Symbolic Artifacts Research Articles

Transcending paradigmatic schisms and building ontological bridges: How Russ Belk’s “extended self” became canonical consumer research

This essay gives closer historical consideration to the unprecedented disciplinary impact of Belk’s (1988) conceptualization of the extended self. This canonical article initially appeared to be another flashpoint in the paradigmatic conflict between positivist and interpretivist consumer researchers. However, Belk’s portrayal of consumers as agentic actors who produce their own identities through a network of possessions and symbolic artefacts proved to be highly compatible with interdisciplinary trends toward a more holistic and socio-culturally situated understanding of consumer behavior. Accordingly, Belk’s “extended self” created an ontological bridge between interpretivist studies of consumers’ co-constituting relations to the socio-material world and consumer psychologists’ quest to expand their research interests beyond the study of rational decision making processes. While some marketing historians have suggested that the extended self’s seminal influence derives from its generative “vagueness,” I propose that its transformational effects on the broader field of consumer research trace to a genius of mythopoesis and a genius of timing. I then discuss how the logic of ontological reconfiguration, manifest in Belk’s conceptualization, can foster more synergistic and innovative inter-paradigmatic dialogues between consumer culture theory (CCT) and consumer psychology.

Possible Relevance between Evolution of Human Bones and Behaviors

Throughout the course of human evolutionary history, a distinct species diverged from early primate ancestors, which belongs to the apes clade. Humans have undergone remarkable morphological transformations that enabled them to successfully adapt to their surroundings, resulting in enhanced fitness and positioning them as the predominant species on Earth. This research centers on the progression of human evolution by presenting diverse sections of the evolutionary progression: spanning from quadrupedalism to bipedalism, from basic behaviors to advanced capabilities, and the corresponding adaptations that accompanied these behavioral shifts. Considering the synthesizing insights from various perspectives, the evolution of humans appears an exceptionally fortunate phenomenon. The primary purpose of this paper is establishing a focal point for future investigations on human evolution. Nevertheless, fractional and scattered fossil records and interpretation of behavior are the two major difficulties when studying human evolution. Many transitional forms of bones, for example, may never be fossilized, and those that have been preserved are often found in small, isolated fragments, making it challenging to reconstruct the complete story of human evolutionary history. Moreover, behavior does not fossilize, so researchers must rely on indirect evidence such as tool use, symbolic artifacts, and morphological features to study the human evolution of behaviors.

Material culture of books as historical and design objects

This article examines how the book, as a practical, aesthetic, and symbolic artifact, has been affected and influenced by technological, behavioral, social, cultural, and economic changes. These changes have consequences on production, development, marketing, and consumption. The text discusses the evolution of this relationship over time, its current state and potential future trends. It emphasizes the historical significance and design of the book, considering it a crucial object associated with knowledge and human freedom.

Looking For A Changing Tradition: Kazakh Traditional Doll In Cer-emony, Rite, Game And Art Practice

