Symbolic Artifacts Research Articles

Is a cultural cortical recycling hypothesis likely in relation to economic artifacts?

Abstract Neuroscience of material artifacts production and handling has recently pointed to the likeliness of a cultural cortical recycling hypothesis (Stout et al., 2008). This hypothesis had been more robustly established in the case of symbolic artifacts such as letters and numbers (Dehaene and Cohen, 2007). In both cases the idea is that specific cortical maps dedicated to basic perceptual and/or motor functions were re-used at some point of relatively recent human history (within temporal scales at which anatomical evolutions of the brain cannot take place) in view of the processing of novel cultural items. Optimal functional recycling jointly facilitates and carries over constraints on the processing of these artifacts. It also presumably plays a role in their emergence and morphogenesis. I present theoretical arguments and a preliminary set of behavioral and neurobiological data that might support the speculation that the historical emergence and the typical neural processing of coins — both a material and symbolic artifact which is central for modern economic life — are explained by a similar hypothesis.

Memory Constraints on Infant Learning From Picture Books, Television, and Touchscreens

AbstractThe past 15 years have seen an explosion of educational books, television, and touchscreen applications developed specifically for infants. Although infants interact with these symbolic artifacts on a daily basis, they have difficulty going beyond the symbolic source and transferring learning to real‐world situations. Infants imitate fewer actions and recognize fewer words following demonstrations depicted in picture books and on televisions and touchscreens than they do following face‐to‐face interactions, a phenomenon termed the transfer deficit. Age‐related constraints on memory flexibility contribute to this deficit. Learning can be enhanced when such constraints are considered. Specifically, repeating content and adding visual and auditory cues reduce the transfer deficit. Given the widespread availability of educational media for infants, understanding memory constraints on learning from media has practical implications for the creation and effective use of infant‐directed media in early education.

Coordinating visualizations of polysemous action: values added for grounding proportion

We contribute to research on visualization as an epistemic learning tool by inquiring into the didactical potential of having students visualize one phenomenon in accord with two different partial meanings of the same concept. 22 Grade 4–6 students participated in a design study that investigated the emergence of proportional-equivalence notions from mediated perceptuomotor schemas. Working as individuals or pairs in tutorial clinical interviews, students solved non-symbolic interaction problems that utilized remote-sensing technology. Next, they used symbolic artifacts interpolated into the problem space as semiotic means to objectify in mathematical register a variety of both additive and multiplicative solution strategies. Finally, they reflected on tensions between these competing visualizations of the space. Micro-ethnographic analyses of episodes from three paradigmatic case studies suggest that students reconciled semiotic conflicts by generating heuristic logico-mathematical inferences that integrated competing meanings into cohesive conceptual networks. These inferences hinged on revisualizing additive elements multiplicatively. Implications are drawn for rethinking didactical design for proportions.

The national anthem: A mirror image of the Zimbabwean identity?

The article parades those attributes in the Zimbabwean National Anthem that make it Zimbabwean. Having shifted from an anthem for Africa as a continent, ‘Ishe Komborera Africa’, the current Zimbabwe national anthem, eulogizes some sense of patriotism, Zimbabwean hegemony and pride among the Zimbabwean populace. Every nation has its own identity that is mirrored through symbolic historical monuments, artifacts, dress codes and music including the national anthem. Zimbabweans, being the custodians of their identity, have risen up to the challenge of composing their own anthem through the late Solomon Mutswairo and Fred Changundega, who provided the text and score, respectively. Through a content analysis research method the article explains the musical elements that make up the Zimbabwean national anthem. From the research done a conclusion has been drawn that themes and ideologies associated with the Zimbabwean national anthem reflect aspects of nationalism, but in terms of musical compositional techniques some concepts such as rhythm, dynamics, and performance directions are inherited from foreign cultures.

Late Pleistocene Techno-traditions in Southern Africa: A Review of the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, c. 75–59 ka

The focus of this paper is on two remarkable techno-traditions in the prehistory of southern Africa, the c. 75–71 ka Still Bay and the c. 65–59 ka Howiesons Poort. These were periods when the technological and behavioural repertoire of early Homo sapiens expanded rapidly to include novel technologies such as heat treatment of lithic materials, pressure flaking of stone points, manufacture of complex armatures including the bow and arrow, and the production of symbolic artefacts including shell beads and engraved ochre, bone and ostrich eggshell. In this paper I first review briefly the historical background relating to the recognition of these techno-traditions; second, concentrate on the archaeological sites known to contain these assemblages within southern Africa; and third, discuss aspects of the precocious material culture that appears during these phases.

