Re: cultural change

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Wed, 15 May 96 22:18:23 EDT

On Pam's other query:

I also do not see cultures as systems of rules. When I say system,
I mean a dynamic, material set of interdependent processes of
interaction and participation in activities, social, cultural,
and ecological. That's the only kind of 'system' that can _do_
anything or have a dynamics. Structuralist idealized systems of
principle, norms, rules, etc. are just inadequate representations
of some aspects of real ecosocial systems. They are static, synoptic
representations which are systems only in the mathematical sense
of propositions and relations of relations on these propositions.
You might want to see chapter 6 of _Textual Politics_ for a
better discussion of what I mean by a culture/community as a
system. JAY.

JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU