Économie symbolique et phylogenèse du langage

Abstract

© École des hautes études en sciences sociales LE TRAVAIL ÉPISTÉMOLOGIQUE ET THÉORIQUE dont nous présentons ici les grandes lignes s'inscrit dans l'ensemble des recherches qui depuis une quinzaine d'années tentent de démêler les conditions et les scénarios d'émergence et d'évolution de diverses formes et activités symboliques au cours de l'hominisation. Pour une large part, ces recherches se sont majoritairement centrées sur la question de l'apparition des langues humaines, dont on tente de retracer la phylogenèse, depuis un état initial que l'on se représente à partir de certaines performances sémiotiques animales (notamment celles des primates) jusqu'aux langues modernes, à travers une série d'états intermédiaires spéculativement reconstitués (expressions gestuelles, proto-langages). Un préalable évidemment nécessaire est de caractériser avec justesse les phénomènes dont on entend retracer la genèse. L'approche que nous proposons ici de l'émergence des langues dans les phases récentes de l'hominisation, puis de l'humanisation, part du principe d'une synergie nécessaire entre plusieurs formes et activités symboliques, dont la différentiation et le codéveloppement deviennent alors l'objet central de l'étude. En particulier, il y aurait un lien natif entre les performances sémioticolinguistiques et la capacité à développer des comportements ritualisés singuliers, dont elles sont des médiations pratiques essentielles, en même temps qu'elles en constituent et signifient les enjeux centraux.

To become one with the instrument: The unfolding of a musical topography

“…The notion of musical topography presented above seeks to contribute to the wider-ranging project of semiotic anthropology (Lassègue et al., 2009), where imagination is understood as an essential part of every semiotic action/perception. In order to do so, I have attempted to emphasise how instruments take on different modalities , both in everyday practice and throughout musical training.…”

“…More generally, the notion of musical topography seeks to describe the engagement with an instrument as an example of our dwelling in practical affairs where, in the words of Tim Ingold, “the organism is not limited by the skin” (2009, p. 153, emphasis in the original), rather than it being part of a system where sentience has little, if any participation. Such notion aims to capture the way in which “practical and mythical aspects of value and meaning are intertwined and cannot be severed from one another” (Lassègue et al., 2009, p. 155). Hopefully, this will bring us closer to a richer portrayal of the common origin of the modalities that partake in actual musical practice and of the developmental processes wherein they become mutually supportive and heightened.…”

“…Finally, I suggest that the deployment of such a practical topography implicates an imaginative process akin to Giambattista Vico's notion of fantasia. The notion of musical topography seeks to contribute to the larger framework of semiotic anthropology (Lasse`gue, Rosenthal, & Visetti, 2009), since it describes expressive, meaningful gestures within technical bundles that, in turn, partake in the institution of collective values. At least in the context of the present article, our inquiry has a predominantly descriptive character, rather than an explanatory or normative one, limiting myself to better circumscribe the notion of musical topography.…”

The physiognomic and the geometrical apprehensions of metaphor

“…Directly inspired by an organismic-developmental approach, Victor Rosenthal and Yves-Marie Visetti provide an alternative view that not only addresses the specific issue of metaphor, but also seeks to reformulate the broader question of the relationship between perception and language. Within the larger framework of semiotic anthropology (Lasse`gue, Rosenthal, & Visetti, 2009a), they set forth a directly expressivist model of perception and action where lived experience is continuously shaped by social semiotic forms and values. 7 Language and perception are intimately intertwined, forming a chiasm in which neither has the upper hand but each nurtures the other.…”

Phenomenology and semiotics

“…We will outline a semiotic anthropology defined as a field of study forms and symbolic activities, language, practices or techniques, modeled as a symbolic economy of complex systems, including agents and assign transactions and convey roles and values which determine the interactions. This means that human social phenomena do not emerge from the interaction of individuals whose goals and interaction would be preprogrammed, nor does the symbolic dimension fall within individual skill (Lassègue, Rosenthal, Visetti 2009).…”