The Experiences of Educational Psychologists Who Utilise Ego-State Therapy to Address Dissociation in Adolescents

Ego-state therapy is regarded an effective therapeutic technique for addressing dissociation. However, studies by psychologists (especially educational psychologists) who utilise ego-state therapy with adolescents presenting with dissociation are not readily available. This article derives from such a study aimed at exploring the experiences of educational psychologists with regard to the process followed in ego-state therapy, as well as its appropriateness for adolescents experiencing dissociation. Data were collected from four participants through incomplete sentences, semi-structured interviews, and symbolic artefacts, using a phenomenological research design. The findings demonstrate the value of utilising ego-state therapy as a therapeutic intervention for adolescents manifesting with dissociation.

Ethnography in evolution: adapting to the animal “other” in organizations

PurposeTraditionally, ethnography has been well placed to take account of the messy and complex processes that produce workplace cultures. Likewise, it has always taken interest in the objects, materials and symbolic artifacts that help furnish those organizational cultures. Yet researchers face a particular challenge when the organization in question includes animals. The purpose of this paper is to ask: How do we take account of such others? Are they objects, things, agents or should they be considered to be workers?Design/methodology/approachThe authors consider several examples of animal‐human workplaces, including abattoirs, laboratories and farms, to argue that ethnography can, and should, take account of animals in creative new ways. First‐hand experience of such settings is drawn upon to argue that contemporary post‐human scholarship and the creative arts offer the potential for more subtle research methods.FindingsThe authors’ fieldwork shows that it is not always a straightforward desire to care for other species that motivates people to work with animals. Instead, a range of unexpected meanings can be drawn from the interaction with animals. It is also unsatisfactory to claim that those working with animals are always motivated by the promise of paid employment. In many cases, notably the rescue shelter, work is often done on a voluntary basis. So the rewards are not always financial but reach into more symbolic and ethical domains of value creation. Conversely, in slaughterhouses, the mechanization of the shopfloor makes it difficult for workers to relate to the “products” as animals at all. The repetitive nature of this work disconnects those on the production line from the idea that they are dealing with bodies. The complexity of these human‐animal relationships means that field methods for studying them must be adapted and evolved.Originality/valueThis paper provokes some new questions about human‐animal meaning making for organizational ethnographers. It does so to generate creative new ideas about field methods and the nature of the “others” that researchers participate with to observe.

The business model in the practice of strategic decision making: insights from a case study

PurposeTraditionally, management scholars have conceptualized the business model as alocusof innovation, planning tool, heuristic logic, or market device. However, so far, little is known about how the model is being applied in practice. To address this gap, this study aims to introduce a strategy‐as‐practice perspective and to explore the implications and limitations of applying the business model as a strategizing device.Design/methodology/approachA single‐case study design was selected to explore the implications and limitations of using the business model as a strategizing device in a high‐tech firm.FindingsThe business model provides a valuable structural template for mapping the current business model of a firm. However, in developing and discussing strategic options, it acts more as a symbolic artifact stimulating a creative decision‐making process than as an analytic tool with a clear sequence of steps.Practical implicationsWhen working with the business model concept in practice, its technical and linguistic legitimacy is initially highly limited. In the process of gaining legitimacy, however, a collective lock‐in to the current strategic identity may arise. Managers have to be aware of these limitations and need to achieve an appropriate balance within the organization.Originality/valueThe study introduces a social practice perspective into the business model debate, with a special emphasis on the implications and limitations of applying the business model concept as a strategizing device in a real‐life setting.

Apropriação musical: a arte de ouvir Rap

Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo investigar se há e como se processa a relação estética entre sujeitos ouvintes e a música Rap, no processo de apropriação musical. Partimos da perspectiva sócio-histórica, segundo a qual nas reflexões metodológicas propostas por Vigotski estiveram tecidas as ideias de Bakhtin, como também as contribuições de Sartre, em um movimento dialógico com alguns leitores que se fazem interlocutores destes autores. Realizamos entrevistas individuais e abertas com cinco jovens moradores de periferia da região de Blumenau - SC. As análises indicaram a apropriação musical dos sujeitos investigados como um complexo processo que envolve aspectos referentes às propriedades físico-perceptuais do objeto estético Rap e a biografia de cada sujeito/ouvinte. A apropriação musical se mostrou como um complexo processo de conversão do coletivo em singular, fenômeno que exige um lugar cocriador do sujeito-ouvinte que se apropria dos significados expressos nas músicas e produz, a partir destes, novas zonas de sentido.

