Vygotsky, Peirce, and Berger and Luckman

Compare Vygotsky, Peirce, and Berger and Luckman: how does each understand time and history in relation to learned meanings? What problems or implications would their theories possibly have for our understandings of cultural change over time?

Vygotsky, Peirce and Berger and Luckman all approach the process of learning in different ways. Each of them developed their own vocabulary to explain the itemized qualities of their observations. Some of these meticulous explanation flew right by me. Peirce's famous formulation is that "a sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity." This meant that as people learn to associate meaning to certain things, they create signs. The creation of signs is then used to convey meaning to other people. When considering this idea over time, the modes of communicating the meaning of an idea, which I believe Peirce calls an Index, must be communicated to others. Honestly, reading Peirce was like reading Baudrillard. I understood that a sign was a means of communicating. The index was the context used to communicate the sign. And the object was the thing that was trying to be conveyed. But all the other sinsign qualisign and legisign was much too convoluted.
Vygotsky explains that culture is something that is learned from other people through a mediated activity. The example is given of a baby who wants to reach something. This baby is unable to reach the object of desire, so an adult who notices the baby's reaching gets the object for the baby. This exchange teaches the baby how to point to communicate. This pointing is the culturally learned action. In terms of time and history, the person who teaches the meaning of a sign determines how history is carried on. Over time the signs that are already learned by an individual will stay learned until the person is taught otherwise. They consider their knowledge to be the best, as it is the only thing they may know. Over time, the person's learned signs do not loose meaning. Rather, until someone else gives them reason to reconsider the meaning of the sign, time does not affect their learned meaning.
Berger and Luckman talk about habitualization and institutionalization. Relative to Vygotsky and Peirce, culture is something that lessens the endless possibilities available. This is seen in the habitual adoption of a method discussed by Berger and Luckman. In respect to time and history, institutionalization is something that develops a greater influence with time. Institutions themselves imply historicity and control, providing associated actions with deeper history. With time, the institution grows and the institution itself assumes a history.