Symbols that Stand for Themselves

by Roy Wagner

This important new work by Roy Wagner is about the autonomy of symbols and their role in creating culture. Its argument, anticipated in the author's previous book, The Invention of Culture , is at once symbolic, philosophical, and meaning is a form of perception to which human beings are physically and mentally adapted. Using examples from his many years of research among the Daribi people of New Guinea as well as from Western culture, Wagner approaches the question of the creation of meaning by examining the nonreferential qualities of symbols—such as their aesthetic and formal properties—that enable symbols to stand for themselves.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology

157 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1986

About the author

He received a B.A. in Medieval History from Harvard University (1961), and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (1966), where he studied under David M. Schneider. He conducted fieldwork among the Daribi of Karimui, in the Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea, as well as the Usen Barok of New Ireland. Wagner taught at Southern Illinois University and Northwestern University before accepting the chairmanship of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia, where he currently teaches.

Specializations
Indigenous conceptual systems, especially involving kin relations; ritual, myth and worldview in Melanesia, Australia, and North America; pragmatics of cultural representation (imagery, writing, and speech) as a basis for symbolism; shamanism and curing techniques exclusive of psychological, political, or "ethnic" perspectives; studies involving the human element in technology and power concepts.

Reviews

[Hannah Thomas]

the broad message of how we build metaphors and symbols is interesting, but read knowing he’s writing from an anthropologists POV. not really worth it, considering this book absolutely does not reckon how fucked up that field is.

[Alienne Laval · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that eidetic sense is rather seldom, mostly context is involved, and without the knowledge of the semantic meaning much stays thin air.