ABSTRACT
The function of symbols in the creation of social order has been described in terms of guilt, redemption, victimage, and hierarchy, while the structure of these symbolic acts has been described in terms of Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad of scene, act, agent, agency, and purpose. Hierarchal relations are sustained through persuasion because superiors, inferiors, and equals must court each other. Manners are the daily language of hierarchy. Manners keep inferiors "in their place", uphold the majesty of superiors and sustain familiarity and ease among equals. In social passage, the past and the future are not "time" any more than places are "environments". For the meaning of life in Yankee City is dramatic meaning, which can be understood only by how the people enact their roles in the various kinds of social staging which is put on during the "sacred festivals" of the year.
