2. Symbol is one of the most polysemantic concepts in cultural studies. The original content of this word is an identity card, which served as a simbolon (Greek) - half of a shard, which was a guest sign.

The term symbol in cultural studies denotes a conventional, material sign for members of a certain society or a specific social group. Symbols can be simple objects and things, natural processes, plants, animals and, of course, language. For example, the sun can act as a symbol of Louis XIV. But most often, the symbol indicates abstract, not directly perceived content, semantic formation, a complex of ideas related to religion, politics, science, etc. For example, a Christian cross, banner, coat of arms, doctor’s cap, etc. (See. Ionin. Sociology of culture: the path to the new millennium. - M.: LOGOS, 2000. P. 147).

In terms of language, not only the content, but also the meaning of symbols is revealed, their meaning and role in the sociocultural process is shown.

Symbols are formed in the process of mutual agreement between people, learning, and are used for communication. Their action is possible in communities united by the unity of culture, since their meaning must be understandable to people.

From the above it follows that a symbol is a sign of a special kind. So what is special about a symbol compared to a sign? After all, one and the same thing, object, word can be both a sign and a symbol. The difference between a symbol and a sign is, first of all, that the meaning of a symbol cannot be derived from its physical form or natural function. For example, what physical difference is there between water and holy water, which is a symbol for believers? In honor of the arrival statesman Artillery salvos are heard, although the shots are not aimed at the target, and there are no shells in the barrels. In the West, black is worn for funerals, although this color has no advantage over other colors in relation to what is about to happen.

A symbol is a sign of a special kind; through it, people discover meanings that connect them into a single whole through awareness and experience of the world and themselves. A symbol not only means meaning, but also carries with it effective force. The icon is not just a symbol of God for believers: it expresses the presence of God in the world and has the same miraculous power as God himself.

Many phenomena are important in people's lives and, obviously, in any society they will become symbols, emphasizing their significance for a person and focusing attention on them. Without the ability to symbolize, expressed in the form of words, people would not have any rules, laws, political, economic, ecclesiastical, scientific, military organizations and even games, except those that exist at the animal level. For an animal, no sign can become a symbol. Not a single animal can understand the meaning of the cross for a Christian and the fact that for some peoples black is the color of mourning, while for others this color is white. An animal is not capable of symbolization, that is, of that which, along with signs, determines the behavior of people, regulates it, prohibiting or allowing something, and fills it with meaning.

The difference between a sign and a symbol lies in their perception by people. A sign can only be perceived through the senses, that is, its meaning can be contained in a physical form. Thus, the height of the mercury column indicates the temperature, and the arrival of rooks indicates the onset of spring. In symbolic relationships, feeling alone is not enough. The shape of the national flag is a piece of matter, but for people's lives this is not the case. People recognize its significance on a rational level as a symbol of state power. However, this does not mean that symbols are realized only rationally.

Symbolism is universal; it exists in any society. Universality is manifested in the fact that any social group, any society depends on certain conventions shared by the majority of its members. These values ​​are the object of people's social feelings. Climb national flag is recorded not only by the mind, but also by feelings, causing, for example, at sports competitions the pride of participants. Without establishing the values ​​of certain objects for society, social feelings cannot have a stable existence.

Thus, the function of symbols is also to reinforce and mark the importance of what they symbolize, as well as to maintain an emotional connection with what is important to a society or social group. Through an emotional connection with the values ​​most important to society, symbolization forces people to obey them.

The difference between a sign and a symbol is found in the fact that for utilitarian use, the polysemy of a sign system is a hindrance and harms its functioning. A symbol, on the contrary, is more meaningful the more polysemantic it is. The very structure of the symbol is aimed at giving a holistic image of the world through each phenomenon. So, the eagle is both a bird and a symbol of the USA, and a symbol of strength, courage, courage, and freedom. The semantic structure of a symbol is multi-layered; it cannot be unambiguously reduced to a logical formula, but can only be explained by relating it to further symbolic situations. The ambiguity of a symbol is expressed both in its content and in its perception. A symbol can carry informational, emotional and semantic load. The perception of a symbol is carried out through rational knowledge, intuitive understanding, aesthetic feeling, and associative comprehension.

The interpretation of a symbol is a dialogical form of knowledge, since the meaning of a symbol exists only within human society. Its meaning may be violated as a result of a false position of the interpreter. This position is possible due to the strong subjectivity of the interpreter when the dialogue turns into a monologue. It seems that such subjectivization manifested itself in Russia when a group of people proposed replacing Alexandrov’s music with Glinka’s music in the anthem. The point here is not in assessing the quality of the music of these authors, but in the fact that for some reason a significant part of the people did not perceive Glinka’s music as an anthem.

