Symbols—are an important part of culture, but not easy to define

What are symbols?

Some scholars would argue that symbols and language are what make us unique as humans

Ability to make meaning, but also other primates can learn symbols, like chimps learning to sign language

What are symbols?

General

Something that represents something else; one thing standing for another

Has no inherent meaning (arbitrary); it is not intrinsic

Symbols must be shared (conventional)

Passionate emotional meaning in symbols: a flag, wedding ring, etc.

The same symbol may mean different things, like the Swastika in South Asian traditions (range of meanings) and Nazi

Symbols convey meaning

In religions, some have argued that it is symbols make the transcendent immanent—what does this mean? A physical dimension of the transcendent

Turner: "symbols make visible, audible, and tangible beliefs, ideas, values, sentiments and psychological dispositions that cannot be directly perceived" (1967: 50)

Sign is what it is; a symbol is what it is and more

Examples of signs:

Stop sign

Pepsi (brand names)

Examples of symbols:

Bread (Communion for Christians)

Arabic writing (for devout Muslims)

Personal example: Sacre Couer

Firth concluded in his work that "sacrifice is ultimately a personal act in which the self is symbolically given" but it is often conditioned by "economic rationality and calculation." (Sacrifice)

Four ways

Index: part of the whole; footprint of a lion; smoke from a fire

Icon: a sign that bears some resemblance to the thing it signifies—like a statue of a lion

Signal: co-occurs with the signified, like thunder, or lion’s roar

Symbol is not directly related to that which it represents; but only through associations (lion as symbol of loyalty or nobility)

Semiotics: The study of how meaning is constructed, signs and symbols

Three ways an object is meaningful

Index: direct contact

Icon: resemblance

Symbol: historically and culturally specific linkages

Symbolic Anthropology and Religion

An approach in anthropology

Looks at cultures as independent systems of meaning

These can be understood by understanding key symbols

Held together by symbols which carry cultural meaning; people just automatically responding to environmental or material concerns

Example:

The Potlach Ceremony of the North West Coast Indians

The potlatch is a festival or ceremony practiced among Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. At these gatherings a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family's house and holds a feast for their guests. The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth.

An important part of the anthropology of religion

Refers to the attempt to make meaning

How symbols are created by and operate within societies (Douglas)

Clifford Geertz: Focus on Meaning

A symbol is

Any object, act, events, quality or relations which serves as a vehicle for a conception

A tangible formulation of notions, abstractions from experience fixed in perceptible forms

Concrete embodiments of ideas, attitudes, judgments, longings or beliefs.

Interested in how people think, see and feel the world through the use of symbols

Believed it was necessary to study symbols in context and not in the abstract

Saw symbols as "vehicles of culture"

Focus on symbol in social process

An advocate of symbolic anthropology

Inclined to look at how symbols work in social process

Investigated symbols as "operators in the social process"

Ndembu: A culture in Zambia

Ritual works to maintain cohesion and social order…the drum

Ritual and symbolism closely linked

The Milk Tree: Symbol of unity and continuity…women’s initiation

Symbolic logic and ritual connects people into a moral unity

Condensation

One symbol can carry multiple meanings

Unification of disparate meanings

These meanings are connected

Polarization of meaning

Integrates physical qualities and emotional reactions to it

Involves the Milk Tree or Mudyi Tree

Produced milky white latex

Stands for women’s breasts

Motherhood

Ritual novice

Matriliny

A specific matrilineage

Learning and the unity and preservation of Ndembu society

Example of condensation and polarization

Turner argues that by incorporating these symbolic meanings in the ritual, young women came to accept their place as child bearers and not to challenge male gender roles

Example of Unification

Ultimate goal of ritual

To preserve the stability of the Ndembu society by securing women’s gender roles

Example of Polarization of Meaning

Malinowski

Not all anthropologists agree that religion is essentially symbolic

"A flying canoe is a flying canoe."

Some say we just view behavior as symbolic if we don’t understand it

Planting seeds not symbolic; we understand this

Be careful not to find symbols that locals do not find

Turner: Felt that taking only the indigenous meaning was limiting

Religious Symbols: Material Objects

Two common ways objects create meaning

History of physical contact between an object and a spiritual or sacred being

Sacred relics; body parts of holy people; masks originating from spirits are all sacred because they were once in contact with a holy person, spirit or ancestor

Resemblance to powerful or sacred being

Example of "contact with" and "resemblance"

Shroud of Turin example: Indexical b/c it touched Jesus; iconic because it bears resemblance to Jesus (Bowen p. 135)

Sacred Spaces

Major form of material religious objectification

Sites where something is or where something happened; where a spirit dwells, where major event happened

Dome of the Rock; Ganges; tombs of saints in Islam; St. Peter’s in Rome; four cardinal directions for native Americans

Icons/Idols

Hinduism: gods in paintings and sculptures

Objects not always symbolic to the worshipper: deity is actually present in the sculpture, but not limited to the sculpture

Charms, Amulets, Relics

Most religions use objects in some ways; natural or artificial as foci of meaning and power; used to be called fetishes, though we don’t really use that term anymore

Muslims in Africa have the words of the Qur’an on paper sewn inside a leather amulet to counteract sorcery or the evil eye

Relics in Christian tradition—bones or mummified bodies of saints thought to have powerful properties

Masks

Many cultures make and use masks for cures or reenacting myths

Hopi wear masks of the kachina spirits in their ceremonies

The Mali, west Africa

All adult males belong to mask societies

78 types of masks…different levels of meaning based on degrees of initiation

Masks can transfer and defuse sacred power

The Human Body

Standards of dress and behavior

The body as symbol of the whole society

Example of body symbolism:

The sago palm looks like a head and milk

Objects and Texts

The dancing arena at a Pow Wow

Alter state of consciousness

The Quo’ran

Special care, placement, washed hands

Personal and Public Symbols

Personal is a symbol that is optional for an individual

Psychological needs rather than social conformity

Body piercing in western societies

Recognized as meaningful, rational, objective, normal

Ascetics wandering naked and unkempt in India

Psychologically meaningful to the individual

Does not signal conformity to cultural norms