Symboling

In its simplest definition, a symbol is a thing or action that represents another thing or action, and anthropologists agree that symboling is the unique cognitive capacity that allows advanced primates to have culture and to communicate their cultural concepts. Although they are used as synonyms, as verbs “symbolize” and “symbol” differ: to symbolize means to use existing concepts as symbols, and some higher nonhuman primates demonstrate this ability. To symbol means to symbolize, but also to create new symbols, a capacity of people but not yet convincingly shown to exist in apes and monkeys. In its most general usage, as representation and embodiment of meaning, and by the recognition that many cultural symbols are unintelligible separate from their cultural contexts, in the late 20th century the symbol became the focus of a specific field of anthropology: symbolic anthropology.

The term symbol is used popularly as synonymous with any of a variety of simpler forms of representation, for example, a sign, icon, or emblem. In fact, the symbol can do all that those forms can do, but it can do more: it not only represents, stands for, a thing or action; conceptually, the symbol can take on certain properties of its referent, and thereby it can stand in for, take the place of, the thing it represents. The symbol can be complex, embodying different levels of meaning, and even quite different realms of meaning, and displaying the quality sometimes known as “multivocality.” The symbol can convey different meanings simultaneously, within the same communicative context, or in different contexts.

Also, the symbol may or may not bear any resemblance to, or have any intrinsic association with, its referent. This becomes clear when we understand that words are symbols. The concept of abstract speech and thought is of the same order as symboling. Leslie White's famous1949 example of holy water (in The Science of Culture) illustrates the capacity, and complexity, of symbolic meaning. The unique capabilities of human culture are perhaps best demonstrated through religious ideas, and these semantic capabilities of the symbol are at the very core of religion. Raymond Firth observed in his 1973 work, Symbols, Public and Private, that “the relation [of the symbol to its referent] is such that the symbol by itself appears capable of generating and receiving effects otherwise reserved for the object to which it refers—and such effects are often of high emotional charge.” This illustrates the amazing strength of the symbol: the symbol can take on the very qualities of whatever it represents, and if its referent has power, then the symbol itself becomes powerful. The concept of powerful [Page 2149]symbols is at the very core of religion, and is the means whereby magic is enacted. Religious symbols, such as the Christian cross, have power and are used protectively as amulets. Reproductive power is extremely strong, and objects representing the vulva, such as cowries, or the penis, such as horns, are ancient and widespread symbols of power. Some symbols transcend cultural boundaries and may be universal, such as eggs, horns, or the color red; most symbols are understandable only within their specific cultural/linguistic context.

Source: © iStockphoto/Dor Jordan.

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