1. Symbols
Opening clip from Mars Attacks

2. Types of symbols Visual
In a marvellously unified and dynamic composition expressing the rhythm and harmony of life, Nataraj is shown with four hands represent the four cardinal directions. He is dancing, with his left foot elegantly raised and the right foot on a prostrate figure — 'Apasmara Purusha', the personification of illusion and ignorance over whom Shiva triumphs. The upper left hand holds a flame, the lower left hand points down to the dwarf, who is shown holding a cobra. The upper right hand holds an hourglass drum or dumroo that stands for the male-female vital principle, the lower shows the gesture of assertion: "Be without fear." Snakes that stand for egotism, are seen uncoiling from his arms, legs, and hair, which is braided and bejewelled. His matted locks are whirling as he dances within an arch of flames representing the endless cycle of birth and death. On his head is a skull, which symbolises his conquest over death. Goddess Ganga, the epitome of the holy river Ganges, also sits on his hairdo. His third eye is symbolic of his omniscience, insight, and enlightenment. The whole idol rests on a lotus pedestal, the symbol of the creative forces of the universe.
The Significance of Shiva's Dance This cosmic dance of Shiva is called 'Anandatandava,' meaning the Dance of Bliss, and symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death. The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy — creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion. According to Coomerswamy, the dance of Shiva also represents his five activities: 'Shrishti' (creation, evolution); 'Sthiti' (preservation, support); 'Samhara' (destruction, evolution); 'Tirobhava' (illusion); and 'Anugraha' (release, emancipation, grace). The overall temper of the image is paradoxical, uniting the inner tranquillity, and outside activity of Shiva.

3. Spatial

4. Kinesthetic

5. Also…
Verbal (spells/prayers – words have meaning in excess of their literal meaning)
Aural (music, drumming)
Other – smell/touch….

6. Metaphor Metaphor as building block
Linking two distinct domains of experience together
Component we want to know more about is illuminated by identification with what is known, e.g.
If heaven IS (like) a garden or palace
If god IS (like) a king
Then other imagery to describe heaven or god will be taken from similar domain

7. Power of symbols Symbols = conventional
there must cultural consensus to understand them
Sometimes arbitrary but seem “natural” to those familiar with them
Anthropology of religion is very much about learning the meaning of symbols
Metaphor is critical in religion; draws on universal human capacity to connect otherwise unconnected domains together and either notice, or construct a similarity.
I am a camera
Mary is our mother

8. What do symbols mean. Not just problem with aliens
What do symbols mean? Not just problem with aliens! New Guineans were clueless.
Put in Voyager II picture

9. What do we mean when we use symbols?
Symbols are gateways to understanding
Provide perspectives by offering new way to perceive phenomena
Mystical perspective = symbols become real
E.g. Eucharist in Catholicism
Anthropologists try to learn symbolic meanings. One approach associated with anthropology is to examine the interpretations that people make of symbols in their lives, and how this is continually unfolding process. Another is to understand how symbolic systems are organized.

10. Symbolic actions, or real?
Central ritual of Christianity
Is what’s going on -- miracle/magic/symbolic?
Bread=body/wine/juice=blood
A “cognate” of Jewish bread and wine sharing after services
Transubstantiation vs. primarily symbolic/memorializing
The divide between domains that is bridged by metaphor, and which is summarized in symbol, is tenuous, and can be collapsed as and when we begin to decide that perhaps these aren’t distinct domains at all, but are in fact, the same. This is the basis of mysticism, as well as a core conviction in Roman Catholic belief.

11. Symbols and action
What do symbols mean to people as they make sense of experience?
Symbols concentrate (summarize) lots of connections together into a singularly powerful form (the flag, the cross, the idol)
Geertz on how symbols direct and synthesize thinking to help people make sense of life

12. Motivating symbols
Victor Turner argued that symbols have cognitive and emotional elements (what they make people think and what they make people feel)
Motivate people to action
Are both cognitive and emotive
Allow people to think about the world and also act upon it

13. Belief and coercion?
Do people all think the same way about symbols or act in the same way concerning them?
Symbols as “collective representations”
Durkheim
Compliance and defiance