Signs in Society

Signs in Society takes up Ferdinand de Saussure's challenge to study the "life of signs in society" by using semiotic tools proposed by Charles Sanders Peirce. Richard J. Parmentier explicates Peirce's fundamental semiotic concepts and evaluates their potential for cultural analysis. After considering the possibility of using complex semiotic processes, Parmentier examines the relationship between social action and theoretical discourse. Parmentier applies Peircean concepts in two ethnographic case studies based on fieldwork in Belau (Micronesia), one dealing with historical changes in the symbolism of mortuary exchange valuables and the other analyzing an instance of political oratory as a contextual performance. Then, using diverse data - from Melanesian mythology and Babylonian ritual to contemporary American "living history" museums and television advertising - Parmentier finds tropic innovation, formalized re-enactment, and controlling metalanguages in cultures across space and time. Finally, the author uncovers the pragmatic dimensions of the comparative work of philosophers of religion and locates strategies of naturalizing and conventionalizing discourse in both social reality and social theory. Throughout Signs in Society Parmentier focuses on links between text and context, linguistic and nonlinguistic signs, semiotic and metasemiotic levels, and elementary and complex semiotic phenomena. It demonstrates the effectiveness of semiotic theory in illuminating complex social and cultural practices.

Richard Parmentier takes up Ferdinand de Saussure's challenge to study the "life of signs in society" by using semiotic tools proposed by Charles Sanders Peirce. He studies how semiotic theory can illuminate highly complex social and cultural practices.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-219) and index.

RICHARD J. PARMENTIER, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University, is the author of The Sacred Remains: Myth, History, and Polity in Belau and articles on Pacific ethnography, anthropological linguistics, and semiotic theory.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I Foundations of Peircean Semiotics

1

Peirce Divested for Nonintimates

Sign, Object, and Interpretant

Symbols and Legisigns

Language and Logic

The Trichotomies

Scientific Knowledge and Cultural Belief

2

Peirce's Concept of Semiotic Mediation

The Fundamental Model of Semiotic Mediation

Semiotic Mediation and the Correlates of the Sign

Thirdness as Mediation

Sign as Medium of Communication

Part II Signs in Ethnographic Context

3

Transactional Symbolism in Belauan Mortuary Rites

Responses to Death

Initial Funeral Transactions

Burial Practices

Final Transactions

Conclusion

4

The Political Function of Reported Speech

Authoritative Speech

Ethnographic Context

Ngiraklang's Speech to the Council

Metapragmatic Elements in the Speech

Textual Pragmatics

Part III Comparative Perspectives on Complex Semiotic Processes

5

Tropical Semiotics

Levels of Semiosis

Collectivizing and Differentiating Sybolization

Convention and Innateness

Obviational Exchange

Tropes and Narrative

Foi Cultural Semiotics

6

The Semiotic Regimentation of Social Life

Social Action and Semiotic Text

Content and Type in Ritual Performativity

Institutional Regimentation of Touristic Experience

Ideological Regimentation in Advertising

Part IV Social Theory and Social Action

7

Comparison, Pragmatic, and Interpretation

Models and Strategies of Comparison

Comparative Philosophy of Religion as a Discipline

Comparison and Interpretation as Practical Reason

Directions for Future Research

8

Naturalization of Convention

Arbitrariness and Motivation

Naturalization in Social Theory

Naturalization and Conventionalization in Social Reality

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index