Semiotics of culture is a research field within
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
that attempts to define
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
from semiotic perspective and as a type of human symbolic activity, creation of
sign
A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or ...
s and a way of giving meaning to everything around. Therefore, here culture is understood as a
system
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and express ...
of symbols or meaningful signs. Because the main sign system is the linguistic system, the field is usually referred to as semiotics of culture and language. Under this field of study symbols are analyzed and categorized in certain class within the hierarchal system. With postmodernity, metanarratives are no longer as pervasive and thus categorizing these symbols in this postmodern age is more difficult and rather critical.
The research field was of particular interest for the
Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School
The Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School is a scientific school of thought in the field of semiotics that was formed in 1964 and led by Juri Lotman. Among the other members of this school were Boris Uspensky, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, Mikh ...
(
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
). Linguists and semioticians by the Tartu School viewed culture as a hierarchical semiotic system consisting of a set of functions correlated to it, and linguistic codes that are used by social groups to maintain coherence. These codes are viewed as superstructures based on natural language, and here the ability of humans to symbolize is central.
The study received a research ground also in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
where the idea that culture and nature should not be contrasted and contradicted but rather harmonized was developed.
See also
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Culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
*
Cultural bias
Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture. The phenomenon is sometimes considered a problem central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, ...
*
Culture theory
Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics (not to be confused with cultural sociology or cultural studies) that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operational and/or scientific terms.
Overview
In t ...
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Culture war
A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal valu ...
*
Cultural dissonance
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Cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, ...
References
* Lotman, Jurij M., and Boris A. Uspenskij. "Eterogeneità e omogeneità delle culture. Postscriptum alle tesi collettive'." Tesi per una semiotica della cultura (2006): 149–153.
* Lotman, Jurij M. La cultura come mente collettiva e i problemi della intelligenza artificiale. Guaraldi, 2014.
* Kull, Kalevi. "Juri Lotman in English." Sign Systems Studies 39.2/4 (2011): 343–356.
* Sonesson, Göran. "Between homeworld and alienworld: A primer of cultural semiotics." Sign Culture= Zeichen Kultur (2012): 315–328.
* Schleiner, Louise. Cultural Semiotics, Spenser, and the Captive Woman. Lehigh University Press, 1995.
* Torop, Peeter. "Cultural semiotics and culture." (1999).
* Torop, Peeter. "Semiotics in Tartu." (1998).
10.1.2 Semiotics of culturein Dmitriĭ Olegovich Dobrovolʹskiĭ, Dmitrij Dobrovol'skij, Elisabeth Piirainen, ''Figurative language: cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives'', Emerald Group Publishing, 2005
* Salupere, Silvi;
Torop, Peeter; Kull, Kalevi (ed.) 2013. ''Beginnings of the Semiotics of Culture''. (Tartu Semiotics Library 13.) Tartu: University of Tartu Press.
* Baldini, Massimo. Semiotica della moda. Armando, 2005.
* Лотман, Ю. М. "Семиотика культуры и понятие текста." Лотман ЮМ Избранные статьи 1 (1997): 129–132.
* Успенский, Борис Андреевич. "Семиотика истории. Семиотика культуры." Избранные труды в (1994).
* Кнабе, Г. Семиотика культуры. DirectMEDIA, 2005.
* Золотых, Л. Г. "Семиотика культуры и формирование фразеологической семантики." Известия Волгоградского государственного педагогического университета 3 (2006).
Culture
Semiotics
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