The study of the doll and its place in the lives of children allows us to more deeply realize its role in any traditional culture, as well as to comprehend the reasons for the modern "doll boom." The Kazakh traditional doll "quyrshaq," balancing between ritual and play practice, has always been the prerogative of the institution of female subculture. Starting from early childhood, transforming, it accompanied its mistress in direct and indirect form up to the very old age. The traditional Turkic doll, considered on the example of Kazakh "quyrshaq," demonstrates not only the chronology of women's life but also characterizes the purely female process of communication with higher powers - deities and spirits of the dead from the perspective of the aforementioned aspects. Consideration of "quyrshaq" as an integral part of women's subculture in the historical retrospective through the prism of sacred and secular will reveal its peculiarities, specify the historical and cultural interrelations between neighboring and related peoples, as well as trace the transformation of this tradition. In order to reveal the designated topic, the research utilized retrospective, comparative, structural-functional, and semiotic approaches. Additionally, a cross-disciplinary analysis was incorporated to enrich the understanding of the cultural nuances surrounding the traditional doll. Nowadays, the traditional doll has fallen out of use due to the extinction of ritual and ceremonial tradition, as well as the appearance of industrial samples of children's dolls of European type in the middle of the twentieth century and their complete dominance in the market in modern times. Information about the Kazakh doll and domestic idols as its cultural prototypes was collected by the authors during the study of archaeological and ethnographic museum exhibits, as well as during field research among the residents of Almaty, Karaganda, and other regions of Kazakhstan in 2017-2019. Thus, the present study has shown that the doll has always reflected certain ethnic and regional traditions or innovations in culture. Through playing with a doll, children reproduced various life situations in accordance with the socio-normative culture of the Kazakh ethnic norms and rules of behavior of the ethnic group. Children through playing with dolls received vital lessons of socio-psychological harmony of personality with the outside world, which in a broad sense can be interpreted as the basis of ritual and ceremonial practice in traditional society. In the present period, designer or art dolls are one of the markers of national revival, characteristic of the whole artistic life of modern Kazakhstan. This resurgence is indicative of a broader cultural renaissance, with these dolls serving as symbolic artifacts embodying the rich heritage and artistic identity of the nation.

Localized globalization through structures of common difference and the in-store curation of a glocal retailscape

In global markets, branded material and symbolic artifacts are curated in patterned ways to replicate and scale retail experience. We apply a structures of common difference framework to show how global brands can be strategically localized through in-store curations within specific physical locations. This localized globalization deploys familiar global brands in ways that feel authentically local and idiosyncratically intimately connected with many and varied retail instantiations (glocal). We underscore that global-local reciprocity is critical and the SCD work for global and local brands. We affirm that global brands give local retailers a steady stream of compelling merchandise connecting the local to global markets, and conversely, local content stabilizes global brands’ connections to communities and physical stores. This recursive relationship feeds into an overarching global common form that celebrates local diversity and supports the interlocking identities of brands and customers.

More than language: Mental time travel, mentalizing, executive attention, and the left-hemisphere interpreter in human origins.

The ensemble hypothesis proposes that language is but one of five cognitive capacities that separate human cognition qualitatively from other animal cognition as a result of their interactions. The ensemble consists of an episodic memory capable of mental time travel, mentalizing to augment social cognition, language for overt communication, advanced executive attention for governing working memory, and inner speech for thinking in the form of causal inference. The order in which each of these components arose in hominin evolution is addressed here. It is proposed that the flourishing of symbolic artifacts during the Upper Paleolithic occurred because, for the first time, all five components were in place and interacting in anatomically modern Homo sapiens. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Rapid increase in production of symbolic artifacts after 45,000 years ago is not a consequence of taphonomic bias

Researchers have long been aware of an apparently rapid increase ∼40–45,000 BP in the frequency of “symbolic” artifacts in the Old World paleolithic record. However, some hypothesize that if not for taphonomic loss the data would instead show a gradual increase in such artifacts’ frequency during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic. We test this hypothesis by correcting the record for taphonomic bias. We find that even after correction, the ∼40–45,000 BP peak remains with no prior gradual increase. However, analysis also suggests this peak may be a product of research bias. We note small peaks in symbolic artifact production at ∼65,000, 75,000, and 115–120,000 BP, although these too might be a product of research bias. We end with a discussion of how symbolic artifact production might be expected to wax and wane as a function of adaptive pressures. This points to the importance of understanding the effects of taphonomic and research bias.

The picture theory of symbolic development in early childhood

Symbolic representation is a central facet of human development that enables people to depict experiences and communicate meaningful information with others. Participation in social interaction relies on graphical symbols, gestures, and symbolic artifacts to form relationships, acquire language, and represent the world. However, substantial theoretical differences between cognitive and social-constructivist accounts of the development of symbolic representation prevent a unified model from forming. Thus, the task of this work is to introduce a theoretical model for symbolic development in early childhood. Throughout this work, Wittgenstein’s picture theory of language is empirically grounded with nascent, cross-cultural research in iconicity and experimental semiotics in order to propose a picture theory of symbolic development in early childhood. Last, this work critically reformulates current debates regarding the representational facets of symbolic development and offers novel insights that bridge philosophy of language and cognitive anthropology.

