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The ontogeny of the embryonic, fetal and infant
human Umwelt
Morten
Tønnessen, Associate professor in philosophy at University of Stavanger
In this lecture
I will outline the three first stages – namely the embryonic, fetal and infant
stage – of the lifespan of our subspecies Homo
sapiens sapiens in Umwelt terms. Umwelt transitions, defined as lasting,
systematic changes within the life cycle of a being from one typical appearance
of its Umwelt to another (Tønnessen 2009), will be identified. Comparison will
be made with the general, shared Umwelt of mammals (Mammalia). This enables us
to pinpoint some uniquely human developmental traits.
In terms of
the tripartite Umwelt model (Tønnessen 2011), the lecture will cover the early
development of the core Umwelt and
the mediated Umwelt, and the initial emergence
of a conceptual Umwelt. The
designated phase(s) of human development envelops the gradual emergence of
various senses, the emergence and fine-tuning of Umwelt objects, early phases
of human individuation, and early sociality.
Birth, the
individuation event per se, arguably
represents the most significant of all Umwelt transitions at the organismic
level. But by that point the more-than-human Umwelt gradually becoming human
has already developed for some nine months. What – if anything – is it like to
be an embryo? And what is it like to be a fetus? And an infant? When and how
does subjectivity first make its appearance in the life of a human being?
In the
womb, the Umwelt of the embryo and later the fetus is intimately tied to that
of the mother. Which, then, is the most useful term in this analysis –
communication (between the two), or auto-communication (within the whole that
is the pregnant woman)? To a large extent the same can be said about the infant
Umwelt – the mother-and-child (and perhaps the mother-and-father-and-child) Umwelt assemblage is an ecosystem of
sorts. The mother is the progeny’s first landscape, and the mother’s body (or
rather body-landscape) represents Earth, nature, as first perceived. Human
sociality, on its side, emerges gradually, starting in the fetal stage, perhaps
when the voices from beyond our first landscape are first heard and engaged
with. We start interacting with others long before we become aware of who we
are.
References
Tønnessen, Morten
2009. Umwelt
Transitions: Uexküll
and Environmental Change. Biosemiotics
2 (1): 47-64.
