The Embodiment of Symbols and the Acculturation of the Anthropologist

Symbolic systems exist on a number of interpenetrating levels, ranging from the most abstract to the most concrete. All contribute to the maintenance of the system. The most abstract level reflects and gives coherence to a world view. Its language and theory are logically consistent throughout a number of conceptual domains. A middle level of abstraction provides metaphors for reasoning in the mundane world. The most concrete level is direct sensory experience which moors the system at strategic points to empirical reality and acts as a structural support to the symbolic edifice. Its “proof ” of the system's validity is most persuasive when it occurs in the context of illness or other situations perceived as dangerous, and when effect appears to follow closely after cause. The symbolic structure makes experience meaningful, but without an input from sensory reality the edifice would crumble

Acculturation · Art · Ethnic group · Sociology · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Psychology

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