대외교류로 살펴본 해남반도 백포만 일대 마한사회 구조

Looking at the relics and distribution structures recently discovered in the area of Baekpo Bay on the Haenam Peninsula, this article attempts to approach the social structure of Mahan on the Haenam Peninsula at the time, focusing on the prestige products showing the symbols of local politics. In the past, the area of Baekpo Bay on the Haenam Peninsula has been recognized as a port of call for coastal routes through literature and excavation data since ancient times. Archaeological data showing that this area is a hub for foreign exchange in Northeast Asia continue to be confirmed, and based on abundant archaeological data, it seems to have served as a gateway to exchanges with China using sea routes formed from B.C. and the rise and fall of Mahan politics in Jeollanam-do. As such, the Haenam Peninsula, where Baekpo Bay is located, has formed a social structural system that can facilitate the distribution of symbolic artifacts such as luxury goods from an early age through various cultural contacts and various internal and external exchanges connected to both sides. The development of the system through various direct and indirect exchanges with the social distribution network served as the background for the international city to be located on the ancient maritime silk road in the Baekpo Bay area, and it was able to function as a society for entering the Korean Peninsula through the sea. In particular, the area of Baekpo Bay, where Hyeonsan-myeon is located, has been identified as the primary gateway to exchanges with China.
 Therefore, it was possible to form a social structural system related to internal and external exchanges and distribution from an early age and maintain its position as an intermediate port with Gaya and Japan for a considerable period of time. It is estimated that the establishment of such a system had political forces(chiefs) supported by strong economic power that could maintain their independent power.

Развитие культуры денисовского человека на Алтае

The cultural and chronological stratum of the Pleistocene deposits in Denisova Cave, Altai, is the most complete and lengthy in North and Central Asia today. The comprehensive research of the stone and bone industries in the Paleolithic cave layers helped to trace the process of local development of the most antique Altai’s people, who lived 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. The layer-by-layer analysis of stone artifacts helped to identify the stages of material culture of the-then cave dwellers. The most ancient archaeological site in the bottom of the Pleistocene stratum formed ca. 300,000-150,000 years ago is classified as Early Middle Paleolithic. The subsequent development of the Middle Paleolithic traditions is reflected by the discoveries from the layers that formed 150,000-50,000 years ago. According to archaeological, paleoanthropological and paleogenetic data, the development of the Middle Paleolithic site of the cave is associated mostly with the Denisovans. The deposits of the Early Upper Paleolithic uncovered bone remains of only that population. Bone needles with eyes, sets of personal jewelry and symbolic artifacts in the cultural and chronological stratum of Denisova Cave dating back to the period 50,000 years ago all testify that one of the earliest Upper Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia was formed in Altai.

From Mission Hall to Church: Theology, Culture and Architecture on a South London Estate

In the UK, small faith buildings of “ordinary” appearance, occupied by Christian congregations who reject ideas of sacred space, have tended to be passed over by the historical record and continue to be overlooked by some heritage professionals. The primary significance of these humble buildings is not located in the acquisition and possession of symbolic artefacts and adornments, nor in architectural gestures designed to indicate the holiness of a space, but rather in the lack of such things, and in the deliberate maintenance of the ordinary and the functional. This article takes as its case study a former mission hall situated on a South London Estate, occupied by a church called The Bridge from 2010 to 2022. Considering the building in the wider social and historical context of urban mission halls, the article explores how The Bridge Church embodied Reformed Protestant theological beliefs about spaces of worship to suit the setting of a London estate in the twenty-first century, with modesty and utility demonstrated in their building inside and out.

