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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Online Access: | https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13 https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 |
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fttartuunivojs:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/17695 2023-10-01T03:56:21+02:00 Thinking with animals Roepstorff, Andreas 2001-12-31 application/pdf https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13 https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 eng eng University of Tartu Press https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13/12534 https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13 doi:10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 Sign Systems Studies; Vol. 29 No. 1 (2001); 203-218 1736-7409 1406-4243 10.12697/29.1 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 2001 fttartuunivojs https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.1310.12697/29.1 2023-09-06T23:17:12Z 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 University of Tartu: ojs.utlib.ee Greenland |
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University of Tartu: ojs.utlib.ee |
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fttartuunivojs |
language |
English |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Roepstorff, Andreas |
spellingShingle |
Roepstorff, Andreas Thinking with animals |
author_facet |
Roepstorff, Andreas |
author_sort |
Roepstorff, Andreas |
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://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13 https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Sign Systems Studies; Vol. 29 No. 1 (2001); 203-218 1736-7409 1406-4243 10.12697/29.1 |
op_relation |
https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13/12534 https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2001.29.1.13 doi:10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.13 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2001.29.1.1310.12697/29.1 |
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1778525809630248960 |