Symbols
•
Definition
– Shared understandings about the meaning of
certain words, attributes, or objects.
•
Characteristics
– Displacement
•
Our ability to understand that a certain symbol means a
certain thing.
– Arbitrary
•
A symbol has no direct connection with the thing it refers to.
Meaning is a construction of the human mind.
– Openness
•
Our ability to create and use symbols as we see fit.
Circle with dot
• Egypt:
– The Sun, Ra
• Greek philosophy of the Monad
– The First, the seed, the essence, the builder the foundation. All
is one, there are no fundamental divisions. A unified set of laws
govern nature.
• Contrast to dualism, i.e. yin yang: 2 underlying, opposing powers
incorporating and governing reality.
• Pythagoreans
– From the Monad came the Dyad (2-powers); from it numbers;
from numbers, points; then lines (2 dimensional entities), then 3
dimensional entities, celestial bodies (stars/planets), culminating
in the four elements of earth, air, water and fire from which the
rest of the world is built.
• Flatland (1884) Edwin Abbott Abbott
Hexagram
– Earliest examples: 800-600 B.C.E.
– Antiquity: symbol for Jewish Kingdom.
• Star/shield of David. Symbol for Jewish faith.
– Alchemy symbol in middle ages representing the
combination of fire and water
• Alchemy: A practical science concerned with the art of
transforming elements and compounds, and a religiousphiliosophical system resting on the idea of the existence of a
substance called the philosopher’s stone which could
change base elements into more precious substances (i.e.
gold).
– Other alchemy symbols: Ouroboros
» Represents same thing as Indian yoga (unity), Chinese
yin-yang, Christian ascendance to God, Buddhist
Nirvanna, etc.
Pentacle
•
•
A type of Pentagram (5-sided figure)
Probably discovered as a result of astronomical research in ancient Mesopotamia (~4,000 BCE):
It is the structure that results if one plots the movement of Venus as seen from earth in the Zodiac.
–
•
Pythagorean mysticism
–
–
•
Official seal of the city of Jerusalem during 300-150 BCE.
Satanism
–
•
Used in the Morning Star and Crescent to denote the Islamic faith.
5 points of star represent 5 pillars of Islam (the profession of faith, the prayer, giving a portion of one’s
income to the poor, fasting during Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca
Judaism
–
•
5 wounds of Christ, 5 senses
Islam
–
–
•
Numbers/values constitute the true nature of things. Can know God through mathematics.
Symbolizes the human being and mathematical perfection.
Christianity
–
•
The goddess Venus (Ishtar) from the ancient Mesopotamians appeared both as the Morning (battle/hunting)
and Evening (beauty/fertility) star
Inverted star, symbolizing the rejection of Christian Holy Trinity.
Wiccan/Neopagan
–
Symbol of Wiccan faith. Represents 4 elements and the Spirit.
Sacred Art
• Formed from a myriad of religious symbols.
– Ex: Cathedral
• Not art for art’s sake (i.e. not based on creative urges of
the artist). Rather art as a collection of symbols meant
to convey a specific religious message.
– Ex:
– Byzantine and Egyptian religious art
• Does not mean that these artists were incapable of drawing a more
fluid/natural body. Needed this structure to convey the correct
meaning. Art in this case is a symbol. To change the style of the
symbol would be to change the meaning.
Sacred art and sacred space
• The Sarcophagus of Lord Pakal (book)
– The symbols combined create a passageway through which Pakal
passes to reach the Underworld and then be resurrected as a God.
– Psychoduct: A passageway for Pakal’s spirit to pass from his Tomb to
the Temple during rituals. Made of brick and running along the stairway
• Egyptian spacetime
– With its orientation to the heavens, sacred space in Egyptian
architecture represents a dimension where heavenly time reigns (a sort
of space time mix). To build a sacred space was to establish not only a
spatial but also a temporal link with the heavens; it was a realization of
eternity. In the Old Kingdom all the construction work done by the state
concentrated on the pyramid as the epitome of sacred space: a
structure built for the king to touch and enter into eternity.
• The Tomb of Knum-Hotep (Beni-Hassan, Egypt)
– An elaborate example of a Psychoduct…
Color
• The separation of the color spectrum is cultural and arbitrary.
– Who’s to say where red ends and yellow begins? Why do we have orange?
Why not have a million different color names? Why not have only, perhaps, 3?
• The Yoruba of Nigeria (Guinea Coast) distinguish only these 3 colors:
Funfun (cool colors: white, silver, pale gray) Associated with wisdom and
respect. Pupa (red, pink, orange, deep yellow) Passion and pride. Dudu
(black, blue, purple, green dark browns, red-brown) Cool, dark, warm.
•
The colors on the crown are both hot and cool. This is necessary to symbolize the wisdom of a king to
bring harmony and balance to the community.