Social media as a strategy for protest movements: A study of #EndSARS in Nigeria

The 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria gained global attention. The protests drawn thousands of youths to the streets in a wave of rolling fury that built into one of the largest demonstrations for years in the country. Unlike previous protests in the country, the 2020 year's protests played out across social networks in a buildup of videos, images, and stories on Twitter Facebook, and other platforms displaying pictures and footage from the streets. This study employed the Social Network Theory in identifying the influence of social media as a strategy for protest movements and for the diffusion of information about #EndSARS and the sustenance of this movement over a long period, despite forces that have tried to silence it. This study argued that the sustenance of protests such as #EndSARS over a long period was dependent on factors such as: (i) that some individuals were more resistant to being influenced than others; (ii) that some individuals tended to be more responsive than others; and (iii) that some individuals seemed to be more affected than others (and were, therefore, more likely to pass the information on to others). The findings revealed that protesters used emotional dynamics, collective identities, symbolic artifacts, and mutual values to sustain protests if their demands were not met on time.

Fingerprinting pre-historical symbolic artefacts by a non-destructive methodological approach

Fingerprinting pre-historical symbolic artefacts by a non-destructive methodological approach

Writing plans instead of eliminating risks: How can written safety artefacts reduce safety?

Safety Management Systems are developed to help manage occupational risk, but they can also increase an organisation’s exposure to risk. This contradictory effect may happen when written artefacts (plans, risk assessments etc.) enable work to happen by encouraging a belief that the risks have been managed, when in reality they have not been. In this paper we introduce the term “enabling device” to cover the situation where a written artefact facilitates the commencement of work. We explore how enabling devices can become excessively symbolic, where they facilitate work to commence even when they may be decoupled from the issues they were designed to manage. We argue that highly symbolic artefacts acting in their enabling function: a) become more speculative than functional, b) make assumptions and beliefs “appear more real” by giving them an observable form, c) fill a need for people to solve issues without actually having to solve the issue, and d) increasingly become the unit of management instead of the issues and then take on a life of their own. This work suggests that practitioners should more critically evaluate the often invisible and potentially pervasive symbolism vested in safety artefacts to direct effective and sustainable risk interventions.

External and Terminal Ballistics of Early Bronze Age Lithic Arrowheads: Experimental Verification

ABSTRACT Lithic archery projectiles during the short timespan at the end of the Eneolithic period and the beginning of the Bronze Age in Europe have alternately been deemed hunting implements, weapons, or symbolic artefacts. More than 400 projectiles of this period have been analysed in 3D metrics. All but a few are triangular barbed projectiles. Despite differences in size and weight, four types of arrowheads have been identified using 3D shape alone. Experiments to clarify their ballistic behaviour, based on weight, Tip Cross-Sectional Area (TCSA), differences in the shaping of their tips, the height of the cross-section, and cross-sectional asymmetry in distribution of mass were carried out. The 3D data on the projectiles, their wound cavities, and their measured initial and impact velocities were used to verify functional differences and the potential wounding impact.

Symbolism in action: Techno-typology, function, and human-artefact dynamics in figured/non-figured bone plaques from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Boncuklu Tarla, Turkey

Among the artefacts of fundamental importance in the context of symbolism and iconography during the Neolithization process in northern Mesopotamia, there is much research about, and publication relating to, human figurines or statues, animal figurines or statues, figured stone objects, stone vessels, bone plaques, wall decoration (paint, relief, or incision) and stone pillars. While among these various research topics bone plaques have been noticeably less studied than other classes of small finds, they are gradually gaining importance. From the figurative and typological perspective, these objects carry importance for their visual characteristics and their regional variety, but it is notable that their typological differences and functions are still not well understood. This study opens a new debate about the techno-typological characteristics, regional distribution, and modes of use of these objects starting from a group of bone plaques recovered from burial contexts during the excavations of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement of Boncuklu Tarla in southeast Turkey. Portable symbolic artefacts are found to show significant overlaps between materials, iconography and use as well as regional identities and temporal continuities in techniques and decoration.