Behavioral Modernity—Not Again

“Behavioral modernity” has been a focal point for research in Paleolithic archaeology for decades, but there is now a consensus that it needs to be replaced by a research objective with a better theoretical and methodological grounding. My paper (Shea 2011a) proposed that rather than assuming linkages among the phenomena comprising behavioral modernity, we should instead investigate the sources of variability in particular behaviors by using strategic modeling and principles of behavioral ecology. Porr argues that this proposal is problematical because behavioral ecology is inadequate to explain variability in symbolic/cultural behavior. The evidence Porr cites in support of his argument is that I was unable “to properly explain ‘symbolic behavior’” in the lithic evidence from Omo Kibish. First, I do not agree that the lithic evidence in question, a seeming preference for knapping red rocks and transport of unknappable stone for some modest distance, is necessarily symbolic, and the paper posed alternative hypotheses about this evidence. My reason for mentioning it at all was to show how in the absence of a robust body of middle-range theory for identifying symbolic behavior, Paleolithic archaeologists can find evidence for it wherever they choose to look. Second, use-worn mineral pigments and artifact style variation occur in so many and such varied Pleistocene Old World contexts that a capacity for social use of symbolic artifacts either was clearly evolutionarily primitive or evolved convergently among multiple hominin species dating to at least Middle Pleistocene times. To me, finding some plausibly symbolic dimension of lithic variation among the Omo Kibish assemblages would really be noteworthy only if there were principled reasons for expecting such evidence to be absent from contexts associated with Homo sapiens (Shea 2011b). If anything, Porr’s remarks show the need to examine symbolic/cultural behavior from the standpoints of strategic modeling and behavioral ecology. Whether one is hauling shiny rocks across the landscape, burying or burning one’s dead, or painting the walls of caves, these activities come at variable costs in time and energy. As such, they have variable evolutionary fitness consequences for the people who engage in them. Behavioral ecological principles will probably not shed much light on choices between symbolic behaviors of roughly equivalent cost (e.g., painting reindeer vs. horses), but it cer-

The Reality of Neandertal Symbolic Behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France

BackgroundThe question of whether symbolically mediated behavior is exclusive to modern humans or shared with anatomically archaic populations such as the Neandertals is hotly debated. At the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France, the Châtelperronian levels contain Neandertal remains and large numbers of personal ornaments, decorated bone tools and colorants, but it has been suggested that this association reflects intrusion of the symbolic artifacts from the overlying Protoaurignacian and/or of the Neandertal remains from the underlying Mousterian.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe tested these hypotheses against the horizontal and vertical distributions of the various categories of diagnostic finds and statistically assessed the probability that the Châtelperronian levels are of mixed composition. Our results reject that the associations result from large or small scale, localized or generalized post-depositional displacement, and they imply that incomplete sample decontamination is the parsimonious explanation for the stratigraphic anomalies seen in the radiocarbon dating of the sequence.Conclusions/SignificanceThe symbolic artifacts in the Châtelperronian of the Grotte du Renne are indeed Neandertal material culture.

Settlement patterns during the Earlier and Middle Stone Age around Langebaan Lagoon, Western Cape (South Africa)

The landscape around Langebaan Lagoon in the Western Cape of South Africa contains a rich archive of Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin behavior. Stone Age localities of all ages are abundant and present a valuable perspective on the region’s settlement history. A complex pattern of land use is evident starting with an analysis of the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) collections from Anyskop combined with a review of data from Elandsfontein and Duinefontein. These Late Acheulian assemblages demonstrate an emphasis on handaxe production, the exploitation of medium and large game, and use of non-local raw materials. While seasonal pans provided water for animals and humans at these ESA localities, Anyskop is distinctive because of its hilltop setting, lacking water and direct access to game. Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblages from Geelbek and Anyskop combined with a review of data from Hoedjiespunt, Sea Harvest and Ysterfontein provide further evidence for a regional settlement system that also incorporated non-local raw materials into the lithic provisioning strategy. Some MSA lithic technologies in the Western Cape were aimed at the production of bifacial points and blades, as well as backed elements. Subsistence strategies expanded to encompass the utilization of both terrestrial and marine resources. Although symbolic artifacts are rare from these sites, worked ochre is present at Hoedjiespunt. These behavioral patterns suggest that the Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins who left these ESA and MSA materials behind were adept masters of their environment with adaptations well suited to the West Coast landscape.

