Archaeological Semiotics

List of Figures x
List of Tables xiii
Preface xiv
Acknowledgments xvii

1 Introduction 1
What is Semiotics? 5
Archaeology and Semiotics 8
Theorizing Material Culture 14
Organization of the Book 16

Part I Signs of Meaning

2 Saussure and His Legacy 21
Ferdinand de Saussure 22
Semiology and Structural Linguistics 25
Saussure and Modern Linguistics 31
Structural Anthropology 37
Symbolic and Cognitive Anthropologies 39
Summary 42

3 The Peircian Alternative 44
Charles Sanders Peirce 45
Semeiotics 49
Peirce and Modern Philosophy 60
Peirce and Modern Linguistics 63
The Life of the Sign 64
Summary 65

4 Pragmatic Anthropology 67
Peircian Encounters 68
Indexicality 71
Self and Social Identity 79
Material Culture Meanings 84
Summary 89

Part II Aspects of a Semiotic Archaeology

5 Structuralism and Processual Archaeology 93
A Brief History of Processual Archaeology 95
Rules and Codes 101
Information Exchange 112
Ideology and Structural Marxism 115
Summary 120

6 Poststructuralism and Postprocessual Archaeologies 122
A Brief History of Postprocessual Archaeologies 123
From Structure to Practice 131
Reading Material Culture 135
Material Culture and Text 138
Material Metaphors 142Summary 145

7 Cognitive Science and Cognitive Archaeology 147
A Brief History of Cognitive Archaeology 148
Evolutionary Studies 152
Cognitive Processual Studies 162
Summary 171

Part III Archaeological Case Studies

8 Brook Farm and the Architecture of Utopia 175
Utopian Architecture 177
The Brook Farm Historical Site 180
Semiotic Ideologies of Social Reform 183
House Agency 193
Representing Brook Farm 205
Conclusions 208

9 In the Aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt 210
The New Mexico Colony 212
The Pueblo Revitalization Movement 213
Living in Accord with the Laws of the Ancestors 218
Kotyiti Archaeology 221
Social Dynamics at Kotyiti Pueblo 225
Ceramics, social groups, and ideology 230
Regional Settlement 238
Signs of the Times 243
Conclusions 245

10 Material Meanings in Practice 247
On Chains and Cables 250
Integrating Words and Things 254
Semiotic Ideologies 258
Toward a Pragmatic Archaeology 260

Notes 263
Bibliography 271
Index 315