ABSTRACT
Semiotics is the science of signs, and a semiotic approach to material culture regards artifacts as signs whose meaning and significance have to be determined by the use of semiotic concepts. Signs are things that stand for other things or anything that can be made to stand for something. Think, for example, of the American flag. It is a sign that stands for the United States and for various values, historical events, and other matters connected to the country. Saussure set out the fundamentals of what he called semiology in his book, Course in General Linguistics. This book, primarily a collection of notes to his essays by his students Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye at the University of Geneva, was published in 1915. Thus, a semiotic approach to material culture involves searching for the way these objects function as signs and generate meaning to others.
