journal entry#1

SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: PEOPLE AS SYMBOL MAKERS

PART 1 Soc. 230 Lecture 2

Katherine Watson, PhD.

Outline for today’s Soc. 230 lecture

■ Chapter 3 from text

■ Symbols

■ Categories/classification

■ Culture – Universals – Language – Behaviour – Power

Symbols

Human perception consists of the continuous creation and re-creation of images and symbols.

Suzanne Langer

Black bear

Coquitlam BC 2018

Bear Mother. Bill Reid The story of The Bear Mother is a well-known legend shared by many people on the Northwest Coast, most notably the Haida, Nisga’a, Gitxsan, and Coast Tsimshian. Numerous versions of the story exist, but it generally tells of a woman berry picker who disrespected the bears and was kidnapped and forced to marry the son of a grizzly bear chief. She subsequently gave birth to twin bear cubs who inherited a mix of human and bear features. This story emphasizes the importance of honouring and respecting animals, particularly bears, and deals with the subjects of transformation and travel between the human and non-human worlds.

Depictions of the Bear Mother story on totem poles and other forms of Northwest Coast art have been occurring for hundreds, if not thousands of years. In these representations, the mother is usually shown with either a human or bear face, and is holding or suckling her two cubs. The cubs also appear in human or animal form, but most often one cub is human and the other a bear.

Bear Claw. Roy Henry Vickers The Grizzly Bear is one of the most powerful of all crests on the North Coast, and is most associated with the shaman or healers. The large claws, often used as headdress or necklace, are most likely a symbol of the power or strength of the healer.

At the time of European contact these healers were labelled as evil and their healing powers rejected by the government and religious organizations. It would be many years before the knowledge of these healers would come to be known and respected by the public.

Sensation

■ Bodily senses: taste, smell, sight, hearing and touch.

■ Biological capacities

■ Bombarded with stimuli—overwhelming?

■ Process of Interpretation—what is it? How do we name it? Categorize it? What meaning does it have? What emotions and feelings may it invoke?

Categories

■ Perception converts stimuli into meaningful patterns of symbols

■ Interpret and create reality by grouping sensory experiences into categories based on their similarities.

■ Creates order, meaning and simplifies the world.

■ Link present sensations to past experience and organization.

■ Page 61 text: We learn concepts as we learn language and culture in our society.

Borges Classification of Animals

■ Those that belong to the Emperor

■ Embalmed ones

■ Those that are trained

■ suckling pigs

■ Mermaids

■ Fabulous ones

■ Those that are included in this classification

Borges Classification of Animals (continued) ■ Those that tremble as if mad

■ Those drawn with a fine camel’s hair brush

■ Others

■ Those that have just broken a flower vase

■ Those that resemble flies from a distance

■ Stray dogs

Concepts

■ Symbols: something (object, gesture or word) that represents something else. Abstract, arbitrary and uniquely human.

■ Symbols allow us to transcend our immediate environment; remember, imagine and plan.

■ Symbols (language) are the mechanism of creating and acquiring culture (norms, definitions, expectations, values, etc.)

■ Colours