The Evolution of Material Signification: Tracing the Origins of Symbolic Body Ornamentation through a Pragmatic and Enactive Theory of Cognitive Semiotics

Iliopoulos, Antonis

doi:10.1086/688619

Cited by 55 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…1Material Engagement Theory, focusing primarily on skills and material prostheses from the past such as stone knapping (Malafouris 2010b, 2012a, 2013; Iliopoulos and Garofoli 2016; Roberts 2016; Overmann and Wynn 2018; Roberts 2016; Walls and Malafouris 2016), body ornamentation (Malafouris 2008a,b; Iliopoulos 2016, 2017), image making (Malafouris 2007), pottery making (Malafouris 2008c, 2011, 2013; Malafouris & Koukouti 2017; Arnold 2018; March 2017), writing (Malafouris 2012b, 2013), numerical thinking (Malafouris 2010b, 2013; Overmann 2016a,b, 2017) and postphenomenology often focusing upon recent skill transformations and prostheses (from computer games to micro surgery to science and art) (De Preester 2009; 2011; Ihde 2016)…”

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confidence: 99%

Homo faber Revisited: Postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory

2018

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Humans, more than any other species, have been altering their paths of development by creating new material forms and by opening up to new possibilities of material engagement. That is, we become constituted through making and using technologies that shape our minds and extend our bodies. We make things which in turn make us. This ongoing dialectic has long been recognised from a deep-time perspective. It also seems natural in the present in view of the ways new materialities and digital ecologies increasingly envelop our everyday life and thinking. Still the basic idea that humans and things are co-constituted continues to challenge us, raising important questions about the place and meaning of materiality and technical change in human life and evolution. This paper bridging perspectives from postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory (MET) is trying to attain better understanding about these matters. Our emphasis falls specifically on the human predisposition for technological embodiment and creativity. We re-approach the notion Homo faber in a way that, on the one hand, retains the power and value of this notion to signify the primacy of making or creative material engagement in human life and evolution and, on the other hand, reclaims the notion from any misleading connotations of human exceptionalism (other animals make and use tools). In particular, our use of the term Homo faber refers to the special place that this ability has in the evolution and development of our species. The difference that makes the difference is not just the fact that we make things. The difference that makes the difference is the recursive effect that the things that we make and our skills of making seem to have on human becoming. We argue that we are Homo faber not just because we make things but also because we are made by them.

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confidence: 99%

Homo faber Revisited: Postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory

2018

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“…Interestingly, the two types of indexical signification are not mutually exclusive (Sonesson 1989a, p.53;1989b, p.64). As the case of early body ornaments helps illustrate, shell beads would have come to be established as material signs for a trait of their wearer (e.g., wealth), both by referencing it to others as abductive indices, and by conferring it on the person as performative indices (Iliopoulos 2016a).…”

Section: The Hypothesis Of Extended Mind Dewey's Sensori-motor Accoumentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Engagement Theory and its philosophical ties to pragmatism

Iliopoulos

2018

Phenom Cogn Sci

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Material Engagement Theory (MET) is currently driving a conceptual change in the archaeology of mind. Drawing upon the dictates of enactivism and active externalism, it specifically calls for a radical reconceptualization of mind and material culture. Unpersuaded by the common assumption that cognition is brain-bound, Malafouris argues in favour of a process ontology that situates thinking in action. In granting ontological primacy to material engagement, MET seeks to illuminate the emergence of human ways of thinking through the practical effects of the material world. Considering that this is a characteristic example of a pragmatic take on cognition, this contemporary theoretical platform appears to share a lot with pragmatism. As of late, scholars working at the intersection of philosophy, semiotics, and cognitive science have made important steps towards the rapprochement between pragmatism and externalism. Looking to contribute to this growing corpus of work, the present paper focuses on MET's relation to the pragmatism of Peirce, Dewey, and Mead. Having elsewhere recognized the overlap and complementarity between Malafouris' and Peirce's theories in particular, I developed a pragmatic and enactive theory of cognitive semiotics that is suitably geared to trace the nature, emergence, and evolution of material signs. Therefore, besides noting some obvious historical connections, I hereby aim to establish (at least part of) the theoretical backdrop upon which this composite theory is supposed to function, while also exploring new potential avenues. Given that this cognitive semiotic framework can be seen as a pragmatic extension of Malafouris' enactivist approach to archaeology, the current paper delves into MET's theoretical underpinnings, seeking to complement its working hypotheses and concepts with philosophical notions and ideas advanced long ago. This synthesis ultimately concludes with a call for the reconceptualization of 'representation' as a heuristic concept.

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“…His discussion of Metaplasticity (Malafouris 2009(Malafouris , 2010, hinges on the assumption that we have plastic minds embedded in the unfolding of plastic material culture. This evolutionary epistemology (Malafouris 2013;Iliopoulos 2016), in which variation of the mind and social behaviour is tightly intertwined with ones embeddedness within the processes of situated material culture, is helpful in that it positions the locus of cognition not in either the human or material actor, nor the collectivity of social and material arrangements, but in the relations between them. Where Malafouris examines the semiogenic evolution of the mind and material culture, from an archaeological perspective, over a protracted period of time.…”

Section: Dynamic Materials Engagement Across Institutional Ecologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of dynamic social material conditions on cognition in the biomedical research laboratory

Goldsworthy

2018

Phenom Cogn Sci

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The modern biomedical research laboratory is increasingly defined by dynamic social material conditions requiring researchers to traverse multiple shifting cognitive ecologies within day-today practice. Although the complexity of biomedical research is well known, the mechanisms by which the social and material organisation of this space is negotiated has yet to be fully considered. Integrating insights from Material Engagement Theory and Enactive Cognition with observations undertaken within a biomedical research laboratory, this paper develops an understanding of how actors are able to respond to the dynamically changing world that is enacted with and around them.

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The Evolution of Material Signification: Tracing the Origins of Symbolic Body Ornamentation through a Pragmatic and Enactive Theory of Cognitive Semiotics

Cited by 55 publications

References 63 publications

Homo faber Revisited: Postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory

Homo faber Revisited: Postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory

Material Engagement Theory and its philosophical ties to pragmatism

The effect of dynamic social material conditions on cognition in the biomedical research laboratory

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