In the past decade, psychology has increasingly acknowledged the importance of considering the role of culture for understanding human development. One of the major issues now confronting those interested in this issue is how cultural meanings, values, and practices are appropriated by persons growing up and living in concrete contexts. The general theme addressed in this volume concerns how enactments of cultural understandings in social interactions form the fabric of individual experience and the specificities of individual development.

AcknowledgmentsList of ContributorsForewordIntroduction: Communication, Meaning and Development: Interdisciplinary PerspectivesPart I. The Organization of Communication: Intersubjectivity and Alterity in Human CommunicationEmotion Within Situated ActivityLanguage and Communication--What Develops?Determining the Role of Language Practices for a Theory of DevelopmentPart II. The Origins of Communication: Preverbal Communication: Emergence of Representative SymbolsInfant into Conversant: Language and Nonlanguage Processes in Developing Early CommunicationWords Don't Tell All: Some Thoughts On Early Communication DevelopmentVerbal and Nonverbal Contributions to Early Representation: Evidence from African American ToddlersPart III. The Emergence of Self in Communication: Groundwork for a Holistic View of the Ontogenesis of RepresentationLanguage and the Construction of SelfAdolescents' Public Discussion and Collective IdentityAuthor IndexSubject Index