Readings in Zoosemiotics

Readings in Zoosemiotics
Author: Timo Maran
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2011-11-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110253437

The book is the first annotated reader to focus specifically on the discipline of zoosemiotics. Zoosemiotics can be defined today as the study of signification, communication and representation within and across animal species. The name for the field was proposed in 1963 by the American semiotician Thomas A. Sebeok. He also established the framework for the paradigm by finding and tightening connections to predecessors, describing terminology, developing methodology and setting directions for possible future studies. The volume includes a wide selection of original texts accompanied by editorial introductions. An extensive opening introduction discusses the place of zoosemiotics among other sciences as well as its inner dimensions; the understanding of the concept of communication in zoosemiotics, the heritage of biologist Jakob v. Uexküll; contemporary developments in zoosemiotics and other issues. Chapter introductions discuss the background of the authors and selected texts, as well as other relevant texts. The selected texts cover a wide range of topics, such as semiotic constitution of nature, cognitive capabilities of animals, typology of animal expression and many other issues. The roots of zoosemiotics can be traced back to the works of David Hume and John Locke. Great emphasis is placed on the heritage of Thomas A. Sebeok, and a total of four of his essays are included. The Reader also includes influential studies in animal communication (honey bee dance language, vervet monkey alarm calls) as well as theory elaborations by Gregory Bateson and others. The reader concludes with a section dedicated to contemporary research. Readings in Zoosemiotics is intended as a primary source of information about zoosemiotics, and also provides additional readings for students of cognitive ethology and animal communication studies.

A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics:

A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics:
Author: Dario Martinelli
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2010-06-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9048192498

A critical companion of zoosemiotics is the first attempt to systematise the study of animal communication and signification through its most important and/or problematic terms and concepts, and its most representative scholars. It is a companion, in that it attempts to cover the entire range of key terms in the field, and it's critical, in that it aims not only to describe, but also to discuss, problematise and, in some cases, resolve, these terms.

Handbook of Semiotics

Handbook of Semiotics
Author: Winfried Noth
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 600
Release: 1990-09-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780253209597

History and Classics of Modern Semiotics -- Sign and Meaning -- Semiotics, Code, and the Semiotic Field -- Language and Language-Based Codes -- From Structuralism to Text Semiotics: Schools and Major Figures -- Text Semiotics: The Field -- Nonverbal Communication -- Aesthetics and Visual Communication.

Animal Umwelten in a Changing World

Animal Umwelten in a Changing World
Author: Timo Maran
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1
Release: 2016
Genre: Animal communication
ISBN: 9789949772810

The book raises semiotic questions of human'animal relations: what is the semiotic character of different species, how humans endow animals with meaning, and how animal sign exchange and communication has coped with environmental change. The book takes a zoosemiotic approach and considers different species as being integrated with the environment via their specific umwelt or subjective perceptual world. The authors elaborate J. v. Uexküll's concept of umwelt to make it applicable for analyzing complex and dynamical interactions between animals, humans, environment and culture. The opening chapters of the book present a framework for philosophical, historical, epistemological and methodological aspects of zoosemiotic research. These initial considerations are followed by specific case studies: on human'animal interactions in zoological gardens, communication in the teams of visually disabled persons and guiding dogs, semiotics of the animal condition in philosophy, historical changes in the role of animals in human households, the semiotics of predation, cultural perception of novel species, and other topics. The authors belong to the research group in zoosemiotics and human'animal relations based in the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu in Estonia, and in the University of Stavanger in Norway.

Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences

Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences
Author: Jamin Pelkey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2023-01-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1350139343

Bloomsbury Semiotics offers a state-of-the-art overview of the entire field of semiotics by revealing its influence on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. With four volumes spanning theory, method and practice across the disciplines, this definitive reference work emphasizes and strengthens common bonds shared across intellectual cultures, and facilitates the discovery and recovery of meaning across fields. It comprises: Volume 1: History and Semiosis Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences Volume 4: Semiotic Movements Written by leading international experts, the chapters provide comprehensive overviews of the history and status of semiotic inquiry across a diverse range of traditions and disciplines. Together, they highlight key contemporary developments and debates along with ongoing research priorities. Providing the most comprehensive and united overview of the field, Bloomsbury Semiotics enables anyone, from students to seasoned practitioners, to better understand and benefit from semiotic insight and how it relates to their own area of study or research. Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences presents the state-of-the art in semiotic approaches to disciplines ranging from mathematics and biology to neuroscience and medicine, from evolutionary linguistics and animal behaviour studies to computing, finance, law, architecture, and design. Each chapter casts a vision for future research priorities, unanswered questions, and fresh openings for semiotic participation in these and related fields.

Gregory Bateson on Relational Communication: From Octopuses to Nations

Gregory Bateson on Relational Communication: From Octopuses to Nations
Author: Phillip Guddemi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2020-10-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 303052101X

This book develops Gregory Bateson’s ideas regarding “communication about relationship” in animals and human beings, and even nations. It bases itself on Bateson’s theory of relational communication, as he described it in the zoosemiotics of octopus, mammals, birds, and human beings. This theory includes, for example, the roles of metaphor, play, analog and digital communication, metacommunication, and Laws of Form. It is organized around a letter from Gregory Bateson to his fellow cybernetic thinker Warren McCulloch at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this letter Bateson argued that what we would today call zoosemiotics, including Bateson’s own (previously unpublished) octopus research, should be made a basis for understanding the relationship between the two blocs of the Cold War. Accordingly the book shows how Bateson understood interactive processes in the biosemiotics of conflict and peacemaking, which are analyzed using examples from recent animal studies, from primate studies, and from cultural anthropology. The Missile Crisis itself is described in terms of Bateson’s critique of game theory which he felt should be modified by an understanding of the zoosemiotics of relational communication. The book also includes a previously unpublished piece by Gregory Bateson on wolf behavior and metaphor/ abduction.

A Semiotic Methodology for Animal Studies

A Semiotic Methodology for Animal Studies
Author: Pauline Delahaye
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2019-11-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030288137

This monograph is about new perspective in animal studies methodology, by using concepts and tools from the field of semiotics. It proposes a reflexion on current challenges and issues in the ethology field, and introduces different semiotics – biosemiotics, zoosemiotics – as potential methodological solutions. The chapters cover many aspects of ethology where semiotics can be a helpful hand: studies of language, culture, cognition or emotions, issues about complex, endangered or variable species. It explains why these points are difficult to study for actual ethology, why they still matter for researchers, biodiversity actors or wildlife programs, and how an interdisciplinary study with a semiotic point of view can help understand them. This book will appeal to a wide readership, from researchers and academics in living sciences as well as in linguistics fields, to other professionals – veterinarian, wildlife managers, zookeepers, and many others – who feel the need to better understand some aspects of animals they are working with. Students with animal focus should read this book as an introduction to interdisciplinary methodology, and a proposition to work differently with animals.