Symbolism
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A symbol is something human beings use to stand for something else (Needham).
Animals, as well as humans, have been said to use symbols, e.g. sign
language, computer keys in apes. But they do not use it naturally, it is
taught. They use signs, not symbols.
Humans are often described as the only species able to use symbols.
Examples: The Kwaio (purity and sacredness)
The Trobrianders (clan totems)
Symbols can be used to separate the ?them? and ?us?- use of lags, uniforms,
etc. SEE YANOMAMO PG 101.
4 properties of symbols:
- Can be an object, a series of words (e.g. a pledge),
an action (a salute).
- To use a symbol is to communicate something (attitude, feeling, abstract
idea)
- Symbols are arbitrary
- Meaning of symbol is not necessarily immediate
Example of the ?evil eye; in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Parts of Africa, South Asia etc. The way of preventing it is to wear a blue bead.
Sacred vs Profane-
Normal dictionary definitions:
Sacred- Made holy by religious association / connected with religion
/ used for a religious purpose.
Profane- Not belonging to what is scared or biblical.
The symbolic and social meanings- of Space
Arrangements of space make important symbolic statements about social
groupings and social relationships. Among the Nookta of the Pacific coast
of Canada, each of the large plank houses in the winter village in which
the Nookta lived in the nineteenth century represented a social group.
The floor plan of the house was divided into spaces that were ranked with
respect to one another. The place of honour in the house was occupied by
the owner, who was the highest-ranking person in the house and held the
highest title, and his family. This was the left corner of the rear of
the house. The next most important man and his family occupied the right
rear corner of the house; the third most important man and his family occupied
the left front corner of the house; the fourth most important man and his
family were in the right-hand corner; the least important titled man lived
with his family on the left-hand side of the house. Untitled commoners
and their families lived in the remaining spaces along the sides of the
house. Each location had its own hearth. Each nuclear family in the Nookta
house was ranked with respect to the others, and this rank was symbolised
by the location of each family?s hearth and its living space in relation
to the others. It is like a seating plan according to seniority.
In a peasant village in North-eastern Thailand, space in a house is
divided to symbolise not rank, but rules about marriage and sex. The sleeping
room is the most sacred part of the house. First cousins, with whom sexual
relations and marriage are not permitted, may enter the room but may not
sleep there. More distant relatives, whom one may marry, are not allowed
to enter the sleeping room and must remain in the guestroom. S J Tambiah
(1969), who analysed the Thai material, also relates categories of animals
and their edibility to relatives whom you may and may not marry. First
cousins, whom you cannot marry, are equivalent to your own buffalo, oxen
and pigs, who live under the house. You may not eat them and must give
them to other people. More distant relatives, whom you can marry, are equivalent
to other people?s domestic animals, which you can eat. The same logic that
connects edible and inedible animals with marriageable and unmarriageable
relatives is also found in Thai society. Since social space symbolises
degree of social relationship, and edibility also signifies social relationships,
then the meaning of social space is also related to edibility.
The way in which people use social space reflects their social relationships and their ethnic identity. Early immigrants to America from Europe brought with them a communal style of living which they retained until late in the eighteenth-century. Historical records and archaeological findings document a group-orientated existence, in which one room was used for eating, entertaining guests, and sleeping. People ate stews from a communal pot, shared drinking cups, and used a common pit toilet. With the development of ideas about individualism, people soon began to shift to use the individual cups and plates; the eating of meals which included meat, starch and vegetables; served on separate plates; and the use of individual chamber pots. They began to build their houses with separate rooms to entertain guests- living rooms, separate bedrooms for sleeping, separate work areas- kitchen laundry room, and separate bathrooms.
In Mexico, the meaning and organisation of domestic space is strikingly
different. Houses are organised around a patio, or courtyard. Rooms for
sleeping, dressing talking when the weather is harsh, cooking, and storage
open onto the patio, where all kinds of domestic activities, such as socialising,
child play, bathing, and doing laundry, take place. Individuals do not
have separate bedrooms. Children often sleep with parents and same-sex
siblings share a bed, emphasising familial interdependence. Rooms in Mexican
houses are locations for multiple activities which, in contrast, are rigidly
separated in the United States.
The households of Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles represent a transition between Mexican and American usages. According to Pader, they ?blur the lines between the U.S. coding system, with its emphasis on greater bodily privacy and the individual, and the Mexican system, with its emphasis on sharing and close daily interconnection.? As Mexican-American children mature, they change their ideas about family, become more individuated, and desire their own beds and bedrooms.
Gypsies, who are found in every major American city, have retained important
elements of their own culture, including their beliefs about pollution,
extended families which form households, and ideas about space utilisation.
When the Gypsies of Richmond, California, move into a house previously
occupied by non-Gypsies, it must first be ritually cleansed of the polluting
effects of these non-Gypsies by a thorough cleaning with disinfectants
and the burning of incense. Then the inner walls are torn down and
the doors removed to create communal living space which is divided by hanging
drapes. One space is devoted to palm reading, the major source of
income, the other space being used for a living area for the extended family
that will live there. The head of one Gypsy family moved into what had
formerly been a bar and dance club in order to house the 28 members
of his family and the many guests they entertained (Sutherland, 1968).
Case Studies:
Pg 314- Sacredness and Pollution among the Kwaio (Keesing 1980)About the Author
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Total views: 337
Word Count: 1147
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 Time: 12:00 AM
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