Yesterday I wrote the abstract "
The ontogeny of the embryonic, fetal and infant human Umwelt", which has been submitted to
NASS VIII: Sign Evolution on Multiple Time Scales, to be held in Aarhus, Denmark, May 29-31. The abstract is tied to the proposed theme session "Biosemiotic
Perspectives on Sign Evolution and Development", organised by Kalevi Kull, Timo Maran and Riin Magnus.
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Paper submission:
The ontogeny of the embryonic, fetal and infant human
Umwelt
In this
presentation 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, 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, the presentation will cover the early development of
the core Umwelt and the mediated Umwelt, and the emergence of a conceptual Umwelt. The designated phase
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, an
individuation event per se, arguably
represents the most significant of all Umwelt transitions at the individual
level. But by that point the more-than-human Umwelt gradually becoming human
has already developed for some nine months. What is it like to be an embryo? What
is it like to be a fetus? 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)? At any rate the mother is the progeny’s
first landscape – the mother’s body represents Earth, nature, as first
perceived. Human sociality, furthermore, 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.
