ABSTRACT:
This essay shows how human community as enculturated differs from the mere social group as such of animals. I will touch the following subtopics: 1. Human community versus animal social group. 2. Language and community. 3. Language and communication. 4. The animal dimensions of community. 5. From animal society to human world. 6. Formation of community within the human world. 7. Understanding community for the 21st cenrury. - The semiotics of community enables us to see exactly why "community" is a species-specifically human phenomenon. To understanding community the distinction between social system and culture system, collapsed in modern anthropology after Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1995), is esential. As a living reality, community cannot exist without society. But under no circumstances does the latter reduce to the former, as came to be the dominant assumption of anthropology before the advent of semiotics.
