Social Science Courses/Topics in SociologyCourse
- AuthorAdrienne Phillips
Adrienne Phillips has taught English, reading and writing at the college and Adult Literacy levels for over 20 years. She has a Doctorate degree in rhetoric and composition, a Master’s in English literature and a Bachelor’s in elementary education (k-6).
View bio - InstructorKarin Gonzalez
Karin has taught middle and high school Health and has a master's degree in social work.
View bio
Learn the difference between cultural symbols and symbolic culture. Learn how the use of symbols is related to culture. Read some examples of cultural symbols.Updated: 11/21/2023
Table of Contents
- What are Cultural Symbols?
- Examples of Cultural Symbols
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What do symbols mean in culture?
Symbols may mean many things in a culture. Often, colors, objects, animals, and other objects can mean different things to different cultures. For example, the bald eagle represents strength, power, and freedom in the United States while the dragon represents strength and wisdom in many Asian cultures.
What are some examples of symbols?
Light represents purity, goodness, and enlightenment. Darkness represents evil and the unknown. The ankh represents life and the Egyptian kings, queens, and pharaohs.
How do cultures use symbols?
Cultures use symbols to create and communicate values and traditions to the cultural group. Symbols are used by a culture to identify other people who are part of the same culture and are a way to connect and relate to one another in a culture.
Table of Contents
- What are Cultural Symbols?
- Examples of Cultural Symbols
- Lesson Summary
In order to clearly understand cultural symbols, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the individual words. A symbol is an object, word, or action that represents a concept. Culture is all of the behaviors, languages, beliefs, traditions, and its shared meaning that guides the standards of a group. Together, a cultural symbol is a symbol that holds meaning and understanding for a group. Many groups use symbols to express a concept of their culture. Symbols are used by a culture to express a value of the culture. Cultural symbols allow a group that shares the same beliefs to identify each other based on the experience of that symbol. A continued belief or experience can be transmitted through the cultural symbol. For example, when a flag from a country is raised, people who are affiliated with that country will stand in honor of that flag as it represents nationalism.
Symbols are very important for cultures because they help a group create the culture itself. Cultural symbols can represent many things and help cultures express specific ideologies and social standards of the culture that are communicated amongst the group.
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What is Symbolic Culture?
Symbolic culture is very different from cultural symbols. Remember that a cultural symbol is an object, word, or action that represents a concept. Symbolic culture can be defined as an experience that signifies a culture. It is more about what cannot be touched in a culture and the things that the people of a group or culture attach a meaning to in order to communicate with one another. People of different cultures have a shared behavior or a shared experience that is understood to connect the culture. Actions such as a dance during the rainy season, a special handshake, or a face tattoo that alerts the people involved that they belong to the same group are elements of symbolic culture. There are so many elements of symbolic culture that it is impossible to list them all. Symbolic culture elements include, but are not limited to, language, gestures, values, customs, heritage, music, colors, and many more. One example of symbolic culture are concepts, such as good and evil or heaven and hell.
Symbols in Different Cultures
Symbols are sometimes used by many different cultures and may represent different things to each of those cultures. It may be confusing to understand the difference in meaning. It is very important to be aware of the different meanings for the different cultures because a symbol may offend one culture but not the other. For example, the swastika is historically known as a symbol of hate that the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler of the 1930s through the 1940s used to signify hate and genocidal behavior towards Jewish people and other races in a desire to create a pure Aryan race.
Contradistinction, the swastika originated from various Asian cultures. The swastika originated from a Sanskrit word that means "beneficial for health." In Hinduism, the clockwise symbol represents the sun, prosperity, and good luck, but the counter-clockwise symbol symbolizes night. In Buddhism, it represents the footprints of the Buddha, and in Jain, it represents Suparshvanatha: the 7th spiritual teacher. In the Indo-European culture, the swastika represent a lighting bolt which signifies the thunder god.
There are many symbols that different cultures use, yet have different meanings. For example, in most Western cultures, the color white is worn to signify the purity of marriage. Whereas in some Eastern cultures, white is used to adorn the dead to represent a passage into a new life. The thumbs up symbol is a sign of approval and agreement in the European and American cultures, but in Asian culture, it is considered an insult. In Australia, it is a sign of agreement unless it is moved up and down which transforms it into an insult.
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Below are examples of different cultural symbols from around the world. Cultural symbols can be objects, animals, and many other things that represent nationality, religion, and values of the culture.
- The ankh, a symbol that resembles the cross with a circle at the top, originated in Egypt. It represents life and the Egyptian kings, queens, and pharaohs which gives them eternal life because they were believed to be demigods.
- The Yin and Yang symbol originated from Chinese philosophy and symbolizes that opposites exist and possibly originate inside of each other as shown by the small spot of black or white inside of the opposing color. It signifies that in everything there is a little bit of the opposite inside of the other.
- The star and crescent is a symbol of the Islamic religion but originated from the Ottoman Empire. This symbol was used on the Navel flag of the Ottoman Empire and was adopted by the Islamic religion because of the political influence of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the Islamic and Muslim culture accepts the star and crescent as the symbol of their religion.
- The Bald Eagle is a national symbol for the United States. This animal represents strength, power, and freedom.
