In Cultural Psychology I argue that the primacy of the social must be
interpreted with care, and significantly, I take as my example the
environment that greets the newborn. I love use of the dancing metaphor
and it has forms that can be used at birth. But it the parents who bring
the music and the words. If they do not, end of life. In so far as by
consciousness one is referring to culturally mediated organization of
action, one is referring to something that was "first social in origin"
in a very basic sense.
This is NOT incompatible with the belief that "in the beginning was the
deed" (a la Bakhtin, Vygotsky, and Dewey, among illustrious list of
others) who give primacy to the active agent.
The internalization/appropriation discussion's outcome(s) depend on how
one views the process of mediation-in-activity.
1 1/2 Cents
mike