3.4.1 Symbols

A symbol is an object, image, gesture, vocalization, or event conventionally associated with a particular meaning. anthropologist Jennifer Hasty was conducting fieldwork in Ghana during an election year, she noticed that the posters and pamphlets of one politician featured a broom. Confused, she asked a friend why a male politician would choose a humble domestic tool associated with women’s work as his political motif. Making a sweeping motion with her hands, she explained, “Because he is promising to sweep away all the corruption.” Turns out, he was the not the first to use this symbol. Over time, the broom has come to acquire political meaning as a symbolic anti-corruption tool in Ghana.

A color photograph of a group of about fifteen straw brooms. The brooms have matching handles of smooth wood. The bottom is constructed of a light-colored plant fiber. The fibers are attached to the brooms using dark twine.
Figure 3.8 Featured in political posters and pamphlets, brooms like these have taken on special meaning in Ghanian politics, where they are understood as a symbol of a politician’s intent to sweep away corruption. (credit: “Handmade Brooms at Granville Island Broom Co.” by Ruth Hartnup/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Colors, shapes, gestures, animals, plants—all of these commonly acquire specific cultural meaning. For a Hindu wedding, a bride typically wears a bright red sari, as red is an auspicious color associated with change, passion, and prosperity. White, on the other hand, is typically worn to Indian funerals.

Symbols are useful cultural aggregates because they provide a kind of shorthand for expressing complex ideas. Consider the American bumper sticker shown in Figure 3.9.

A color photograph of a bumper sticker on the back of a car, spelling out the word “Coexist” using a variety of symbols. For the letter “c,” a crescent moon representing Islam is substituted. For the letter “o,” the peace symbol is substituted. For the letter “e,” a male/female symbol is used. For the letter “x,” the Star of David representing Judaism appears. For the letter “i,” a pagan/Wiccan symbol is used. For the letter “s,” a Chinese yin-yang symbol is substituted. For the letter “t,” a cross representing Christianity is used.
Figure 3.9 This popular American bumper sticker incorporates a variety of religious and social symbols. (credit: “Coexistence” by Rusty Clark/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Combining symbols from Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Christianity, paganism, women, men, and the peace movement, this sticker aims to promote multicultural diversity. Rather than listing the various religions, identities, and ideologies and describing the conflicts among them, the message simply incorporates their symbols into a word urging mutual tolerance.

Although symbols have conventional meanings, they can mean different things in different contexts or to different people. Although the intended meaning of the above bumper sticker is diversity, some people interpret it as an emblem of radical atheism. In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, some Americans started wearing safety pins to show their solidarity with LGBTQIA+ people, people of color, and others who had become targets of post-election harassment. For some, however, the safety pin symbolized pretentiousness and hypocrisy.

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The content of this course has been taken from the free Anthropology textbook by Openstax