Hooks and Shifts: A Dialectical Study of Mediated Discovery

Radical constructivists advocate discovery-based pedagogical regimes that enable students to incrementally and continuously adapt their cognitive structures to the instrumented cultural environment. Some sociocultural theorists, however, maintain that learning implies discontinuity in conceptual development, because novices must appropriate expert analyses that are schematically incommensurate with their naive views. Adopting a conciliatory, dialectical perspective, we concur that naive and analytic schemes are operationally distinct and that cultural–historical artifacts are instrumental in schematic reconfiguration yet argue that students can be steered to bootstrap this reconfiguration in situ; moreover, students can do so without any direct modeling from persons fluent in the situated use of the artifacts. To support the plausibility of this mediated-discovery hypothesis, we present and analyze vignettes selected from empirical data gathered in a conjecture-driven design-based research study investigating the microgenesis of proportional reasoning through guided engagement in technology-based embodied interaction. 22 Grade 4–6 students participated in individual or paired semi-structured tutorial clinical interviews, in which they were tasked to remote-control the location of virtual objects on a computer display monitor so as to elicit a target feedback of making the screen green. The screen would be green only when the objects were manipulated on the screen in accord with a “mystery” rule. Once the participants had developed and articulated a successful manipulation strategy, we interpolated various symbolic artifacts onto the problem space, such as a Cartesian grid. Participants appropriated the artifacts as strategic or discursive means of accomplishing their goals. Yet, so doing, they found themselves attending to and engaging certain other embedded affordances in these artifacts that they had not initially noticed yet were supporting performance subgoals. Consequently, their operation schemas were surreptitiously modulated or reconfigured—they saw the situation anew and, moreover, acknowledged their emergent strategies as enabling advantageous interaction. We propose to characterize this two-step guided re-invention process as: (a) hooking—engaging an artifact as an enabling, enactive, enhancing, evaluative, or explanatory means of effecting and elaborating a current strategy; and (b) shifting—tacitly reconfiguring current strategy in response to the hooked artifact’s emergent affordances that are disclosed only through actively engaging the artifact. Looking closely at two cases and surveying others, we delineate mediated interaction factors enabling or impeding hook-and-shift learning. The apparent cognitive–pedagogical utility of these behaviors suggests that this ontological innovation could inform the development of a heuristic design principle for deliberately fostering similar learning experiences.

Community‐based protest against construction projects: a case study of movement continuity

Community‐based activism against proposed construction projects is growing. Many protests are poorly managed and escalate into long‐term and sometimes acrimonious disputes which damage communities, firms and the construction industry as a whole. Using a thematic storytelling approach which draws on ethnographic method, within a single case study framework, new insights into the social forces that shape and sustain community‐based protest against construction projects are provided. A conceptual model of protest movement continuity is presented which highlights the factors that sustain protest continuity over time. The model illustrates how social contagion leads to common community perceptions of development risk and opportunity, to a positive internalization of collective values and identity, to a strategic utilization of social capital and an awareness of the need to manage the emotional dynamics of protest through mechanisms such as symbolic artefacts.

Chronology of the site of Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France

This reply addresses the criticisms levelled by Higham et al (Before Farming 2011/2 article 1) against Caron et al (2011; PLoS ONE 6(6):e21545). We first emphasise the fact that Higham et al dispute neither the spatial evidence that Caron et al brought to bear on the archaeology of the Grotte du Renne nor the validity of the associated simulation study. As the level of disturbance diagnosed by Higham et al is inconsistent with the level of integrity demonstrated by Caron et al, the stratigraphic outliers in Higham et al's results can only represent dating error or localised disturbance with no impact on the general pattern of association between Neanderthals and symbolic artefacts in the Châtelperronian. Secondly, we elaborate on Caron et al's suggestions concerning contamination as a potential cause for the younger than expected results. Finally, we discuss the issues of epistemology that are raised by the notion that radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling can be used as a completely independent test ...

“БИБЛИОТЕЧНЫЙ” СЮЖЕТ ПРОЗЫ И. А. БУНИНА В СВЕТЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ ИМПЕРИИ И НАЦИИ

SUMMARY: This article addresses the problem of artistic interpretations of nation and empire in Ivan Bunin’s prose of the period from 1900 to the early 1920s. The author considers Bunin’s large-scale reconstruction of the traditional mores, the repertoire of people’s reading (the novel The Village ) and the locus of the noble estate’s library ( Antonov apples , Grammar of Love , The Unhurried Spring ) that is clearly counterpoised to the two former loci. From this analysis the author derives a historical–philosophical antithesis, the poles of which relate to nation and empire. While scrutinizing the structural elements of the “library plot” (its chronotop, symbolic artifacts, interactions with the hero), the author exposes the connection between the library and the elite culture of the end of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. On an ideological level, Bunin stressed the absence of material and spiritual partitions between noble and peasant estates. In view of this position, the author treats cross-social love affairs ( Dry Valley [Sukhodol], Grammar of Love ) as artistic representations of the “collective body” – the key concept of a nation. The article reveals the dramatic and tragic quality of Bunin’s prognoses of social integration, which disregarded “high” (in terms of its social status) and imperial (in terms of its origin) classical culture.

