ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how symbols motivate us, shape our behavior, and determine how we understand and interpret the world around us. The average person may not appreciate the potency of symbolic forms, but in the hands of political authorities, they can be used as pragmatic instruments to push certain agendas. A symbol is a representation that, through custom, convention, and agreement between people, is used to point to something else. But anthropologists and cultural studies scholars appreciate that symbolic representations are not epiphenomena but possess, in and of themselves, power. People use symbols to do things, and they should be thought of as evocative devices for arousing, channeling, and domesticating powerful emotions such as hate, fear, affection, and grief. Key symbols come in two types, or we might say that symbols move in two opposite directions: summarizing or elaborating. Elaborating symbols, on the other hand, sort out complex, undifferentiated emotions and views; they are basically analytic.
