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The concept
Referentiality is closely linked to what perception individuals have of the referent itself. We may safely assume that in Urkesh people intuitively perceived a conical cup and this would have given a special status to the object. To use an example from our own culture, a champagne flute carries a certain prestige, and would be unlikely to use it for coffee or juice.
The notion of perceptual range refers to the limits that may apply to referentiality. These limits are obvious vis-à-vis a broken tradition: we do not share the native perception, and can only re-create it, if partially, through an inferential process. But these limits may apply also within a living tradition. We will look here at both.
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Limitations vis-à-vis a broken tradition
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The inferential process
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The role of grammar
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Modern approximations
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Architecture
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Glyptics
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The role of hermeneutics
reconstruction
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Limitations within a living tradition
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Social breadth
A given item that would have carried meaning for a person in the royal court of Urkesh might not have elicited the same response in a farmer living at the same time in a remote village of the kingdom. The “reference” would not have been operative, just as it would be for us – were we not to have the supporting evidence of the assemblages and the seal impressions from the palace context.
The diversity and richness of any given culture creates what we may call “referential gaps.” In our own times, a type of music that is familiar to a given sub-group within our otherwise cohesive social group may be wholly alien to another sub-group. Thus
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Chronological depth
Within a living tradition the passage of time is another factor that can create a break in the intuitive referential “inventory”. In Urkesh, for instance, we have evidence of the painted style fasjionable in the Khabur period…
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