Cognition in the Wild

"... name calling is a way of asserting one's own identity" -Edwin Hutchins

My copy of Cognition in the Wild arrived in the mail yesterday (thanks Amazon). I was struck, first, by its strange proportions. I have the paperback version and its height dimension seems abnormally long--almost textbooky. I've only read until page 17 (and skipped the introduction) but have been impressed so far. I didn't expect the narrative to be so novel-like, particulary with the suspense driven opening. The academic speak has been fairly limited to asides/digressions. At this point, Hutchins is still detailing his first impressions of the Navy as an institution and social organization, which is where I found the quote above.