Thinking with animals
A central claim of biosemiotics is the ascription of semiotic competence to nonhumans. For strange historical reasons, this claim has been quite controversial in much of standard biological discourse. An analysis of ethnographic material from Greenland demonstrates that people regard animals as nonh...
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University of Tartu Press
2001
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:91af80a98b8c46f5bc6df24983051248 2023-05-15T16:29:03+02:00 Thinking with animals Andreas Roepstorff 2001-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 https://doaj.org/article/91af80a98b8c46f5bc6df24983051248 EN RU eng rus University of Tartu Press https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/17695 https://doaj.org/toc/1406-4243 https://doaj.org/toc/1736-7409 doi:10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 1406-4243 1736-7409 https://doaj.org/article/91af80a98b8c46f5bc6df24983051248 Sign Systems Studies, Vol 29, Iss 1 (2001) Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar P101-410 article 2001 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 2022-12-31T10:02:33Z A central claim of biosemiotics is the ascription of semiotic competence to nonhumans. For strange historical reasons, this claim has been quite controversial in much of standard biological discourse. An analysis of ethnographic material from Greenland demonstrates that people regard animals as nonhuman "persons". i.e., as sensing and thinking beings. Like humans. animals are supposed to have knowledge about their environment. Taking this semiotic competence as a fact beyond any doubt enables skilled hunters and fishermen to rely not only on their own interpretation of the environment. but also on the animals' interpretation of their environment The behaviour of fish, seals, and land animals, meditated by their acknowledged semiotic competence, can thus be interpreted as giving signs about the behaviour, e.g., of whales and icebergs. This a priori ascription of semiotic competence is also apparent in discussions about management and regulation of animals. Rather than discussing whether "the stock" is depleted, much of the discourse among fishermen and hunters focuses on whether animals can be semiotically disturbed by what people are doing. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Sign Systems Studies 29 1 203 218 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English Russian |
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Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar P101-410 |
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Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar P101-410 Andreas Roepstorff Thinking with animals |
topic_facet |
Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar P101-410 |
description |
A central claim of biosemiotics is the ascription of semiotic competence to nonhumans. For strange historical reasons, this claim has been quite controversial in much of standard biological discourse. An analysis of ethnographic material from Greenland demonstrates that people regard animals as nonhuman "persons". i.e., as sensing and thinking beings. Like humans. animals are supposed to have knowledge about their environment. Taking this semiotic competence as a fact beyond any doubt enables skilled hunters and fishermen to rely not only on their own interpretation of the environment. but also on the animals' interpretation of their environment The behaviour of fish, seals, and land animals, meditated by their acknowledged semiotic competence, can thus be interpreted as giving signs about the behaviour, e.g., of whales and icebergs. This a priori ascription of semiotic competence is also apparent in discussions about management and regulation of animals. Rather than discussing whether "the stock" is depleted, much of the discourse among fishermen and hunters focuses on whether animals can be semiotically disturbed by what people are doing. |
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Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andreas Roepstorff |
author_facet |
Andreas Roepstorff |
author_sort |
Andreas Roepstorff |
title |
Thinking with animals |
title_short |
Thinking with animals |
title_full |
Thinking with animals |
title_fullStr |
Thinking with animals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Thinking with animals |
title_sort |
thinking with animals |
publisher |
University of Tartu Press |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 https://doaj.org/article/91af80a98b8c46f5bc6df24983051248 |
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Greenland |
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Greenland |
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Greenland |
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Greenland |
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Sign Systems Studies, Vol 29, Iss 1 (2001) |
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https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/17695 https://doaj.org/toc/1406-4243 https://doaj.org/toc/1736-7409 doi:10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 1406-4243 1736-7409 https://doaj.org/article/91af80a98b8c46f5bc6df24983051248 |
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https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 |
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Sign Systems Studies |
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29 |
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203 |
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218 |
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