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Showing papers on "Semiosphere published in 2021"



Journal ArticleDOI
Timo Maran1
TL;DR: The concept of an ecosemiosphere is proposed in this article to denote the entire complex of semiosis in an ecosystem, including the involvement of human cultural semiosis, and it is a semiotic system comprising all species and their umwelts, alongside the diverse semiotic relations (including humans with their culture) that they have in the given ecosystem, and also the material supporting structures.
Abstract: Growing ecological problems have raised the need for conceptual tools dedicated to studying semiotic processes in cultural-ecological systems. Departing from both ecosemiotics and cultural semiotics, the concept of an ecosemiosphere is proposed to denote the entire complex of semiosis in an ecosystem, including the involvement of human cultural semiosis. More specifically, the ecosemiosphere is a semiotic system comprising all species and their umwelts, alongside the diverse semiotic relations (including humans with their culture) that they have in the given ecosystem, and also the material supporting structures that enable the ecosemiosphere to thrive. Drawing parallels with Juri Lotman’s semiosphere concept, the ecosemiosphere is characterized by its heterogeneity, asymmetry, and boundedness. But unlike Lotman’s concept, the ecosemiosphere is not characterized by an overall boundedness, that is, by the presence of external binary boundaries and the shared identity arising from this unity. The involvement of human culture in the ecosemiosphere manifests in interspecies dialogues and semiotic engagements. We need to scrutinize what affordances and semiotic resources culture could offer to nonhuman species and how culture could, by semiotic means, raise the integrity, stability, and resiliency of the ecosystem. The ecosemiosphere is a grounded semiosphere.

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the Modern Synthesis has been updated to a Semiotic Modern Synthetic, which focuses on whole-organism signals and their contexts, the latter being derived from neo-Darwinian theory and the Umwelt.
Abstract: In this paper, I present an argument that quantitative behavioural analysis can be used in zoosemiotic studies to advance the field of biosemiotics. The premise is that signs and signals form patterns in space and time, which can be measured and analysed mathematically. Whole organism sign processing is an important component of the semiosphere, with individual organisms in their Umwelten deriving signs from, and contributing to, the semiosphere, and vice versa. Moreover, there is a wealth of data available in the traditional ethology literature which can be reinterpreted semiotically and drawn together to make a cohesive biosemiotic whole. For example, isolated signals, such as structural elements of birdsong, are attributed meaning by an interpreter, thus generating new ideas and hypotheses in both biology and semiotics. Furthermore, animal behaviour science has developed numerous test paradigms that with careful adaptation, could be suitable for use within a Peircean tripartite model, and thus give valuable insights into Umwelten of other species. In my conclusion, I suggest that by bringing together traditional ethology and biosemiotics, it is possible to use the Modern Synthesis to provide context to biosemiosis, thus pragmatic meaning to animal signals. On this basis, I propose updating the Modern Synthesis to a Semiotic Modern Synthesis, which focuses on whole-organism signals and their contexts, the latter being derived from neo-Darwinian theory and the ‘Umwelt’. Thus, there need be no dichotomy; the Modern Synthesis can successfully be integrated with biosemiotics.

4 citations


Reference EntryDOI
Chris Sinha1
10 Mar 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the cognitive and semiotic status of artifacts, based upon a distinction between the fundamental semiotic relations of "counting as" and "standing for", is analyzed.
Abstract: Niche construction theory is a relatively new approach in the biological and socio-cultural sciences that seeks to integrate an ecological dimension into the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection. Language itself can be considered as a biocultural niche and evolutionary artifact. An analysis of the cognitive and semiotic status of artifacts, based upon a distinction between the fundamental semiotic relations of “counting as” and “standing for,” reveals that language as a social and semiotic system is not only grounded in embodied engagements with the material and social-interactional world, but also grounds a sub-class of artifacts of particular significance in the cultural history of human cognition. Symbolic cognitive artifacts inherit their representational function from language. They materially and semiotically mediate human cognition, and are not merely informational repositories, but co-agentively constitutive of culturally and historically emergent cognitive domains. Examples of this constitutive role of symbolic cognitive artifacts are drawn from the author’s research with his colleagues on cultural and linguistic conceptualizations of time, and their cultural variability. The implications of conceptualizing cognition as the co-agentive intermeshing of intersubjective and interobjective processes, lead to a distinction between the notion of “extended embodiment” as labeled here and other “extended mind” approaches.

1 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a historical account of bird-scaring practices is presented in three sections, demarcated by changes in technology as well as shifts in the mode of semiotic reference.
Abstract: Timo Maran has defined “biosemiotic criticism” as the study of human culture with an emphasis on the recognition that all forms of life are organized by sign processes. That approach guides this investigation of the sonic devices and practices that have been used in encounters between birds and humans in agricultural spaces. “Bird-scaring” has been a long-standing component of the semiotic relationship between humans and birds in what I am calling the agricultural semiosphere. The struggle between humans and “pest” species over the control of agricultural resources has spurred technological development, and an examination of the sonic tools that have been involved in bird-scaring practices, from wooden rattles to digital sound recordings, intersects with scholarship on sound technology and media studies. The field of ecoacoustics provides a conceptual framework for the sonic dynamics of the interspecies communication under examination. To the extent that the essay also explores the sign relations between humans and birds it has a place in the growing corpus of biosemiotic criticism. The historical account of bird-scaring practices is presented in three sections, demarcated by changes in technology as well as shifts in the mode of semiotic reference. Across the analysis, a historical approach to bird-scaring is interwoven with a discussion of biosemiotic and ecoacoustic themes and concepts.

1 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a cultural-semiotic approach to the studies of glocalization is used to analyze the bond between populism and conspiracy theories in contemporary Brazilian political context, arguing that these particular narrative features have taken on, in Bolsonaro's case, shapes and tones which are related to the local religious semiosphere, especially to the neo-Pentecostal evangelical messianism.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the bond between populism and conspiracy theories in contemporary Brazilian political context. Using a cultural-semiotic approach to the studies of glocalization, I tackle two recurrent motifs of global conspiracy theories: the domination of the elites over the people – which contributed, in 2018, to the election of Jair Bolsonaro – and the one of the leaders seem like national saviors. I argue that these particular narrative features have taken on, in Bolsonaro’s case, shapes and tones which are related to the local religious semiosphere, especially to the neo-Pentecostal evangelical messianism. Just as the discourses promoted by these figures, Bolsonaro’s messianic utterance is characterized by a high rate of mysticism, eschatology and aesthetic load.