File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_1999/lyotard.9910, message 22


Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 17:37:10 +1000 (EST)
From: q4702564-AT-topaz.cqu.edu.au
Subject: methodology and the differend


Lois

I found your note on the "tribe" and deconstruction of self very
interesting. Lyotard speaks about the Cashinuau quite a bit in his works.
Here, in Australia, we have the Aboriginal, a people that have inhabited
Australia for 40-60,000 years before whites "discovered" them. I believe
that what you are saying about the deconstructed self as being a state
whereby people no longer feel alienated or separate from the tribe is very
similar to the Aboriginal. The Aboriginal has what they call the "Dreamtime"
an originary myth from which springs all their sense of community and self.
In contrast we whites have what Lyotard would call a myth lying downstream,
an horizon toward which we are supposedly progressing. Here in Australia it
is the case that for the Aboriginal they are struggling with the fact of
being subsumed under this white myth. This is very destructive of their
culture and sense of being. I also get the feeling though that we whites are
jealous of the Aboriginal myth precisely because we are a "rootless" people
where they appear to be very situated by their myth. I think the postmodern
is an acceleration of this "rootlessness".

Cheers
Chris Summers

PS In my original post I spoke of EBD students, actually here in Australia
we talk more of Conduct Disorder (DSM-IV) classification and most of our
Behaviour Management policies for schools reflects this psychological
approach to classification and treatment. In looking at the differend I am
attempting to shift the focus away from the individual and onto the shared
experience of teacher/student.


   

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