On the Human-Dimensionality of Culture (A Sketch of Theory)

Abstract

The article is a sketch of a theoretical approach (or, more precisely, a research program) to human culture, which is based on the human-dimensionality, given as a set of irremovable natural limitations that man, as a natural being, imposes on everything thought, felt, made, changed, stored and used by him. Culture is presented as a multidimensional net/meshwork of cultural objects understood as an assemblages/re-assemblages that involve human-dimensional and non-human-dimensional artifacts, non-human actants, and humans as a condition and carriers of practices Humans act as mobile nodes of net/meshworks, moving along certain trajectories of their everyday habitat, the “enculturation” of that  habitat is determined by the configurations of “awaiting” artifacts and 'waylaying' non-human actants on their paths. A human, moving along his trajectories, assembles practices with artifacts of the environment, forming cultural objects; by the latter, as well as by the cultural objects one carries, a human can link with the cultural objects of other humans on the same or intersecting routes. Thus, couplings and multi-couplings of cultural objects are formed, which recreate a complex and constantly reassembling multidimensional net/meshwork. Configurations of relatively reproducible couplings in the net/meshwork we call retentions, the presence of which determines the state of culture; in the case of the coercion of retentions to be reproduced, we speak of a state of civilization. The first part of the article sets out the conceptual logic of the approach; the second part (which is an essay) provides a sketch of the analytical optics possible with this approach.