Emergence of the “Howling Foxes”: A Semiotic Analysis of Initial Interpretations of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Estonia

Maran, Timo

doi:10.1007/s12304-015-9244-1

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The temporal length of each feedback cycle of human and non-human interactions depends on the properties of the organisms as well as social time. In case of mammals, their own activity and behaviour can give rather fast input to their interpretation by humans (see e.g., Maran 2015), but for the immobile trees, which might have a lifespan of several human generations, a different time scale should be used to notice the influence of a species or a specimen on cultural significations. The ginkgo tree was brought to Estonia at the end of the 19th century as an exemplar of a taxonomically and evolutionarily rare species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban trees as social triggers: The case of the Ginkgo biloba specimen in Tallinn, Estonia

Magnus

Sander²

2019

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Urban trees are considered to be essential and integral to urban environments, to contribute to the biodiversity of cities as well as to the well-being of their inhabitants. In addition, urban trees may also serve as living memorials, helping to remember major social eruptions and to cement continuity with the past, but also as social disruptors that can induce clashes between different ideals of culture. In this paper, we focus on a specific case, a Ginkgo biloba specimen growing at Süda Street in the centre of Tallinn, in order to demonstrate how the shifts in the meaning attributed to a non-human organism can shape cultural memory and underlie social confrontations. Integrating an ecosemiotic approach to human-non-human interactions with Juri Lotman’s approach to cultural memory and cultural space, we point out how non-human organisms can delimit cultural space at different times and how the ideal of culture is shaped by different ways of incorporating or other species in the human cultural ideal or excluding them from it.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban trees as social triggers: The case of the Ginkgo biloba specimen in Tallinn, Estonia

Magnus

Sander²

2019

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“…Th e main focus of such analysis appears to be located in sign-based infl uences, that is, eff ects and transmissions between diff erent complexity levels in nature-cultures. Th ese connections are oft en revealed in specifi c case studies concerning, e.g., urban vegetation (Magnus, Remm 2018), zoological gardens (Mäekivi 2017(Mäekivi , 2018, novel species (Maran 2015).…”

Section: Two Decades Of Ecosemiotics In Tartu Timo Maranmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some other direct infl uences include the environmental semiotics of the German tradition (works of Winfried Nöth, Martin Krampen, Ronald Posner), Norwegian environmental philosophy (most notably Arne Naess, who visited Tartu in 1998 3 ), the Russian/ Soviet community ecology (Viktor Masing, Alexander Levich -on this, see Kull 2016a) and biosemiotic studies in general (especially works of Jesper Hoff meyer, Wendy Wheeler, Andreas Weber, Almo Farina). More recently, traces of French science and technology studies (Bruno Latour, see Maran 2015) are evident, as well as topics common with phenomenology (Magnus, Kull 2012;Tønnessen 3 Th is connection is well exemplifi ed by the Tartu interpretation of Naess' deep ecology platform -see Kull 2011Kull . 2011, aesthetics (Kull 2016b), translation studies (Kull, Torop 2003) and cultural geography can be noticed.…”

Section: Two Decades Of Ecosemiotics In Tartu Timo Maranmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two decades of ecosemiotics in Tartu

Maran

2018

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“…From this perspective, human-animal relations are studied with an understanding that the involved human and animal counterparts are necessarily historically rooted in social, cultural and biological backgrounds in particular, specifi c ways. In principle, an approach of this type has been applied in the case study of novel species management used for the analysis of the European jackal in Estonia (see Maran 2015). Th e table above does not presume to cover all the possible approaches to zoosemiotic research; instead, it illustrates the logic by which research projects may be constructed.…”

Section: Epistemology: How Do We Know About Animals?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal Umwelten in a Changing world: Zoosemiotic Perspectives

Mäekivi¹,

Oma²,

Tønnessen³

et al. 2016

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Animals are. A multitude of diff erent species surrounds us in our everyday doings, and infl uences our behaviour and culture. Dogs and cats develop delicate and personal relationships with the families they belong to. Swans and geese are waiting to be fed by passers-by. Th e wing-strokes of doves and jackdaws give a subtle ephemeral atmosphere to our cities. Spiders, snails and snakes are met with surprise or disgust. Beavers are blamed for reshaping the landscapes, and wolves for killing livestock. People and animals engage and interact in a number of ways: from hunting and fi shing to bird-watching, from the help provided by assistance dogs to family holidays in zoological gardens and animal parks. Children's fi rst encounters with the written word oft en take place through animal stories. And many fi ctional animal characters are known and internationally celebrated by name: Lassie, Moby Dick, Bambi, King Kong, etc. None of these interactions would be possible without semiotic processes: perception, communication and interpretation occurring between humans and animals. Sign relations or mediated relations that connect humans with other animal species are the very subject of this collective monograph. We make an inquiry into the semiotic character of diff erent species, study the ways in which humans endow animals with meaning, and analyse how animal sign exchange and communication has coped with environmental change. In this research, our core disciplinary framework is zoosemiotics, the semiotic study of animals-the paradigm that was proposed by the eminent American-Hungarian semiotician Th omas A. Sebeok in the 1960s and that recently had its fi ft ieth anniversary. Our approach is essentially semiotic and biosemiotic. At the same time, we engage in dialogues with ecocriticism, Actor-Network Th eory, posthumanism and other contemporary schools of the humanities, as well as with more practically oriented research topics in visitor studies, animal welfare studies and humananimal studies, not to forget ethology and conservation biology. Th is book is a collective eff ort. Its authors belong to the research group in zoosemiotics and human-animal relations based in the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu in Estonia, and at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Th e two opening chapters are written and edited collectively and present a framework of philosophical, historical, epistemological and methodological matters of zoosemiotic research. Th ese initial considerations are followed by specifi c case studies that have been conducted by individual authors. Th e specifi c chapters, however, have been cross-edited and commented on by other TIMO MARAN ET AL

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Emergence of the “Howling Foxes”: A Semiotic Analysis of Initial Interpretations of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Estonia

Cited by 11 publications

References 45 publications

Urban trees as social triggers: The case of the Ginkgo biloba specimen in Tallinn, Estonia

Urban trees as social triggers: The case of the Ginkgo biloba specimen in Tallinn, Estonia

Two decades of ecosemiotics in Tartu

Animal Umwelten in a Changing world: Zoosemiotic Perspectives

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