- The dragon in Asian culture symbolizes strength and wisdom.
- Light symbolizes purity, goodness, and enlightenment.
- Darkness symbolizes evil and the unknown.
- A white flag, historically raised during war times, is a symbol of surrender.
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Cultural symbols are used by many cultures to express many different meanings. Understanding culture and symbols brings more clarity to understanding a cultural symbol or a symbolic culture. Culture is the collection of the beliefs, traditions, languages, and values of a group of people. The same cultural symbol may represent different concepts for different cultures. For example, the cross represents the sacrifice of Christ and love in Christianity. Cultural symbols can express nationalism, religion, and many ideas of culture. A few examples of cultural symbols are the panda, dragon, and Yin and Yang which are all Chinese cultural symbols. Animals and any object can be considered a cultural symbol.
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Video Transcript
Definition of a Cultural Symbol
A cultural symbol is a physical manifestation that signifies the ideology of a particular culture or that merely has meaning within a culture. What is culture, you may ask? Culture is an accumulation of the beliefs, traditions, language and values of a particular group of people.
The Christian culture has the cultural symbol of the cross, where the Jewish culture has the cultural symbol of the Star of David. Cultural symbols don't have to be actual symbols or signs; they can also be gestures such as hand shakes and hand signals. Additionally, the same symbol can mean different things in different cultures. Americans should be careful in Greece, for example. The thumbs up, which symbolizes that everything is great in American culture, is just like giving the middle finger in Greek culture.
Examples of Cultural Symbols
We have already reviewed some cultural symbols in the previous section, but we will illustrate some more symbols in this section for further clarification. Cultural symbols can represent any aspect of the culture, including nationalism, belief systems, traditions, language and values. We will specifically cover cultural symbols conveying nationalism and belief systems in this section.
Symbols Conveying Nationalism to a Country
First, let's look at symbols conveying nationalism to a country.
The Bald Eagle
If you're an American, you probably recognize the bald eagle as a symbol of America.
Sometimes an animal, in this case a bird, can represent nationalism. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States and symbolizes freedom, strength and power. It was chosen as a national symbol in 1782 and was placed on the Great Seal of the United States.
Swastika
On the opposite end of things, there's the swastika, the symbol of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. The Holocaust was a murderously industrialized genocide, where over ten million people, mostly Jews, lost their lives at the hands of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Adolf Hitler, the mastermind and dictator behind the Nazis, had one ideology that rationalized the killing of all of these innocent people: the creation of a perfect (Aryan) race. One of the most haunting cultural symbols of the Nazi Germans is the swastika, which was worn on an armband on the Nazi uniform.
The Nazi swastika has its roots in some Asian, non-Aryan religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, where it possesses a clockwise orientation, unlike the Nazi swastika, which is rotated 45 degrees. In Hinduism, it has Sanskrit roots that ultimately mean, making of goodness, and is sort of seen as a sign of good fortune and prosperity. This is only one meaning of many found throughout East and South Asia.
Symbols Conveying Religious Beliefs of a Culture
Now, let's look at some examples of symbols conveying religious beliefs of a culture.
The Hamsa
In the Jewish culture, the hamsa is a hand-shaped symbol that means the hand of God is protecting you. Usually, hamsas are beautifully decorated and ornate, whether they come in the form of jewelry, ceramics or paintings. You may see this symbol as a charm on a necklace or bracelet, or framed in a person's home.
The Star and Crescent
The star and crescent represent Islam, but the origin of this symbol has non-Islamic roots. In fact, it was originally on the Navy flag of the Ottoman Empire. Since the Ottoman Empire was the political force behind Islam, the Islamic religion adopted the symbol. Now it is the most widely-recognized symbol of Islam and Muslim culture, although not all Muslims accept this symbol as a representation of Islam.
Yin and Yang Symbol
If you've been in a college dorm room or meditation center, you've probably seen the yin and yang symbol. This symbol has its roots in Chinese philosophy and is meant to explore the idea that as the old adage goes, opposites attract. More accurately, the yin-yang explores the notion that while two things - like light and dark - are diametrically opposed, they may actually complement one another. In other words, they depend on one another and create a harmonious balance.
Similarly, the om symbol can be found in many eastern religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. It represents many different things in the different schools of thought of these different belief systems, but the om symbol most frequently seems to represent a sense of self and place in the universe, especially in Hindu beliefs. It's also what you may frequently hear if you attend guided meditation or yoga practices.
Lesson Summary
A cultural symbol is a physical manifestation that signifies the ideology of a particular culture or that merely has meaning within a culture. Culture is an accumulation of the beliefs, traditions, language and values of a particular group of people. Cultural symbols can be religious or spiritual, or they can represent the ideology or philosophy of a culture's language, values and traditions.
Cultural symbols include signs, emblems, hand gestures, flags, animals and much more. Examples of cultural symbols include the cross in Christianity; the Star of David in Judaism; the star and crescent in Islam; the hamsa in Judaism, which is a hand-shaped symbol that means the hand of God is protecting you; the bald eagle; the thumbs up sign; the swastika of Nazi Germany; the yin-yang symbol, which explores the notion of balance created by opposing forces; and the om symbol, which typically represents a sense of self and place in the universe.
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