Designing for communication at work: A case for technology-enhanced boundary objects

In this article we conceptualise the challenges of communication between a mortgage company and its customers in terms of crossing boundaries between communities. Through an ethnographic study we first address the question: what are the challenges of communication between sales agents and customers of a mortgage company around mathematical artefacts? Insight into these challenges formed the basis for an intervention in which we designed technology-enhanced boundary objects (TEBOs) that were reconfigurations of problematic symbolic artefacts. Secondly, we ask what the sales agents learned from the intervention. The data suggest that the intervention with the TEBOs helped employees to develop a better understanding of the mathematics behind the mortgages they sold, and to improve communication with their customers.

A Review of Environmental Symbology: Origins and Contributions toward a Theoretical Framework

Environmental symbology (ES) is the study of symbolic meaning within the human environment including personal, sociocultural, and mythic contexts of understanding. This emerging discipline is part of the web of environment and behavior research, with roots in several fields including semiotics, symbolic anthropology, and psychoanalysis. Symbolic meaning enriches human space with personal and sociocultural value; it communicates attitudes and beliefs, integrates with other sign systems in communication, and regulates social behaviors. Yet, to date, none of the existing literature has acknowledged the full scope of ES and contemporary research into ES remains limited. To understand how ES can contribute to the body of knowledge in interior design, it is necessary to present how this realm of research is both collaborative and additive with other fields. This review explores the theoretical framework of ES research and highlights some of the major contributions from other disciplines. It then explains the role of the environmental symbologist in serving the body of knowledge of interior design through cataloging symbolic artifacts and motifs. Further, the work describes the present author's development of a symbolic typology utilizing Jung's model of archetypes and explains several of the symbolic motifs identified therein. An improved understanding of the symbolic meaning of space can benefit our understanding of the psychological needs of its inhabitants. This review offers an introduction in how and why the environmental symbologist gives primacy to the exploration of the human–environment relationship through the study of the personal, sociocultural, and mythic meanings of space.

Factors Affecting the General Acceptability of Traditional Foods Served at African Cuisine Luncheon in Moi University, Kenya

Beliefs and mental images that people create regarding food from a culture that is not their own, are likely to influence their choice of food especially when eating out. The cuisine served comprised of 23 different ethnic foods from various East African communities including the Luo, Luhya, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Akamba, Swahili and Ugandan. Buffet style of service was used to present food using symbolic artifacts of the various ethnic groups. The research sought to examine customers’ perception of traditional food served at an African cuisine luncheon. The objectives of the study were: to investigate the extent to which customers appreciate traditional foods from different cultures and to establish the extent to which sensory characteristics of traditional cuisines affect their general acceptability. The results revealed that sensory characteristics were a significant determinant of the general acceptability of the various cuisines with most of the customers noting that the cuisine was “moderately acceptable”. The acceptability of traditional cuisines was found to be independent of ethnicity of customers. The positive reaction of customers on the cuisine display and variety meant that there was a gap in the menu items served in the food outlet used in this study. The study recommended that all the food outlets in the various campuses of Moi University should attempt to occasionally provide traditional cuisine.

Creating a country through currency and stamps: state symbols and nation-building in British-ruled Palestine

Recent studies have examined the use of currency and stamps for nation-building in various contexts, with these artefacts seen as vehicles for indoc- trination and gaining legitimacy by ruling elites – as a form of ‘‘banal nationalism’’. This article goes further to argue that in moments of geopolitical upheaval, these symbolic artefacts can play a crucial role in shaping the very framework of nation- hood. This article focuses on the Middle East during World War I and its aftermath, and on British efforts to shape public opinion through the issuing of Palestine postage stamps and currency (1920–7), which were intended to convey Britain’s commitment to Zionism. Parallels are drawn to the introduction of Arab stamps and flags during the Arab Revolt (1916–18). The benefit to Zionist nation-building and ‘‘Hebrew Revival’’ is discussed, as well as the strikingly different reactions of local constituencies – Arabs and Jews – to the political message of these symbolic objects.