Metaphor of Involution and Evolution
The concept of reincarnation is rather common among world cultures. There are remants of this believe system in Western though as evidenced in the symbolism of the Tarot cards. The order of events in these cards reflect the ancient Roman parades (triumphus) in which the symbol of the spirit enters the human body (involution) and dwells there until its time to return to the spirit world (evolution).
Anatomy of Social Metaphor
It is assumed in this essay that culture is socially constructed and that many social metaphors eventually emerge into cultural expressions. The metaphor of the Great Chain of Being is evidence of that cultural process. It reflects the social construction of reality at a time when Europe was ruled by a theocratic political system. It took numerous epistemic ruptures to dislodge this cultural metaphor from its wordview.
Grammatical Metaphor of Time as Space
For those languages that have socially consructed time as a linear concept, time is modelled after space. The reason for this analogy is simply that there are more biological transducers for the organization of space as a cognitive concept whereas the cognitive parameters of time are difficult to ascertain within physiology of the human brain. Consequently, space was used as the analogical source for concept of time
The Sedimentation Theory of Cultural time and Space:
The Present is Embedded in the Past
Although linear time may provide insight into how grammatical aspect markers function in language, it does not capture the phenomenon of cultural time. In order to do this, time and space must be envisioned from the perspective of sedimentaiton theory (a modification of Foucault's concept of laminated social space). What this modification entails is that the present is embedded in the past. Time and space co-occur as laminated capsules that are linked and casually connected. There are siimilarities between Minkowski's concept of spacetime and this model of time in cultural space.
The Concept of Paterfamilias, Rome and Societal Transformations
Paterfamialias, Feudal Society, and Medieval Culture
Paterfamilias and the Industrial Revolution
The metaphor of home as a sacred site for the worship of ancestors can be found in the concept of paterfamilias. This essay began with the Hegelian quest to demonstrate how ideas motivate and move cultural change over historical time. Unfortunately, there was too much evidence to the contrary. Technology plays a major role in cultural change over time. Hence, this essay demonstrates how the concept of paterfamilias has undergone cultural change due to innovating technologies within a nation-state
Transmission of Values: The Information Age Crisis in Socialization
Rapid social change is a byproduct of the information age. When the patterns of socialization between parents and their children are significant this results in a "generation gap." This appears to be a recent process but the rationale for this change goes back to Middle Ages as discussed by Michel Foucault in Les mots et choses. He describes how a cognitive shift took place at that time in which the focus was not placed on what was "preent" but on what was "re-presented." Another shift has taken place within contemporary mass-mediated cultures. The masses are being socialized by the visual thinking of the media and these changes are taking place so rapidly that there is a crisis in the socialization process from one generation to the other. PDF
The World Ash Tree (Axis Mundi - Nordic Mythology)
In Nordic mythology there is a pathway from the land of the giants to the land of the gods (the asthir in Valhalla). In the middle of this pathway, there are different worlds that are connected by ribbons of light. This visual description underlies the story of Tannenbaum, the Christmas tree. The cultural significance of this metaphor is introduced and discussed.
Habitus and Communication Theory
There is a tendency among the sciences to promote theoretical knowledge over practical knowledge. Bourdieu was concerned with the role of practical knowledge within society. He developed this concept of Habitus and developed it into an important contribution to social theory. One is not born with Habitus. It is learned through repitition. It consists of actions that are internalized by the human body. He uses the game metaphor to explain this concept. At some point one knows how to play the social game. He has internalized the strategies needed to be successful in playing the game. The result is the acquisition of practical knowledge. What role, it should be asked, does the concept of Habitus play in communication theory? This is the focus of this essay.
METAPHORICAL BLENDS
The study of metaphor has become the focal point for the study of cognitive linguistics. Under this new theoretical framework, linguists are no longer interested in just studying the forms of language. They are focusing on how the mind organizes concepts and how schemas relate to grammatical theory and metaphor, in particular. This new approach is known as cognitive linguistics a special field within the cognitive sciences, and it provides a profound way of addressing issues of linguistic creativity, symbol systems, and cultural systems. This is accomplished by means of mapping icons, diagrams, and concepts to mental states.
VISUAL METAPHORS, VISUAL COMMUNICATION, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF COGNITIVE SPACE
It is a well documented fact that written language began as picture writing; they began as visual metaphors. This is evidenced by a range of visual writing systems such as hieroglyphics and Chinese. What differs among these visual metaphors is their spatial organization. Egyptian hieroglyphics has a spatial marker that directs the reader on how to visually follow the iconic system. Chinese, on the other hand, has articulated visual space into a Cartesian graph of vertical and horizontal spaces and icons are placed in these spaces in accordance with implied directional markers. As writing instruments changed, many writing systems changed. Hieroglyphics was restructured into cuneiform writing (wedge-shaped writing), and eventually the brush gave form to discursive ideograms. The alphabet (CVCV) was based on a triconsonantal system of writing (CCC) common to the language of the Near East and it was this system that provided the rationale for alphabetic writing. The focus of this paper is on the organization of visual space and how this organization differs across cultures. The English writing system, for example, exists of an abstract alphabetic system that has been abstracted from an original picture writing system. Alpha and Beta were the first two pictures of the Alphabet. This paper will address how Modern English is structurally organized as a system. It will also discuss the iconic morphology of the Chinese writing system.
THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF SILENCE
One of the earliest investigations in the study of silence came from Keith Basso (1970; 1990). He noticed that silence was used in a different way in Western Apache, an Athabaskan language spoken in the Southwestern United States. For example, it occurred when strangers met each other. It also was found to exist when couples initiate courtships or when one returns to a community after a long absence. Silence is also found to be a form of respect. One expresses bereavement of a lost one in silence. One must respond to verbal discipline with silence. Silence is, after all, an expression of respect. What is interesting about silence is that it is socially constructed. In some cultures, silence is seen as an accepted behavior while in others it is interpreted as a symbol of distress. In addition to these divergent patterns, there are a range of different uses of silence; some are cultural and others are social. The focus of this essay is on the cultural uses of silence in Japanese and in English. It argues that communication is narrowly defined and needs to be expanded to include the study of silence, body language, gesture, and the study of face.
The Legitimation of Cultural Icons across Cultures: The Role of Mass Media in the Marketing Process
In the world of international trade, products also carry cultural values and many of these products remain as commodities but others emerge as cultural icons. How do certain products take on a special symbolic status and are idealized in a culture? The answer to this question is a rather complex one. It has to do with how cultural artifacts are embedded into the cultural space of the past. For example, the cultural
space of a nation-state changes over time. Before discussing how cultural icons are legitimated in a foreign nation-state, one should first consider some examples of certain cultural icons that are already established in China.
International products by themselves are merely commodities. They are artifacts
produced in another country. However, some artifacts transcend the image of mere
commodities and take on a significant ambience. Whetmore (1987) has referred to
these products as “cultural icons.” What is interesting about these icons is that they
are given special status in the cultural space of other cultures. This process and the
role that mass marketing plays in the social construction of these icons are discussed
in this essay. It is now time to look closer at some of these cultural icons.