A culture thrives and evolves when there are processes for including the new, the exceptional, into the traditions of the culture without destroying them. RThe viability of a culture inheres in its capacity for resolving conflicts, for explicating differences and renegotiating communal meanings . . . Narrative is also used by individuals to create meaning through its dramatic quality. Language is central to BrunerUs cultural psychology and he argues for a biology of meaning that makes language acquisition an innate human ability. His literature review results in three claims about early language acquisition.
Meaning is constructed by individuals situated in a culture that influences that construction.
The process of construction is most often a form of narrative and that depends upon effective language use which is also influenced by culture. Bruner claims that any cognitive science, not just his cultural psychology, must remain sensitive to culture as well as biology. This book helped me see that who we are as individuals is how we uniquely interpret our culture. Self does not have to be understood as in opposition to Other, rather it is the individual expression of others. Without the interaction between the individual and the culture, neither would have meaning.