (if one exists) to show why cultural
>>>>>>> memory requires an enduring material culture, and the limits
>>>>>>> to what can be maintained by voice alone.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> thanks for that Eric.
>>>>>>> Andy
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org <mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Andy:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My understanding of how the Hmong written language was
>>>>>>>> created was more for transmitting information from the public
>>>>>>>> schools to Hmong families that did not read english.
>>>>>>>> However, now that the Hmong are into their second and even
>>>>>>>> third generation of living in St. Paul they do utilize this
>>>>>>>> written language and it appears on shop windows and
>>>>>>>> billboards, but still the most prominent place that I see it
>>>>>>>> is in correspondence from the schools to families.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> eric
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
>>>>>>>> <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> Date: 10/17/2011 09:25 PM
>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [xmca] Cultural memory
>>>>>>>> Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So in this case of an indigenous people retaining cultural
>>>>>>>> practices for
>>>>>>>> a generation after being removed from their land, it turns
>>>>>>>> out that they
>>>>>>>> *created* a written language to do it!
>>>>>>>> Andy
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org <mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>> > Yes, exactly the cultural practices are transmitted from
>>>>>>>> adults to
>>>>>>>> > children via the extremely strong ties to what has been
>>>>>>>> practiced for
>>>>>>>> > generations. An example is that the Hmong have a very
>>>>>>>> strong belief
>>>>>>>> > in spirits and that bad luck befalls a family as a result
>>>>>>>> of spiritual
>>>>>>>> > unbalance in a family member or in the belongings of the
>>>>>>>> family; many
>>>>>>>> > cultural practices revolve around appeasing these "bad
>>>>>>>> spirits", very
>>>>>>>> > common to see Hmong children wearing strings tied around
>>>>>>>> their wrists
>>>>>>>> > to off evil or to keep their 'souls' in spiritual balance.
>>>>>>>> Also if a
>>>>>>>> > Hmong child is born with a disability then the family takes
>>>>>>>> it on as
>>>>>>>> > their personal burden and are very reluctant to seek
>>>>>>>> outside assistance.
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > It is also interesting that since the Hmong have lived in
>>>>>>>> St. Paul for
>>>>>>>> > 40 plus years now that a written language has emerged as a
>>>>>>>> result of
>>>>>>>> > schools efforts to illicit support from families in the
>>>>>>>> educational
>>>>>>>> > process. However, it is interesting that Hmong cultural
>>>>>>>> practices
>>>>>>>> > believe that the child is sent to the expertise of the
>>>>>>>> teacher and it
>>>>>>>> > is not for the parents to interfere in the education of
>>>>>>>> their child.
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > By the way Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a
>>>>>>>> fabulous movie
>>>>>>>> > called "Grand Torino" that has a strong influence of Hmong
>>>>>>>> culture
>>>>>>>> > incorporated into the plot.
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > If this has already been posted to XMCA please forgive the
>>>>>>>> double posting
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > eric
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> > To: ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org
>>>>>>>> <mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org>
>>>>>>>> > Cc: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
>>>>>>>> <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> > Date: 10/17/2011 11:10 AM
>>>>>>>> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Cultural memory
>>>>>>>> > Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > Yes, that is interesting, Eric. Do you know *how* they do
>>>>>>>> it? Is it just
>>>>>>>> > by how they raise their children?
>>>>>>>> > Andy
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org <mailto:ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>> > > Hey Andy:
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > I don't know if this is exactly in line with what you are
>>>>>>>> thinking but
>>>>>>>> > > in St. Paul there is a large population of Hmong
>>>>>>>> (mountain people of
>>>>>>>> > > Laos) that have transplanted here. They did not have a
>>>>>>>> written
>>>>>>>> > > language but their cultural are still extremely strong
>>>>>>>> (marriage at a
>>>>>>>> > > young age, long drawn out funerals, tending animals (I
>>>>>>>> have been to
>>>>>>>> > > houses in St. Paul where chickens are kept in the house),
>>>>>>>> gardening.
>>>>>>>> > > Is this along the lines of your thinking?
