1	“Making it Strange” November 14, 2002
2	Media and tools Media as “extensions of man” (Marshall MacLuhan) Tools further powers that begin in the human body The body as the original tool
3	Tool users, speakers Paleoanthropology: how do physical and cultural anthropology relate? Definition of the human: what we are or what we do
4	Media mediate Communication tools mediate social interactions Society extends the powers of the individual human
5	Media simulate What is a simulation? A model (TT, p. 57): “the object is to construct a model and to study its properties and its different reactions in laboratory conditions in order later to apply the observations to the interpretation of empirical happenings” Thinking is a simulation
6	Remediation The relation between a prior medium and its successor: e.g., the relation between handwriting and typing, or between typewriter writing and computer writing Imitation and extension or reconfiguration
7	And now it gets strange But media have properties of their own Thus, unexpected consequences For example, the printed book “Ostranenie”: “making-strange”
8	Examples Writing in TT Epic communication in the Odyssey Writing and poetry in PB
9	Speech genres “genre”: literary and anthropological term A genre formats and predefines what is to be said, what purposes are to be achieved, etc. Genres as media or tools: the speech act as an “extension” of social power or even physical force
10	The specificity kicker But speech genres, like media or tools, have their own properties and escape a narrow definition of their function Richard II as king The Nambikwara chief as king Both mediated by speech genres in the course of transformation