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The Materiality of Signs: Enchainment and Animacy in Woodland Southeastern North American Pottery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Neill J. Wallis
Neill J. Wallis*
Affiliation:
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (nwallis@flmnh.ufl.edu)
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Abstract

Archaeological examinations of symbolic meaning often have been hampered by the Saussurean concept of signs as coded messages of preexisting meanings. The arbitrary and imprecise manner by which meaning is represented in material culture according to Saussure tends to stymie archaeological investigations of symbolism. As an alternative, archaeologists recently have drawn on Peirce’s semiotic to investigate how materiality is bound to the creation of meanings through the process of signification. This study examines how the symbolism expressed in pottery of the Middle Woodland period southeastern United States, Swift Creek Complicated Stamped and Weeden Island effigy vessels, might be better explained as icons and indexes that were enlisted to have particular social effects. Examining the semiotic potentials of these objects helps explain their apparent uses and the significance of alternative representations of the same subjects.

Resumen

Resumen

En repetidas ocasiones los estudios arqueológicos sobre el significado de símbolos han sido obstaculizados por el concepto Saussureano que define los signos como mensajes codificados con un significado preexistente. De acuerdo con Saussure, la manera arbitraria e imprecisa por la cual cierto significado se encuentra representado en la cultura material tiende a bloquear las investigaciones arqueológicas que estudian objetos simbólicos. Como alternativa los arqueólogos han comenzado a basarse en la semiótica de Peirce, con el fin de investigar de qué manera la materialidad está ligada a la creación de significados a través del proceso de creación de signos o significación. En este estudio se examinaron piezas de alfarería del sur oriente de los Estados Unidos, provenientes del periodo medio Woodland, de los complejos estampados Swift Creek y esfinges representadas en vasijas Weeden Island. El objetivo es demostrar que los símbolos expresados en dichas piezas podrían ser interpretados como iconos e índices que fueron establecidos para efectos sociales particulares. Por medio de la investigación del potencial semiotico de estos especímenes es posible explicar sus presuntos usos, así como la significación de representaciones alternativas de los mismos objetos.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 207 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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