Biology, semiotics and complexity : the development of Mexican notions of person

This paper brings together concepts and perspectives from biology and cultural studies to explore different understandings of the meaning of being a person in Mexican society. It argues that the dominant concept of 'person' represents social tensions in intercultural contexts of socialisation and education in a nation strongly divided on class and ethnic lines. We focus on this concept to inquire into the implications of splitting the biological from social and cultural dimensions. The paper brings out the importance of emphasising the biocultural dimension of personal and social life. It applies two concepts from biology, EvoDevo and Epigenetics, to explore some complexities of the Mexican situation. We connect Evo-Devo (an integration of theories of evolution and ontogenesis, the dynamic, species-shaping role of mechanisms of development of individual organisms and niches, connected to concepts of the emergence of social individuals) to Braudel's 'long history'. Epigenetics (the formative role of environments or 'epigenetic landscapes' in which genetic processes unfold), is considered as a model for interactions between biological and cultural inheritance and a series of formative contexts.