Having identified previously the Peircean Category Firstness as the semiotic basis for Australian Aboriginal culture, this paper examines the “lens” of Firstness as it is manifest in a variety of aboriginal cultures worldwide. By studying the semiotic contours of religion, language, social organization, and art, we find systemic prioritization of Firstness in its various manifestations, across a wide range of aboriginal cultures from Australia to the Indian Subcontinent to aboriginal Siberia and the New World. Shamanic culture, despite its ethnic and (...) geographic variety, may therefore be represented as a semiotic type – and, in addition, one that, in its pristine form, is nearly extinct. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2014 Heft: 202 Seiten: 589-607.

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2015 Heft: 207 Seiten: 251-277.