By Leon James (c)19xx
Suppose we wished to formalize a psychotherapeutic register along lines similar to geometry. How would we proceed and would its yield be more than an entertaining excercise? Consider the following attempt modeled after a college geometry text for teachers-in-training (Ringerberg, 1967, Chapter 7ff.): In MODERN ETHNOSEMANTICS, CULTURE is the global reference to the field of study, equivalent to the term SPACE in geometry (Euclidean). CULTURE is a conceptual space., In ethnosemantics, CULTURE is a set of' reciprocally ratifiable recognitions ("the new three R's"), every episode is a sequence of exchanges involving reciprocaly ratifiable recognitions, every group is a subset of reciprocally ratifiable recognitions, every setting is a set of exchanges. We make no attempt here to define CULTURE, GROUP, RECIPROCAL RATIFIABLE RECOGNITIONS, EXCHANGES, EPISODES, and SETTINGS., We officially declare them (and their, derivatives) as undefined terms.' We identify those properties of these, terms which we wish to accept officially without proof. We express these properties in statements called postulates., These properties, and their derivatives, are the properties we use in proving theorems. Theorems are empirical claims about how things actually are in culture, viz. laws of social interaction.
Definition: Culture is the set of all reciprocally ratifiable recognitions, called moves.
Definition: Reciprocally ratifiable recognitions
(RRR) is the set of all meaningful transactions or interactions that can-take place
in' cultural settings.
Postulate 1. A meaningful
transaction contains at least two reciprocally ratifiable recognitions, called the
initiating move and the ratification move, respectively.
Postulate 2. Every episode consists of a sequence of transactions and
contains at least two moves.
Postulate 3. If (a) and (b) are two distinct moves, such that (b) follows (a) in
an alternating sequence from one participant to another, then there is a particular
functional relationship implied to the effect that (b) is a reply to (a) or a remedy to
it.
Space = setting culture
Point = move
Line = transaction
Plane = episode/relationship
Postulates
1. Culture is the set of all moves.
2. Cultural event contains at least two distinct moves.
3. Every transaction is a set of moves and contains at least two distinct moves.
4. If M and N are two distinct moves, they can be linked to form one and only one transactional
pair.
5. Two moves form a transactional pair if and only if they are reconstituted as the
elements of a transaction, namely as move and reply move, respectively.
6. Alternating sequences of moves and transactions form an episode if they
have-been marked ritually as a time-bound set (e.g. beginning, early, later, ending)