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List of Figures

Figure 1: The 'Black Box'. Input signals (left) produce output signals (right) of increasingly low amplitude (a) as input frequency (f) increases beyond the response frequency (fr) of the 'Black Box' coupling mechanism.

Figure 2: Process rates and system hierarchy. System processes are here represented by sine curves of different frequencies (f). Low frequency dynamics exert causal effects on dynamics operating at all higher frequencies (downward arrow).The impact of high frequency dynamics on lower dynamics is limited by the capacity of low frequency 'black box' linking mechanisms to transmit them. Consequently systems resolve into process rate hierarchical levels, and the effect of high frequency processes is progressively damped as one 'ascends' the system (upward arrow).

Figure 3: Vertical asymmetry. Because high level, low-frequency dynamics (here shown at the top of the hierarchy with a notional process rate of fx10-4) are progressively less sensitive to the effects of higher frequency processes, then as one descends the hierarchy towards increasingly high-frequency processes, a level is reached at which processes operate so rapidly that they are invisible at the high, low process rate level and instead present as a static boundary condition.

Figure 4: Double asymmetry and the dynamic scale range. From the perspective of processes at a particular hierarchical level (shown here in the centre of the hierarchy with a notional process rate of fx10-4), static boundary conditions occur both at a lower 'floor' (double asymmetry) and at a higher 'ceiling', at which dynamics operate so slowly as to be imperceptible. The scale distance between the lower static floor and the upper static ceiling, within which processes are mutually sensitive, can be termed the dynamic scale range.

Figure 5: 'Archaic' human behaviour and the social construction of personhood. Because the social transmission of knowledge operates at low process rates it is unable to transmit dynamics at both the high process rate, low level domain of knowledgeable action and the intermediate process rate scale domain of the construction of social personhood, to the low process rate, high hierarchical level of socially incorporated knowledge. With respect to both the construction of social personhood and knowledgeable action, socially incorporated knowledge is a static, constraining upper boundary condition. With respect to both socially incorporated knowledge and the construction of social personhood, knowledgeable action is a static lower boundary condition delivering an averaged and integrated 'signal'. Consequently both socially incorporated knowledge and knowledgeable action lie outside the dynamic scale range of the construction of social personhood and are not available for incorporation into its dynamic processes.

Figure 6: 'Modern' human behaviour and the social construction of personhood. An accelerated rate at which knowledge is transmitted through social fields leads to the high-level scale domain of socially incorporated knowledge becoming sensitive to dynamics at both the intermediate level of the social construction of personhood, and the high process rate, low hierarchical level of knowledgeable action. The three scale domains of knowledge converge upon each other, becoming mutually sensitive and conditioning, so that socially incorporated knowledge and knowledgeable action are available for incorporation into the construction of personhood. Consequently social practices in which personhood is incorporated into the production of and engagement with socially received forms — symbolism — is enabled.

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