Symbols, Semiotics, and Material Culture in Society
5.
The signs:
Humans live in a world of meaning and all this accessible to all, some more than others. Besides some meanings that are taken for granted in our daily lives there are others that characterize other human groups or to other companies. Access to these other meanings are not carried out immediately if that comes through specific processes of initiation. The signal, the message and the bearer of the message body are aspects of the same thing. (Example: traffic light). In a sign the relationship between the message and the entity that there is a metonymic message. Crown King, not wear a crown but we understand what you mean about the special treatment …
It is high in affective and emotional.
The meaning of a symbol goes beyond a social context, synthesize and organize symbols beliefs, the values we hold as members of a social group. Shape and direct the development of new knowledge of the social group and have to ensure the old observations. In this sense we must say that the symbols and the symbol systems we may consider extrinsic sources of information (extrapersonal mechanisms are outside people). By which we perceive, understand, judge and manipulate the world. They are sources of information because they provide a program, a structure for organizing all kinds of processes (process organic to cultural patterns that we follow: aesthetic, philosophical, scientific …)
We provide a standard, a model for the organization of all social processes and psychological functioning. Using the symbols and systems made possible the objectification, retention and accumulation of human experience. This accumulation of human experience is selective and accruals under this social gathering d way knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation. A characteristic of symbolic phenomena is their public nature and that symbols are tangible formulations designed for knowledge. And they are abstracting from experience which is fixed in tangible ways that people can receive.
They are concrete embodiments of ideas, attitudes, values, judgments and beliefs. Ultimately symbolic forms are social events like any other. And they are as public as others. Ahem: marriage. The essential feature of the symbol is that it provides a means of representation of abstract ideas (solidarity, authority, love, hate …)
Ideas that have great importance for the individual it is difficult to directly represent this.
The symbolism is highly expressive (it’s a way to say something … And that something must be understood by saying it and the listener or receive) Whenever something is said is symbolic because it is considered worthwhile to say. What is symbolized is always something of value. Hence, attitudes towards the symbols are rarely neutral, is always more or less emotional charge. This is because there is a tendency for the value that comes with it symbolized to be transferred to the command so that is the symbol and not the implicit notion that symbolizes what becomes a special object of veneration or rejection. We must not forget the instrumental aspect of symbols, as well as expressing ideas, thoughts, beliefs of social groups also have social, for the symbol (individuals are imprisoned, condemned wing fire, to the gallows and skimming is wars ..).
6.
The semiotics. Material Culture:
No symbols but is expressed through language and writing, also the material objects and aspects of behavior are used to generate and transmit cultural meanings. (The dress, ways of eating, asearnos, shouting, the silences, the shape of the buildings, the place …) There are a lot of material and behavioral aspects that can be converted into so many entities carry the message. In semiotics we define the elements and behaviors that serve as symbols for the citizens. The same cultural elements themselves have no meaning or sense, is just the value or cultural meaning we give it. The code that lets us know or know who is a person who plays the role, status and so on.
As with the symbols, material objects and aspects of behavior have meaning only within a particular culture.
Example: white is joy in our culture, whereas in Eastern culture indicates sadness, funeral, death. At the bottom of everything (color, size, etc..) Itself is unimportant, what matters is that people who dress a certain way can publicly express their joy. Semiotics is the analysis of nonverbal cultural meanings. It is a fascinating field for sociology and anthropology, because it allows to easily compare one culture with another.
Since cultural meanings are expressed through symbols, cultural systems allow us to compare test and see how they are structured different cultures, distant in space and in time. The importance of this is that we are teaching, indicating the profound transformation experienced by values and interests of other societies. Material culture is not just symbolic, catch variations and human cultures. Material culture consists of those objects and material things as men created and used, ranging from (most primitive instruments up to the most advanced machines of modern man) to see material objects as cultural objects is necessary to know its uses. The attitudes we have towards them and the values that we assign as the body of knowledge and skills are next to the cultural elements, universal elements.