In the history of the human sciences the distinction is often made between the interpretation of an event, object, or text and its meaning. In antiquity people turned to objects in the natural order to find the meaning of the world around them. The entire cosmos seemed to be connected and interrelated in one comprehensive nexus of meaning. The interpretation of one object potentially might reveal larger meanings in the cosmos. For this reason the entrails of animals, marks on the human body, objects in the sky, or tea leaves, for example, might be consulted. While various forms of divination …