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > eric
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>>>>>>>> > > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
>>>>>>>> <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> > > Date: 10/14/2011 06:54 PM
>>>>>>>> > > Subject: [xmca] Cultural memory
>>>>>>>> > > Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > I need some help. I am having a discussion with a
>>>>>>>> supporter of Robert
>>>>>>>> > > Brandom, who was at ISCAR, but is not an Activity
>>>>>>>> Theorist. on the
>>>>>>>> > > question of cultural memory.
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > One of my criticisms of Robert Brandom is that he does
>>>>>>>> not theorise any
>>>>>>>> > > place for mediation in his theory of normativity. He
>>>>>>>> supposes that norms
>>>>>>>> > > are transmitted and maintained down the generations by
>>>>>>>> word of mouth
>>>>>>>> > > (taken to be an unmediated expression of subjectivity),
>>>>>>>> and artefacts
>>>>>>>> > > (whether texts, tools, buildings, clothes, money) play no
>>>>>>>> essential role
>>>>>>>> > > in this.
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > I disagree but I cannot persuade my protagonist.
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > I challenged him to tell me of a (nonlierate) indigenous
>>>>>>>> people who
>>>>>>>> > > managed to maintain their customs even after being
>>>>>>>> removed from their
>>>>>>>> > > land. My protagonist responded by suggesting the Hebrews,
>>>>>>>> but of course
>>>>>>>> > > the Hebrews had the Old Testament. Recently on xmca we
>>>>>>>> had the same
>>>>>>>> > > point come up and baseball culture was suggested, and I
>>>>>>>> responded that I
>>>>>>>> > > didn't think baseball-speak could be maintained without
>>>>>>>> baseball bats,
>>>>>>>> > > balls, pitches, stadiums, radios, uniforms and other
>>>>>>>> artefacts used in
>>>>>>>> > > the game.
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > Am I wrong? Can anyone point to a custom maintained over
>>>>>>>> generations
>>>>>>>> > > without the use of arefacts (including land and texts as
>>>>>>>> well as tools,
>>>>>>>> > > but allowing the spoken word)?
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > Andy
>>>>>>>> > > --
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> > > *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>>>> > > Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>>>>>>> > > Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> > <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> > > Book:
>>>>>>>> http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> > <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>>
>>>>>>>> > > <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> > <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>>>
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> > > __________________________________________
>>>>>>>> > > _____
>>>>>>>> > > xmca mailing list
>>>>>>>> > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>>>> > >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > --
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> > *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>>>> > Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>>>>>>> > Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> > Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> > <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>>
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > __________________________________________
>>>>>>>> > _____
>>>>>>>> > xmca mailing list
>>>>>>>> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>>>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>>>>>>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> __________________________________________
>>>>>>>> _____
>>>>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>>>>>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>>> __________________________________________
>>>>>>> _____
>>>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>>>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>>>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>>>
>>>>> __________________________________________
>>>>> _____
>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tony Whitson
>>>> UD School of Education
>>>> NEWARK DE 19716
>>>>
>>>> twhitson@udel.edu <mailto:twhitson@udel.edu>
>>>> _______________________________
>>>>
>>>> "those who fail to reread
>>>> are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
>>>> -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>>> <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>> <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________
>>> _____
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
>> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________
>> _____
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>> __________________________________________
>> _____
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Arturo J Escandon
> Associate Professor
> Department of Spanish and Latin-American Studies
> Nanzan University
> 18 Yamazato-cho, Showa-ku
> Nagoya, 466-8673 JAPAN
>
> Tel: +81 (52) 832 3111 (extension 3604)
> Mobile: +81 (908) 796 4220
> E-mail: escandon@nanzan-u.ac.jp
> arturo.escandon@nakamachi.com
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
--
Arturo J Escandon
Associate Professor
Department of Spanish and Latin-American Studies
Nanzan University
18 Yamazato-cho, Showa-ku
Nagoya, 466-8673 JAPAN
Tel: +81 (52) 832 3111 (extension 3604)
Mobile: +81 (908) 796 4220
E-mail: escandon@nanzan-u.ac.jp
arturo.escandon@nakamachi.com
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca