Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Origins of money : A Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM) analysis

Oakley, Todd LU and Zlatev, Jordan LU (2024) In Semiotica
Abstract

Few other social technologies and institutions are more consequential to human societies than money. Yet money remains a deeply perplexing phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a pan-human system of valuation, but on the other, it is conventional and variable in its uses. While it is controversial if money instantiates a fully-fledged sign system, it is rife with semiotic capacities. To present an illuminating analysis of money is thus a test case for the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM) of meaning making, with roots in the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Using MSM, we analyze two origin accounts of money: the commodity money account evidenced in archaic and classical Greek coinage, and the credit money account... (More)

Few other social technologies and institutions are more consequential to human societies than money. Yet money remains a deeply perplexing phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a pan-human system of valuation, but on the other, it is conventional and variable in its uses. While it is controversial if money instantiates a fully-fledged sign system, it is rife with semiotic capacities. To present an illuminating analysis of money is thus a test case for the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM) of meaning making, with roots in the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Using MSM, we analyze two origin accounts of money: the commodity money account evidenced in archaic and classical Greek coinage, and the credit money account exemplified by early findings in Mesopotamia. Both accounts focus on the interactions between the three levels of MSM: the pre-signitive Embodied, the cultural Sedimented, and the interactional Situated levels of meaning and propose different series of "loops"to account for the genesis of money. Despite key differences in the two origins, both imply semiotic processes operating according to motivated, and hence non-arbitrary, conventions developing within institutional formations that ultimately influence present day concepts of money.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
analogy, cognitive semiotics, conventions, institutions, phenomenology
in
Semiotica
publisher
De Gruyter
external identifiers
  • scopus:85183175129
ISSN
0037-1998
DOI
10.1515/sem-2023-0031
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1f4f7d4b-7872-4fbc-b9d6-735534658947
date added to LUP
2024-02-20 12:28:43
date last changed
2024-02-20 12:29:29
@article{1f4f7d4b-7872-4fbc-b9d6-735534658947,
  abstract     = {{<p>Few other social technologies and institutions are more consequential to human societies than money. Yet money remains a deeply perplexing phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a pan-human system of valuation, but on the other, it is conventional and variable in its uses. While it is controversial if money instantiates a fully-fledged sign system, it is rife with semiotic capacities. To present an illuminating analysis of money is thus a test case for the Motivation &amp; Sedimentation Model (MSM) of meaning making, with roots in the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Using MSM, we analyze two origin accounts of money: the commodity money account evidenced in archaic and classical Greek coinage, and the credit money account exemplified by early findings in Mesopotamia. Both accounts focus on the interactions between the three levels of MSM: the pre-signitive Embodied, the cultural Sedimented, and the interactional Situated levels of meaning and propose different series of "loops"to account for the genesis of money. Despite key differences in the two origins, both imply semiotic processes operating according to motivated, and hence non-arbitrary, conventions developing within institutional formations that ultimately influence present day concepts of money.</p>}},
  author       = {{Oakley, Todd and Zlatev, Jordan}},
  issn         = {{0037-1998}},
  keywords     = {{analogy; cognitive semiotics; conventions; institutions; phenomenology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{De Gruyter}},
  series       = {{Semiotica}},
  title        = {{Origins of money : A Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM) analysis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sem-2023-0031}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/sem-2023-0031}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}