Page 190 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

167 Historical Materialism

logical space for evolutionarily new problem domains is exhausted
with the reflexive turn of motive formation and the structural
scarcity of meaning; the end of the first run-through could mean
a return, at a new level, to problems of demarcation—namely, to
the discovery of internal limits which the socialization process
runs up against—and to the outbreak of new contingencies at
these limits of social individuation.

VI
In closing, I would like to indicate the perspectives that arise for
dealing with competing explanatory approaches. Structuralism,
necevolutionism, and sociological functionalism have been put
forward as approaches to evolution theory. In addition, the con-
cept of historical progress, which is closely connected with that
of social evolution, raises questions relating to the logic of
science; these questions have been dealt with in the form of a
critique of the philosophy of history®* and, on the other hand, in
the framework of an evolutionary ethics.

1. Althusser and Godelier have tried to bring the concepts and
assumptions developed by Levi-Strauss into historical matertal-
ism."° The concept of structure was developed in dealing with
primitive societies, in connection with both the analogical struc-
tures of “the savage mind” and the familial structures of social
relations. The concept refers to basic systems of rules that are
followed in cognition, speech, and interaction. These rules cannot
be directly read off the surface of phenomena; they are rather
deep structures, which individuals follow nonintentionally in
generating observable cultural formations. The rules are not only
valid for single individuals; they have collective validity as well.
Moreover, in each case they form a system that makes it possible
to establish transformation relations between the expressions gen-
erated. The structures can be rationally reconstructed.”
I cannot now go into the various attempts that have been made
to adopt basic structuralist concepts for Marxist purposes. They
have promoted an inflationary employment of these concepts
beyond the well-circumscribed domain of anthropolgy; thus clear