Message-Id: <v0310280db2493a73a8fb@[194.109.148.6]>
In-Reply-To: <SIMEON.9809231342.A@muahost.uwe.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 19:16:36 +0200
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Ton Maas <tonmaas@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Re:
>By 'ordinary' learning I mean things like classical and
>operant conditioning. None of these 'ordinary' learning
>mechanisms involve _imitation_ (they arise/are shaped
>whithin One organism) - thus they don't involve _imitation_
>of i-culture.
Which reminds me of the didactical dillemma's of imitational learning. When
facing a class of gym or dance students, the teacher often performs the
gestures/motions/steps in "reversed" (mirror image) form, in order not to
confuse his/her pupils. As Mead and Bateson have shown in their milestone
work of visual anthropology "Balinese Character": Balinese dance
instructors use a radically different didactical strategy, whereby they
take place behind the pupil's back, taking his hands and "dragging" or
guiding him through the motions. Would you say this involves imitation or
rather not?
Ton
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