Culture as system

pp. 23-74

in: Aleksei Semenenko, The texture of culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

Culture is first and foremost a semiotic system. One of the earlier definitions of a semiotic system can be found in Lotman's 1967 article in which he defines a (modeling) system as a 'structure of elements and of rules for combining them that is in a state of fixed analogy to the entire sphere of an object of knowledge, insight and regulation" (Lotman 2000a, 387; translated in Lucid 1977, 7). This definition may seem rather hermetic, but it points out the main features of a system: it is a structure of discernable elements with certain functions. Structure in its turn is a set of elements organized in a certain hierarchy (note that this word is used in a purely pragmatic sense without any axiological connotations) and with certain purpose, which makes this system distinct and different from other systems and nonsystems. The crucial point is that a system is a construction ("fixed analogy"), a methodological (and even cognitive) tool that is applied in the analysis.