Chapter 3: Semiotic Approaches to Material Culture

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• By Silvana Rodarte Citation Berger, A. A. (2016) What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture (2nd ed.). NY, NY: Routledge.  

1. Saussure on Signs
   1. Wrote the book "Course in General Linguistics" where he set out fundamentals of what he calls semiology. According to this book, semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them.
   2. Semiotic studies signs in society, which means it is a social science, and explains what signs are and how they work.
   3. Definition of signs has two parts: sound-image and concept (also mentioned by him as signifier and signified).
   4. From Semiotic perspective, objects are signs (signifiers) and the task of the semiotician is to figure out their various signifieds.
   5. We find meaning in concepts by setting up oppositions. Concepts derive meaning from their opposites. Keep in mind that oppositions are not negations. (Ex: Negation of happy is unhappy and the opposite of happy is sad).
   6. "Sound-image” becomes an object or signifier. You must discern what is signified by the object.
2. Problems with Interpreting Signs
   1. Sign System- signs with many other signs contained within them. That sign system contains signifiers. (Ex: sign system= hat, Signifiers= size/ material of the hat/ etc). Signifieds are all based on convention (Ex: bow ties= intellectual).
   2. In material culture, these signs can be body ornaments, clothes, shoes, and other things. We have to have some kind of product knowledge and general knowledge (from media and ads) to be able to determine how to interpret an object from a semiotic perspective.
3. Peirce on Signs
   1. Other founding father of semiotics and gave it its name. Suggests that the universe is made up of signs and that the interpreters of signs have to supply some of the meanings. "Something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.”
   2. Three kinds of signs: iconic signs (resemblance/what you can see), indexical signs (cause and effect/what you can determine), and symbolic signs (meaning must be learned/ what you can learn).
   3. Combining Saussure’s and Peirce’s approaches to semiotics: we can see objects as signifiers that have signifieds and objects that are iconic, idexical, or symbolic.
   4. Semiotic approach to material culture involves searching for the way these objects function as signs and generate meaning to others. Nothing has meaning in itself. Meaning comes from a network of relations.
4. Roland Barthes on Semiotics of Objects
   1. Wrote "Semiotic Challenge" in 1988. Most known for "Mythologies" (discusses the way people convert objects to “pseudo-nature”).
   2. According to Barthes, signify means that objects carry not only information but also account for systems of signs (systems of differences, oppositions, and contrasts). There is no object that has no meaning.
   3. The problem in studying the meaning of objects is the obstacle of the obvious. What is the objects outside of its role in the world? What does an object mean to someone? (Examples seen in ads and films).
5. On the Veracity of Signs
   1. Umberto Eco wrote "A Theory of Semiotics". He states that semiotics is the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. Signs can be used to mislead others.
   2. Lying with signs can be found not just in objects but also in design of objects, facial expressions, body language, and language itself.
   3. We observe material culture in what people are wearing or using known as, "people watching".
6. Denotation and Connotation
   1. Denotation- detailed descriptions and measurements (factual information). Connotation- the cultural meanings and myths connected to them (symbols, culture, mythic).
   2. Examples seen with Barbie dolls. Charles Winnick, "Desexualization in American Life", states the theory that these dolls have created a change in how young girls think about motherhood and their relationships to men.