Skip to main content

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASID,volume 33))

  • 85 Accesses

Abstract

Umberto Eco’s (1976:7–8) by now classic characterization of semiotics as a “field” rather than a “discipline” invites two responses from anthropologists: first, that it is time to do some “fieldwork,” to examine the presuppositions and cultural matrix within which the global and interdisciplinary aims of semiotics have been generated; and second, to ask what elements of semiotic theory and terminology would bring the ethnographic analysis of societies and cultures into a common framework with literary theory, poetics, legal and linguistic philosophy, and so on.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Ardener, E. W. 1971. Introductory Essay. In E. W. Ardener, ed., Social Anthropology and Language. A.S.A. Monographs, 10. London: Tavistock, ix–cii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardener, E.W. 1975. Belief and the Problem of Women and The Problem Revisited. London: Malaby Press, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, J. L. 1971. A Plea for Excuses. In Philosophy and Linguistics, Colin Lyas, ed. London: Macmillian, 79–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, Charles L. Questions for the Ethnographer: A Critical Examination of the Role of the Interview in Fieldwork. Semiotica 46: 233–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, Malcolm. 1978. The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick, Malcolm. 1976. Explorations in Language and Meaning: Towards a Semantic Anthropology. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deely, John. 1982. Introducing Semiotic. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, Lee. 1981. The Serpent’s Children: Semiotics of Cultural Genesis in Arawak and Trobriand Myth. American Ethnologist 8: 633–660.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dumont, Louis. 1970. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eco, Umberto. 1976. A Theory of Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15: 325–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, James W. 1977. Fang Architectonics. Philadelphia: I SHI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldschläger, Alain. 1981. Towards a Semiotics of Authoritarian Discourse. Poetics Today 3: 1 (1982), 11–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, Michael. 1981. An Indigenous Theory of Meaning and its Elicitation in Performance Context. Semiotica 34, 113–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, M. 1982. Disemia. In Semiotics1980, Michael Herzfeld

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, M. 1983. Looking Both Ways: The Ethnographer in the Text. Semiótica 46, 151–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, M. 1984. The Significance of the Insignificant: Blasphemy as Ideology. Man (N.S.) 19, 653–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, M. 1985. The Poetics of Manhood: Contest and Identity In a Cretan Mountain Villiage. Princeton & Guildford: Princeton Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labov, William. 1969. The Study of Nonstandard English. Rev. edn. Chicago: NCTE/Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1955. The Structural Study of Myth. Journal of American Folklore 68, 428–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Needham, Rodney. 1983a. Against the Tranquility of Axioms. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1983b. Primordial Characters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1952. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, Thomas A. 1979. Iconicity. In The Sign and its Masters. Austin: Univ. of Texas Pres, 107–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vlach, John Michael. 1983. The Brazilian House in Nigeria: The Emergence of a 20th-century Vernacular House Type. Journal of American Folklore 97, 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winner, Irene Portis. 1977. The Question of the Zadruga in Slovenia: Myth and Reality in Žerovnica. Anthropological Quarterly 50, 125–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Herzfeld, M. (1986). Meta-Anthropology: Semiotics in and out of Culture. In: Evans, J.D., Helbo, A. (eds) Semiotics and International Scholarship: Towards a Language of Theory. NATO ASI Series, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4464-0_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4464-0_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8487-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4464-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics