Symbolism plays a fundamental role in human communication and the construction of culture and identity. Symbols represent ideas, values, and beliefs and allow humans to classify knowledge, express emotions, and regulate society. Culture is based on systems of meaning that are conveyed through symbolic forms like language, religion, art, and literature. The interpretation of symbols depends on cultural conventions and shared understanding within communities. Symbols are thus a primary way that humans create and share meaning.

1. Course name - Beliefs and rituals

2. A symbol conveys information only insofar as it has meaning to
a specific community, the connection between a symbol and its
referent is not intrinsic to the symbol itself but rather is a
function of agreed upon use, custom, or convention.
Culture of human society is based on symbols. “Culture is a
system of meaning and relations are trafficking in symbols.”
(David Schnider& Clifford Geertz ) Flags, traffic lights,
diplomas, and mathematical notation are all, in their various
ways, symbols. So foundational is symbolism to humans that
without it communication would be impossible. The most
symbolic aspect of culture is language, but symbolism also
plays a role in religion, politics, art, and literature as well as in
kinship, commerce, and science. Symbolism is basic to the
construction and conveyance of gender, ethnic, and national
identities. It is the primary way by which humans create
meaning, classify knowledge, express emotion, and regulate
society.

3. Symbol:
The English word symbol derives etymologically from the Greek súmbolon, meaning
“tally,” “contract,” or “ticket,” which referred originally to a token that was broken in
two so that each half could be used to confirm the identity of the other. The word stems
from the Greek roots syn - (“together”) and ballein (“to throw”) and thus has the
approximate connotation of “to throw together.”
Symbols are cultural representations of reality. Every culture has its own set of symbols
associated with different experiences and perceptions. Thus, as a representation, a
symbol's meaning is neither instinctive nor automatic. The culture's members must
interpret and over time reinterpret the symbol.
Symbols occur in different forms: verbal or nonverbal, written or unwritten. They can be
anything that conveys a meaning, such as words on the page, drawings, pictures, and
gestures. Clothing, homes, cars, and other consumer items are symbols that imply a
certain level of social status.

4. Definition of symbols:
Symbols could be defined as “objects, acts, relationship or linguistic formations that
stand for a multiplicity of meaning” This definition indicates that there are different
symbolic forms and that it is possible for one symbolic form to be given several
interpretations and these interpretations could be given at different levels,
depending on the level of the interpreter’s consciousness and intelligence .Here are
some of the definitions of symbol by renowned anthropologists and researchers -
“ Symbols are agents which are impregnated with messages and with invitation to
conform and to act when decoded in their social and cultural context, they are found
to have both cognitive and emotional meaning”.
- OniguOtite
“A symbol could be a term, a name or even a picture that we are familiar with in
daily life. yet that possesses specific connotation in addition to its conventional and
obvious meaning”.
- Carl Jung
“Symbol as a sign that is produced by an interpreter and that acts as a substitute for
some other signs for which it is synonymous”.
- Morris Charles
" A symbol combines a literal and sensuous quality with an abstract or suggestive
aspect"
- (William Harmon , A Handbook to Literature, 2006)

5. Symbolism:
Symbolism(c 1880–1905) Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and by
romanticism, Symbolism originated in France as an intellectual
alternative to the straight visual work of the Impressionists. There
were two main strands: those, e.g. Redon, influenced by literature
and those, e.g. van Gogh, who explored the symbolic use of color and
line to express emotion.
Symbolism is the representation of one thing foranother using a
person, objector idea.
Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving
them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.
Symbolism is the practice of representing thingsbysymbols, or of
investing things with asymbolicmeaning or character.

6. Quotes regarding symbolism -
German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously defined "true
symbolism" as "that in which the particular represents the general." Broadly,
the term symbolism may refer to symbolic meaning or the practice of
investing things with a symbolic meaning.
In Delusions of Everyday Life(1995),Leonard Shengold said that "The use of
symbolism and language makes our minds flexible enough to grasp, master,
and communicate thoughts and feelings".
InDictionary of Word Origins(1990),John Ayto points out that etymologically-
a symbol is something 'thrown together.'
Alfred North Whitehead stated in Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect.
Barbour-Page Lectures(1927) that “Symbolismisno mere idle fancy or corrupt
degeneration; it is inherent in the very texture of human life.Languageitself is
a symbolism.”

7. Characteristics of symbolism:
• Symbolism has several characteristics-
• It has intellectual significance
• It has emotional significance
• It is well understood as well as well believed
• Symbols hold a comprehensive view. It carries the value of the
whole.
• Symbols translate the abstract to concrete.
• Symbols translate complex to simple.
• Symbols translate unknown to familiar.
• Symbols translate mysterious to understandable.
• It provides model to guide.

