Abstract

PINO, Angel. The beginnings of a child's cultural constitution. Rev. etol. [online]. 2002, vol.4, n.2, pp. 117-127. ISSN 1517-2805.

This essay takes as its starting point Vygotsky's propositions that (1) man is the product of natural and cultural functions, and that (2) higher functions emerge first as an interpsychological category and then as an intrapsychological category in children. Development may thus be seen as a process of conversion of biological functions into cultural ones, through complex semiotic mechanisms. A "semiotic topology" could allow cultural and biological spaces to be combined without being confounded. The hypothesis of a cultural zero moment means that human development has a culturally determined beginning, not to be confounded with biological birth. As it is impossible to directly detect such origins at the beginning of the child's life, it is necessary to look for indices based on empirical data. The main objective of this essay is to indicate, in the first weeks or months of a child's life, possible indices of what can be the cultural birth of man.

Keywords : Vygotsky; Culture; Semiotics; Child development.

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