Dear Andy,
Can these customs be related to ways of behaving according to specific
social contexts? In a broad sense, 'politeness' in the pragmatic and
discursive sense (to say the right things at the right time) could be
a way of behaving handed down from one generation to the next based on
imitation and correction by verbal communication among members of the
same epistemic community. This also depends on what you are referring
to by 'cultural memory'.
Lucas
On October 15, 2011 at 1:54 AM Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> 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/
> Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>
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