Cultural borders and creation of culture SVEND ERIK LARSEN Everywhere you are only simply here (Kaplinski 1985: 86) Aim and object of cultural semiotics Humans are not the only creatures who create signs, communicate, and exchange information. Cells send signals to one another, electronic net- works exchange information, and bees communicate: semiotic processes operate beyond our cultural domains. Nevertheless, such processes involve humans, too, for we are also built up of cells. We are also biological phenomena whose neural networks follow the same basic principles as those of other organisms, and whose behavior to a certain extent can be simulated and replaced by electronic processes. Therefore, although everything studied in cultural semiotics is placed in relation to human life, this study may extend beyond the area of human activity to grasp also the preconditions for this activity. Cultural semiotics does not claim that all human activity is culture clearly separated from nature. And it certainly does not hold that culture is a thin membrane of signs and symbolic structures that is stretched over independent and solid material processes in society, the body, and our physical surroundings. Cultural semiotics tries to provide for a gradual transition, semiotically and otherwise, between humans and other sign-using creatures, holding that cultural processes are intertwined with their natural foundations, and that sign processes are material phenomena anchored in a concrete reality. However, cultural semiotics also claims that humans, beyond the semiotic talents shared with all other life forms, have a semiotic competence that belongs to our biologically specific — and therefore Semiotica 128-3/4 (2000), 359-376 0037-1998/00/0128-0359 © Walter de Gruyter Brought to you by | Aarhus University Library / Statsbiblioteket Authenticated Download Date | 2/5/17 11:56 AM