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        Grounding signs of culture : primary intersubjectivity in social semiosis

        Author
        Cowley, S.
        Attention
        2299/5353
        Abstract
        The article examines how infants are first permeated by culture. Building on Thibault (2000), semiogenesis is traced to the joint activity of primary intersubjectivity. Using an African example, analysis shows how--at 14 weeks--an infant already uses culturally specific indicators of "what a caregiver wants." Human predispositions and the mother's enactment of cultural processes enable the child to give joint activity a specific "sense." Developmentally, the child prods the caregiver to shaping his or her actions around social norms that transform the infant's world. This nascent lopsided relation is probably necessary for learning to talk. Acting with its mother, the baby's full-bodied activity uses adult "understanding" in ways that are cultural, contingent, and indexical. Infant activity is already semiotic.
        Publication date
        2004
        Published in
        Mind, Culture and Activity
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca1102_3
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/5353
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