Symbols and Meaning

A Concise Introduction

By (author) Mari Womack

Paperback - £36.00

Publication date:

31 March 2005

Length of book:

180 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759103221

Womack offers a concise and easy-to-read overview of the power and meaning of symbols in all human societies. She describes how symbols_images, words, or behaviors with multi-layered meanings_are mechanism of communication. She demonstrates how we experience the power of symbols in all aspects of human life: birth, death, love, sexual desire, and the need for food and shelter. Womack investigates the use of symbols in the language of religion, healing, politics, social organization and control, popular culture, psychology, philosophy, semiotics, magic and expressive culture, including art, aesthetics, literature, theater, sports, and music. The author's eclectic, anthropological approach incorporates the social, conceptual and psychological dynamics of symbols. Her new book is an essential introductory textbook for courses that define fundamental concepts in religion, cultural anthropology, communication, and art.
Womack has done an excellent job of lucidly explaining major themes in the analysis of symbols from the anthropological literature. Her approach is admirably balanced, even-handed and well-informed. She uses examples from a wide range of cross-cultural ethnographic writings. This book will find its place as an up to-date textbook for instructional use as well as a handy reference for practitioners in general and a thoughtful discussion for general readers interested in the topic. It is also enhanced by the author's discussion of her own field researches with a spiritualist group in Los Angeles and with professional athletes.