La scrittura tra corpo e cultura: per un approccio cognitivo-antropologico

The paper intends to situate writing in the twofold dimension of body and culture, which from the phenomenological point of view are simultaneously present in any act of writing. Writing can be regarded as an embodied practice, it is argued, that in the perspective of the so-called embodied cognition, can be shown as being rooted in the physical dimension of the human being, where sight, hearing, hand and gestures converge. Contextually, as situated in human beings living in historical and social conditions, the uses and developments of writing also depend on the historical and cultural conditions in which they are employed by different human groups. Through the vital interpenetration between these two dimensions, cognitive science and anthropology, the contribution endeavours to construct an integrated and complex image that this medium has taken on in past and present societies, distancing itself from the shaky theorisations of technological determinism.