ANTH-2108 Lecture Notes - Menarche, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences, Ethnobotany
9 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
A shared understanding about the meaning of certain words, attributes, or objects. Scandinavia: different perspective (symbol taken from folk lore of the changing seasons) Buddhist: (reversed) symbol of luck + reincarnation. This means symbols can change, and this is normally due to a shift in power ( history is written by the victors ) Language is a system of symbols: the symbols are sounds or visual. Complex philosophical concepts: justice (scales, money (coins) Displacement: the ability to use symbols to refer to things and activities that are remote from the user. Openness: a feature of symbols that one may create new symbols for new things, language is not a closed system -> we can make new words that represent new things/ideas (computers, new ways of thinking) Religious rituals center on symbols and the manipulation of symbols. Key piece of expressive culture of religion.