8. Significance and role of symbolism in human society:
Clifford Geertz(1926-2006)defined culture as "an historically transmitted pattern of
meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic
forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge
about and their attitudes toward life" (Geertz 1973e:89).For Geertz symbols are
"vehicles of 'culture'" (Ortner 1983:129) ). Schneider differed from Geertz by detaching
culture from everyday life. He defined a cultural system as "a series of symbols" where
a symbol is "something which stands for something else (1980:1). So human culture is
associated with symbols.
The ineluctably human ability to generate and interpret symbols is, for example, what
allows us to differentiate winks from blinks (Sapir 1932, p. 493). Although both are
roughly identical movements involving the rapid closing and opening of the eye, the
former is a meaningful gesture transmitting the conspiratorial message that the winker
is in on a secret, whereas the latter is a meaningless twitch. The difference is
significant but wholly symbolic. Because symbolism is fundamental to human thought
and interaction, it is of concern to the social and cognitive sciences, particularly
anthropology and linguistics, though it is also studied by psychology, philosophy, and
sociology, and to a lesser extent political science and even economics.
Symbolism has a great influence upon human society and culture. The significance and
roles of symbolism in human society are given below-

9. Symbolism as a means of Communication:
Communication is simply the sharing of meaningful ideas, thoughts and feelings (information)
through a channel between persons’ This could be applied in form or inter—personal
communication which is the most important factor that generated the emergence of symbol.
This is so because people do not only communicate their thoughts, feelings or experience to
others but also to themselves, and this is usually done through symbols.Through communication,
symbols could, help to maintain order and coherence and this is achieved largely by the use of
art objects. This in turn,for example, could be as a powerful instrument for indoctrination or as
a tool for impressing religious dogma in the minds of the devotees, thereby making it easy for
the leaders to organize their followers in an orderly manner.
Symbolism as a means of identification:
Symbolism also serves as agents of identification. For example, different individuals who profess
the same faith who had not known each other before wearing an emblem that belongs to
particular cult or sect can easily identify each other belonging to the same faith. In other words,
members are identified welded together by religious symbols.

10. Symbolism as a means of preserving historical knowledge:
Symbols, especially those connected with cultural festivals, which reenact historical events,
are useful instruments for communication to the younger generations about the sect they
belong. This is another means of preserving culture.A good example of the transformation of
historical facts into symbols and of their instituting power on the social plane, in the
existence of an aristocracy.Formerly, it was claimed that the aristocracyarose from physical
force, or the courage of a war chief, or from riches, and so on.Such simplistic positivistic
expressions completely contradict the facts. In reality,when one minutely analyzes the
patrician families and goes back, generation throughgeneration, to the historical conditions
of their origins, one perceives that all patricianfamilies are connected to some primordial
ancestral hero celebrated for his excellence
Symbolism as a means of transmission of knowledge:
All social product fashions,folk tales,customs of all kinds, institutions and traditions are up to
contain much symbolism. The functions of the social symbols are-
• Facilitating the transmission of culture from group to group
• Facilitating the preservation of groups
• Promoting the harmony of the group
• Preventing those social sentiments and ideals which are at the basis of organized group life
from becoming vague and lifeless abstractions.

11. Symbolism as a way of connecting things with ideas:
One of the functions of symbolism is that symbols help to associate andconnect
things with ideas or concepts. Sometimes, representing an idea with a physical
object communicates more meaning than explaining the idea itself.In writing, an
author may not want to directly state a concept. He may just want to represent that
idea with something else.For example, perhaps a writer wants to represent the idea
of “a fresh start” or “a new beginning.” To do so in his writing, he might not want to
actually state these words. Instead, he might use a sunriseto represent these ideas.
Symbolism in literature :
Symbolism in literature evokes interest in readers as they find an opportunity to get
insight of writer’s mind on how he views the world and how he thinks of common
objects and actions,havingbroadeimplications.For example, in Shakespeare’s
play,Hamlet,Yorick’s skull is a symbol for both death and fate. Hamlet speaks to this
skull at great length, contemplating death and the concept of mortality. The skull is
a physical representation of these ideas.

12. Humans create meaning, classify knowledge, express emotion, and regulate society through
symbolism whichis basic to the construction and conveyance of gender, ethnic, and national identities.
It delineate what the domain is all about,they specify the basic units of domain,define and
differentiate between basic unity and organized them into a single,coherent ,interdependent
whole.(Schnider)
REFERENCES:
• The American heritage ,Dictionary of the English Language,5th edition,2013,Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company
• Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information
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• Definition and example of symbolism ,Richard Nordquist ,april 26,2017
• www.encyclopedia.com
• The role of symbols in human behavior, Anatol Rapaport
• OFUAFO, P. U. (n.d.). ART SYMBOLS AS MEANS OF COMMUNICATING RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS IN URHOBO
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY. The journal of International Social Research,6(27),393-397
• Ellul, J. (n.d.). Symbolic function, technology and society. 214-218.