Concept formation and the text in digital culture

During cultural-historical development, our learning processes have evolved to using diverse “symbolic artifacts – signs, symbols, texts, formulae” (Kozulin et al. 2003: 15) as mediators of knowledge and meaning. The phenomenon of a text became one of the most advanced of these mediators, as it goes beyond the mere mediation of knowledge. According to Lotman, the text is a semiotic system “capable of transforming messages received and generating new ones, a generator of information” (1988: 57). The evolution of digital culture and the new media environment have shaped the representation and interaction with texts by “changing the static printed text into a dynamic one” (Ojamaa and Torop 2020: 52). Digitality, multimodality and transmediality became intrinsic characteristics of texts in the new media environment. While this emphasizes the value of acquiring the concept of the text within formal and informal education as an “intellectual device” (Lotman 1988: 55) and a cultural tool for accessing knowledge in digital culture, the semiotic and cognitive processes beyond the acquisition of the concept of the text remain under-researched. The paper represents the first step in the broader study of how young learners acquire the concept of the text in contemporary digital culture. The research aims to identify semiotic processes behind acquiring the concept of the text in digital culture. To this purpose, we introduce Vygotsky's theory of concept formation (2012) as a methodological tool for semiotic research in learning and education.

A Conceptual Continuous Improvement Framework to Examine the "Problems of Understanding" Applied Research

Objectives: Improving performance to meet strategic priorities, such as teaching balanced with increased applied research activities, has developed into a central, though contentious, discourse for faculty in Ontario colleges. The aim of this article is to analyze and better understand why faculty are not engaged in applied research practices. Method: This article draws from social cognition theory and a social constructivist perspective. The literature review examines the evolution of colleges in Ontario, including the political factors and symbolic artifacts that shape values and organizational practices. This study sought to explore how a conceptual continuous improvement (CI) framework might advance our understanding of the policy shifts between applied research discourses within Ontario colleges in Canada and barriers that faculty face to enact applied research practices. Results: Underpinned by a set of simple principles, including improving through communication, learning through collaboration, and changing through coordination, the conceptual CI processes and systematic method provide opportunities to bridge the different contexts and unveil the varied on-the-ground realities of faculty teaching and research tasks. Conclusions: The findings reveal developmental needs and adaptive institutional challenges related to applied research practice changes have been influenced by political, cultural, and socio-cognition contexts and tasks. Implication for Practice: The inventive conceptual CI framework provides a viable means to analyze the fragmented state of applied research practices across Ontario colleges, which may ignite conversations and inform decision-making as well as suggest approaches to change at other global postsecondary education institutions. The innovative conceptual CI framework analysis tool will be of interest to faculty, institutional leaders, faculty unions, and policymakers.

Reconceptualising the notion of finding information: How undergraduate students construct information as they read-to-write in an academic writing class

This paper seeks to problematise the concept of finding information in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) writing programs. Drawing on the experiences of a group of female Emirati undergraduate students in an academic writing class in the United Arab Emirates, the paper argues that the act of finding information is not straightforward or universal, but is a social construction. Through the theoretical lens of activity theory (Engeström, 1987; Leont'ev, 1981/2009), the paper presents the view that information is constructed as a goal oriented, socially situated activity mediated by physical and symbolic artefacts. The present study examined the types of mediating artefacts students used as they constructed information and the tensions and contradictions they experienced as they did so. Data collected via screen capture recordings, student reflections and interviews suggested that students constructed information by drawing on Discourses of being proficient Internet users, local Discourses of truth and the norms and assumptions underpinning the academic writing class they were enrolled in. The findings of the study are significant in shaping the reading-to-write processes and practices of EAP writing pedagogy.

Drilled Bear Canine Teeth from an Archaeological Site in East-Central Kansas

Abstract A minimum of 14 drilled bear canine teeth associated with 5 human teeth and fragmented bone from a surface exposure in east-central Kansas indicate contact between groups participating in the Hopewell social network in the American Midwest. Drilled, polished, ground, and scored bear teeth, along with a range of exotic and symbolic artifacts, are characteristic of Hopewell burial sites. The Kansas site, 14LY405, where the bear teeth were found marks the southwestern extent of the known distribution of sites with a specific kind of drilled bear canines and helps define the boundary of the Hopewell social network in the Great Plains.