– Navaho: Turquoise blue is the ideal blue
• Blue is the color of celestial and earthly attainment,
of peace, of happiness, and success, of vegetable
sustenance.
– Ancient Egypt: Faience (a fired, man-made
substance of crushed quartz and silica mixed
with a bit of lime, ash and copper). Also a
Turquoise blue.
• A semi-precious material, beloved by the gods and
goddesses. Suitable offerings to the Pharaoh and
gods/goddesses.
Time as Symbol
• We organize our lives around seconds, minutes,
hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.
– Time is also arbitrary! Why 7 days in a week? Why
not 5 or 16? Our “week” of 7 days is a non-physical
symbol that stands for a particular period of time.
– Ritual usually goes hand in hand with time.
• Today: Religious rituals that are practiced on a specific day
of the week/day of the month/day of the year?
– Examples?
• Periodic Rituals
– Mayan calendar
– Egyptian calendar
Time cont.
• Chronotope: A timescale unique to a certain
society
– history, time and reality are social constructs and
symbolic forms that undergo specific shapings and
weighings in every culture and in every age.” (p. 17).
– history is not a universal, uniform frame within
which each culture develops in its own different
way, but rather a product of culture, a cultural
form.”
Time cont.
• Our (Western) time: A linear Chronotope.
– Augustine of Hippo (354-440 CE Christian Bishop & philosopher):
Christ’s death on the cross was the irreducibly unique and irreversible
event that, for the believer, creates a newly linear time. While the
heathens wander around in circles (… a calendar, punctuated by the
rhythms of mornings, noons, and evenings, births and deaths, repeating
themselves over and over again indefinitely.) Christians move toward
the consummation represented by redemption.” (linear time)
• Rites cyclicalize time by observing regulations to the letter and by ensuring
that each ritual celebration corresponds exactly with the preceding ones.
The model for such cyclical congruence is the cosmos, with its orbital
recurrence of astronomical, meteorological, and seasonal cycles. Hence the
generation of cyclical time within society serves to harmonize the human
order of things with the cosmic.
– Mircea Eliade (1949 Le Mythe de L’éternel retour): mythical thinking
constructs time as circular, and experiences all events as the
recurrence of primordial patterns [ancient cultures typically “froze
out” change through the ritual cyclicalization of time], whereas (our)
historical thinking constructs time as a line or path of an arrow, along
which events are experienced as breach, innovation and change.
– Levi-Strauss: Linear time serves to consolidate power and
sociopolitical identity: it goes hand in hand with statehood and a written
culture.
Canonization
• Canonization: a ban on
variation.
– Ex: The Old Kingdom in Egypt
(3000 BCE) is the epoch that
developed the style and
repertoire of Egyptian formal
idioms. By reverting to these
forms, the later epochs
canonized them, elevating
style to the status of canon.
Canonization, then, is the
institutionalization of
permanence, a strategy for
foiling time, and hence one of
the most favored cultural
techniques for constructing a
specific chronotope
Music as Symbol
•
Music as a symbol used to get across the desired meaning of a ritual
– Music can be used to teach, express/affect emotional states, produce altered
states of consciousness, to please/contact supernatural powers.
• Membraneophones, Cordophones, Aerophones, Idiophones
– Ex: Sistrum/clappers (Egypt)
•
Since music is symbolic, it is interwoven in the learned traditions of a
culture.
– Meaning: Music that uses pitch, tone, speed, cadence, beat to convey and
emotion (like happiness) in a culture not your own, may not necessarily evoke in
you feelings of joy. The reverse is also naturally true.
• In order to bridge the music symbolism gap between cultures, some artists are
employing syncretism (fusion of elements from 2 diff. cultures) to help convey
meaning.
– Ex: Missa Luba (Catholic mass + traditional tribal instruments/rhythm from Kongo tribe o/t
Democratic Republic of Congo
» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNb-02n3KY
– Ex: Loreena McKennitt (traditional Celtic mythology + modern instruments/synthesizers +
occasional Christian elements)
» Mummer’s Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B7sH5QLyXY
Dance as Symbol
• Many traditional religions use dance as a
symbol to create meaning
– Ex: Vodou
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYWFL3Bj2LU&
feature=related
– Ex: Whirling Dervishes
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJIofU-0jC0
– Ex: Pueblo Eagle Dance
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO2g9tgWjbU
Additional terms
• Kiva: Usually, an underground ceremonial chamber.
Used by the Tewa (Pueblo Native Americans) before
they emerge to perform sacred dances. (pp 73-75)
• Totemism: A special relationship between an animal (or
plant/feature of the environment) and an individual/group
of individuals assigned/formed during the period of
creation. (See pp. 69-71 –Aboriginee groups-)
• Totem: A symbol/emblem (animal/plant/environmental
feature usually) that stands for a certain social unit (a
person/group)
– Examples in Western Culture: Mascots/ “What animal do you
most identify with?”