ABSTRACT
The construction of symbols or personifications which embody a city or, indeed, a modern nation’s collective identity forges an important part of the formulation of an ideology whose function it is to unite its group members. The importance attached to civic or national symbols lies in the fact that they are seen as representing or even embodying the people they represent. The campaign undertaken in recent years to make flag-burning illegal in the United States under a constitutional amendment was given impetus because the defiling of the flag was seen by some as defiling the country it embodied. One can quickly gain an idea of the importance which these symbols play in forging a national identity and in mobilizing people around this identity through the matutinal exercise undertaken by school children in the United States to salute the flag, or more perniciously through the ubiquitous swastika in Fascist Germany.
