ABSTRACT
This chapter starts considering the implications of the aforementioned for the emergence of ententional phenomena, using the term ‘ententional’ as Deacon conceptualizes it. It explores the implications of Deacon’s work on the causality of ententional phenomena for the emergence of social and/or cultural systems. The chapter explores degenerate sign processes in general, and indexes in particular, as a key to a research agenda that will study social and cultural phenomena as signs of the process of their emergence. Cultural studies and sociology have been interested in the emergence of culture and society for a very long time. Equally, development studies have been exploring the factors that play a role in the emergence of societies. Deacon’s thesis is that the emergence of ententional process-phenomena entails a process of imposing constraints on possibilities.
