Enduring Meaning

This chapter provides a deeper discussion of the theories of meaning and communication that were employed by the experts involved in developing plans for nuclear waste repository marker systems. These linguistic, semiotic, and psychological models were more important to planners than archaeological models for the material form. These models emphasized the intentions of people creating messages with the intention of having them be understood by receivers. The models used are contrasted with the kind of semiotic approaches, especially those rooted in the work of pragmatic philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, that contemporary archaeologists employ, in which rather than having preformed meanings conveyed by a vehicle, meanings are constantly emerging in practice.