ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the importance of nothingness for developmental situations. In order for microgenetic ecological methodology to overcome these problematic splits, further theoretical qualification of a developmental situation seems in place. Human labor is being reified so that whatever occurs in some situation is interrelated with historical and societal processes. History in the form of reified human activity presents itself as specific structured environmental features which serve to frame possible activities among participants in situations. Situations are only situations when populated by people who live their lives together with others and who shape themselves as persons in the same process as they shape their conditions of life. The cultural standards of offering gifts and of keeping secrets emerge and become violated in the dinner situation and it is through the violation that the participants become aware of them as cultural standards.
