ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Bona Dea, Liminality, Sherry Ortner
8 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Socio-Cultural Anthropology ANTH 202
Class 6 – Symbols, Rituals and Rites of Passage
SEMIOTICS = study of meaning-making, of sign processes and meaningful
communication.
It includes the study of signs, sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness,
analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification and communication.
Types of signs:
- Icons: resemble what they represent (ex: photograph or precise drawing)
- Indices: indicators of sth (ex: smoke for fire or clouds for rain)
- Symbols: represent sth by cultural convention (ex: cross for Christianity or dove for
peace) → can also be actions, rituals, events, items…
SHERRY ORTNER
→
Key/Core/Dominant symbols: expressed publicly in one culture
2 approaches:
1. Analyzing culture/sys as a whole and looking within the culture for some
figure/image capturing underlying elements (less common!)
2. Choose sth observed to be important and analyze its meaning (most common!)
SUMMARIZING SYMBOLS → Collapse and represent complex sys of ideas under a unitary
form; {Meaning is clustered and condensed, undifferentiated, thick…}
Ex: American flag
→
patriotism, democracy / Sacred symbols / Cross
ELABORATING SYMBOLS → valued for their contribution to ordering and sorting out
experience, complex ideas and feelings; {Meaning are relatively clear, orderly,
differentiated, articulate}
1. Root metaphors
→
cognitive, conceptual order of world
Provide categories to sort out conceptual experience
Ex: Body / Time is money / Argument is war
2. Key scenarios
→
strategies for ordering “appropriate” social action in relation to
socially defined goals
Ex: USA rags to riches story (self-made man, American dream)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Include “formal” cultural performances and rituals
Include informal rituals, sequences of everyday life actions symbolizing valued social relations
(ex: ritual of welcome, lining up for tickets…)
Metaphor = sth representative or symbolic of sth abstract / a figure of speech in which a word or
phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
What symbols = key symbols?
Have public manifestation in the culture itself – “keyness” = role of symbol in the culture
Summarizing & Elaborating symbols can be the same thing – can perform ≠ symbolic
functions at ≠ times, in ≠ contexts, at ≠ levels
Ritual = Stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in
a sequestered place, and designed to influence preternatural entities or forces on behalf of the
actor’s goals and interests
- Seasonal, rites of passage, healing, cyclical, crisis-responsive…
- Dynamic – change over time, borrowed…
→Transmit and express cultural themes
- Culturally approved behaviors, values and norms
- Practical guidelines for everyday life
→Composed of multiple symbols
- Ritual symbols transmit cult themes
- May represent many themes
Ritual symbol = smallest of unit of ritual which retains specific properties of ritual behavior
- Multiple meanings
- Condensation of ideas – lengthy explanation
- Different levels of meaning (sensory and aspects of social order) – FORMALISED
Dominant symbols reappear in many rituals, teaching rules of behavior
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Class 6 symbols, rituals and rites of passage. Semiotics = study of meaning-making, of sign processes and meaningful communication. It includes the study of signs, sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification and communication. Icons: resemble what they represent (ex: photograph or precise drawing) Indices: indicators of sth (ex: smoke for fire or clouds for rain) Symbols: represent sth by cultural convention (ex: cross for christianity or dove for peace) can also be actions, rituals, events, items . Sherry ortner key/core/dominant symbols: expressed publicly in one culture. 2 approaches: analyzing culture/sys as a whole and looking within the culture for some figure/image capturing underlying elements (less common!, choose sth observed to be important and analyze its meaning (most common!) Summarizing symbols collapse and represent complex sys of ideas under a unitary form; {meaning is clustered and condensed, undifferentiated, thick } Ex: american flag patriotism, democracy / sacred symbols / cross.
