The material dimensions of signification: Rethinking the nature and emergence of semiosis in the debate on human origins

Iliopoulos, Antonis

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.033

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 103 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Deacon (1989;, Cousins (2014) and Everett(2017) stand apart from other gradualists in using Peirce's theory of signs. None is an archaeologist, which is noteworthy given the rarity of engagement with Peirce by Palaeolithic archaeologists (Iliopoulos 2016;Wynn 2017;Ruck and Uomini in press). This reluctance by archaeologists to apply semiotics to the deep past may reflect unfamiliarity with Peirce's work, or resistance to it because of its association in recent decades with structuralism and the post-structuralist critique of positivist science (Preucel 2006).…”

Section: A Gradual Evolution Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

Barham

Everett

2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a broad theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce's theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact forms operating at the level of symbols. We draw on generalisations about the multiple social roles of technology in pre-industrial societies and on the contexts tool-use among non-human primates to argue for a deep evolutionary foundation for hominin symbol use. We conclude that symbol-based language is expressed materially in arbitrary social conventions that permeate the technologies of Homo erectus and its descendants, and in the extended planning involved in the caching of tools and in the early settlement of island Southeast Asia.

show abstract

Section: A Gradual Evolution Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

Barham

Everett

2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, the earliest forms of human encoding of information did not stem from a mere externalization of symbols within a language of thought (Malafouris 2013;Iliopoulos 2016), but were brought forth by the human embodied engagement with material structures in a publicly shared environment (e.g., the markings carved on ochre pieces as Blombos, see Malafouris 2013). Material structures signify directly through their embodied features (e.g., clay tokens, glyphs), or hermeneutically through its embedment within the norms of a socially constructed representational code (e.g., uttered words and sentences).…”

Section: Discussion: the Biocultural Becoming Of Mindreadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a growing number of authors have achieved a consensus that the symbolic characterization of early body ornaments is unwarranted (Coolidge and Wynn 2011;Gärdenfors 2011;Rossano 2010). Iliopoulos (2016Iliopoulos ( , 2017 for instance, has argued that such artifacts are not to be intended as conveying arbitrary meanings; instead, they signify simply through their being structurally and causally coupled with their object.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a promising line of research, at least for what concerns the European Upper Paleolithic, focuses upon the analysis of potential traditions of secondary iconicity (Iliopoulos 2016, p. 116, after Sonesson 2010. This cultural phenomenon may be evident in the emergence of multiple instances of female figurines in various parts of Europe, and within a timeframe of ca 20,000 years (see Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The biocultural emergence of mindreading: integrating cognitive archaeology and human development

Fenici

Garofoli

2017

J Cult Cogn Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to the thesis of natural mindreading (NMRT), mindreading-i.e., the capacity to attribute mental states to predict and explain behavior-is an intrinsic component of the human biological endowment, thus being innately specified by natural selection within particular neurocognitive structures. In this article, we challenge the NMRT as a phylogenetic and ontogenetic account of the development of the socio-cognitive capacities of our species. In detail, we argue that basic capacities of social cognition (e.g., the traces of early systems of bodily ornamentation within the archeological record, and infants' selective attention at others' beliefs in spontaneous-response false belief tasks) do not involve meta-representational mindreading but are better explained by appealing to situated embodied capacities acquired in social interaction. While we acknowledge that more flexible capacities of social cognition (e.g., those implied by the use of political emblems in industrialized societies, or by 4-year-olds' success in elicitedresponse false belief tasks) involve genuine mindreading, we argue that this ability is elicited and scaffolded by linguistic communication. We conclude that mindreading has emerged as the outcome of a highly derivative long-term constructivist process of biocultural becoming that led to a relatively recent restructuring of the human mind in multiple worldly locations at different times. In particular, we conjecture that humans gradually converged on establishing linguistic practices allowing the understanding of others' actions in terms of mental reasons. These practices were bequeathed to further generations, and continue nowadays to scaffold the acquisition of mindreading in early childhood.

show abstract

“…Emphasis on propositional knowledge, such as beliefs and reasons, relegates the semiotic contributions of material culture to ‘stands for’ relationships between signs and referents, restricting analysis of semiosis to arbitrary mental abstractions. In juxtaposition to Cartesian approaches, MET has put forward the concept of enactive signification to examine the ways in which material culture generates non-representational sign relationships (see Garafoli & Iliopoulos 2017; Iliopoulos 2016a,b; Iliopoulos & Garafoli 2016; Malafouris 2013, 89–118). It is through an exploration of semiotics in terms of material processes and properties that MET examines how material culture generates meaning and coordinates development.…”

Section: The Perception and Semiotics Of Cycladic Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the Cycladic Islanders Found Their Marbles: Material Engagement, Social Cognition and the Emergence of Keros

Aston¹

2020

CAJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper utilizes Material Engagement Theory (MET), which examines material culture as a dynamic and integral component of human cognitive systems, in order to explore the relationship between Cycladic marble sculpting and the complex social organization evinced at the sites of Dhaskalio and Kavos on the island of Keros. The article shows how the development of Cycladic sculpting in conjunction with transforming settlement patterns suggests that the figurines emerged as part of a kinshipping dynamic. In this context, evidence from the cognitive sciences reveals how Cycladic figurines were profound attention-capturing technologies which shaped the development of intersubjectivity and collective activity. Cycladic marble provided a medium through which a semiotics of value could be generated, circulated and manipulated across the archipelago. The article argues that marble artefacts formed part of a distributed cognitive system which enabled the regional organization of long-range voyaging regimes centred on Dhaskalio-Kavos. The role of Cycladic sculpture in mediating maritime social interactions is clarified by examining the dynamics of social cognition and the organizational burdens of long-range voyaging culture. The relationship between marble, social interaction and longboat voyaging provides a strong explanation for the development and transformation of Keros as well as for broader chronological developments in the region. Cycladic sculpting traditions mediated the shifting burdens upon social cognition during the Early Bronze Age, facilitating the novel forms of social organization in the central Cyclades as a response to both the pressures and the opportunities of the Aegean world. Keros provides an exemplary case study of material culture's role in extending the boundaries of social cognition in ways that enable social complexity to emerge at new scales.

show abstract

The material dimensions of signification: Rethinking the nature and emergence of semiosis in the debate on human origins

Cited by 29 publications

References 103 publications

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

The biocultural emergence of mindreading: integrating cognitive archaeology and human development

How the Cycladic Islanders Found Their Marbles: Material Engagement, Social Cognition and the Emergence of Keros

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About