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Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
-
Unit 6

Symbolism

Eight pictures of Queen Elizabeth II at various ages appear on eight monoliths of Stonehenge, set against a dark-blue sky.

Symbolism is an important aspect of human communication and consists of finding ways to reduce complex thoughts to effective signs or images. This unit encourages students to think about the myriad ways that humans create symbols to communicate with one another and how those shared meanings are negotiated.

Sapiens articles
symbols
essay / Viewpoint

Why Symbols Aren’t Forever

Jamie Hodgkins
The shifting status of cultural symbols reveals a lot about who we are and what we value.
gun violence - A market area and bus station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
essay / Viewpoint

Do Guns Possess the Power to Change Us?

Chelsey Kivland
A story of three deaths in Haiti has a lesson to teach the U.S.
Professor Talking Points
  • Anthropologists have been at the forefront of the study of symbolism. Consider important figures such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mary Douglas, Clifford Geertz, and Victor Turner.
  • One of the most important shifts in anthropology has been in relationship to how symbols are considered. Previously, scholars thought that symbols were innate. Now they increasingly view them as being publicly negotiated and actor-centered.
  • The benefits that can be gained studying symbolism can be applied to many different domains, and anthropologists are particularly well-positioned to study the relevance of symbolism in areas of society such as diverse as ritual, gender, food, colors, and politics.
  • A knowledge of symbolism and how humans use signs and images to communicate can also have practical applications, such as helping students make sense of media advertising and marketing.
Academic Articles

  1. Couacaud, Leo. 2016. “Does Holiness Have a Color? The Religious, Ethnic, and Political Semiotics of Colors in Mauritius.” Signs and Society 4 (2): 176–214.

  2. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” In The Interpretation of Cultures, 3–30. New York: Basic Books.

Student Discussion Questions
  1. Why do humans use symbols to communicate with one another?
  2. Are symbols tangible? Where do they originate from?
  3. What do we learn from Couacaud’s (2016) studies of symbolism?
Activities
  • Have students select a widely marketed brand or product and consider what messages are being conveyed to consumers. What makes the marketing convincing? Have changes been made to the brand or product design over time? If so, have students note them and explain how those adjustments affect their perception of what is being sold.
Additional Resources

  1. Podcast: Jonathan Pageau’s The Symbolic World

  2. TEDx Talk: Michael Mill’s “The Signs of Our Times”

Unit By

Eshe Lewis (2020)

Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
-
Unit 7

Policing

The photograph features several police officers uniformed in black walking past casually dressed people on a public road lined with shops.