On the Semiotic Mechanism of Culture

HERE ARE MANY WAYS of defining culture.1 The difference in the semantic content of the concept culture in different historical epochs and among different scholars of our time will not discourage us if we remember that the meaning of the term is derivable from the type of culture: every historically given culture generates some special model of culture peculiar to itself. Therefore, a comparative study of the semantics of the term culture over the centuries provides worthwhile material for the construction of typologies. At the same time, among the variety of definitions one can single out something common to them all that appears to answer to certain features we intuitively attribute to culture in any interpretation of the word. We will consider just two of them here. First, underlying all definitions is the notion that there are certain specific features of a culture. Though trivial, this assertion is not without meaning: from it arises the assertion that culture is never a universal set, but always a subset organized in a specific manner. Culture never encompasses everything, but forms instead a marked-off sphere. Culture is understood only as a section, a closed-off area against the background of nonculture. The nature of this opposition may vary: nonculture may appear as not belonging to a particular religion, not having access to some knowledge, or not sharing in some type of life and behavior. But culture will always need such an opposition. Indeed, culture stands out as the marked member of this opposition. Second, the various ways of delimiting culture from nonculture essentially come down to one thing: against the background of nonculture, culture appears as a system of signs. In particular, whether we speak of such features of culture as being man-made (as opposed to being natural), being conventional (as opposed to being spontaneous and being nonconventional), or as the ability to condense human experience (in opposition to the primordial quality of nature)-in each case, we are dealing with different aspects of the semiotic essence of culture.