Another danger is represented by superficial rationalism, which, behind the imaginary objectivity, also leads to the loss of the dialogic character of the symbol. An example is the story of the return of the double-headed eagle as the coat of arms of Russia. Indeed, Russia is a country of the West and the East, and this moment is reflected in the symbol, but a significant mass of people do not perceive this coat of arms on an emotional level. One more point should be noted. A symbol is more often than a sign is non-systemic. A word is a sign, but it exists as a sign system, subject to certain phonetic, spelling and syntactic rules. The meaning of symbolic language links it with a specific communication, which may be different among different nations and nationalities. The symbolic system operates within the framework of rituals, the specific activities of institutional forms of culture.

The language of symbols is widely used in science, art, and religion. In science, a symbol is a logical generalization, an abstraction characterized by strictly defined meanings. An example of a symbol is any formula, which often expresses both the finished result and the path that can lead to it.

An artistic symbol is an artistic image that expresses the general meaning of an event, time, era through a single fact, a specific action, or a particular person. There is a lot of symbolism in folk art, especially in poetry. In literature, certain symbolism is present in comparisons, metaphors, allegories and even in epithets.

Symbolism in religion is decisive. Sacred scriptures, sacred texts, written in a special symbolic language, the meaning of which is read in different ways. It is no coincidence that in the Middle Ages, due to the symbolic nature of the Bible, the main task of science and, in particular, philosophy was considered to be the interpretation of its text.

As is known, culture, starting with organization, order, ritual, organizes (structures) surrounding a person world.

When we're talking about about symbols, about signs, the question always arises: a sign - of what, a symbol - of what? This question means that it is possible to reveal the meaning of these concepts only if we analyze their relationship to something third, to the original, which may not have (and most often does not have) anything in common in physical, chemical and other properties with the carrier reflections.

Human culture begins where and when the ability of consciousness to symbolize appears. Signs and symbols, wrote Ernst Kassirer, “belong to two different discursive universes: the signal (E. Cassirer uses this term as a synonym for sign) is part of the physical world of being, while the symbol is part of the human world of meaning. The symbol is not only universal, but also extremely changeable. A sign or signal is related to the thing to which it refers."

So, sign is a material object (phenomenon, event) that acts as an objective substitute for some other object, property or relationship and is used for acquiring, storing, processing and transmitting messages (information, knowledge).

Symbol– one of the most polysemantic concepts in culture. The original meaning of this word was an identity card, which served as a simbolon - half a shard, which was a guest sign. Symbol in culture– a universal, multi-valued category, revealed through a comparison of the objective image and the deep meaning. Turning into a symbol, the image becomes “transparent”; the meaning seems to shine through it. “I call every structure of meaning a symbol,” wrote Paul Ricoeur, - where the direct, primary, literal meaning simultaneously means another, indirect, secondary, allegorical meaning, which can only be understood through the first. This circle of expressions with a double meaning constitutes the hermeneutic field proper.”

A person’s daily life is filled with symbols and signs that regulate his behavior, allowing or prohibiting something, personifying and filling with meaning.

In symbols and signs, both the external “I” of a person and the internal “I”, the unconscious, given to him by nature, are manifested. K. Levi-Strauss claimed to have found a way from symbols and signs to the unconscious structure of the mind and, therefore, to the structure of the Universe. The unity of man and the Universe is one of the most ancient and mysterious themes in culture.

Approaching the riddle, however, only increases its mystery. But this feeling of mystery is “the most beautiful and profound experience that befalls a person.” This experience, according to A. Einstein, - lies at the basis of religion and all the most profound trends in art and science. Anyone who has not experienced this sensation seems to him “if not dead, then at least blind.” Color, sound, word, number are mysterious, what they reflect is mysterious - the phenomena of nature and human consciousness.

Introduction

1.1 Concept of symbol

1.2 Philosophical understanding of the concept of symbol

2. The role of the symbol in culture

2.1 Symbolism

2.4 Traditional symbolism of Chinese costume

2.5 Basics of color symbolism in coats of arms and banners

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

It is well known that before starting a dialogue, interlocutors must agree on the unambiguity of the terminology used. The problem of dictionary faces literally all areas of human activity. Without a single dictionary it is impossible to develop any of the disciplines. It is not for nothing that the construction of the Tower of Babel was interrupted by the loss of mutual understanding - the loss general dictionary builders of a unifying semantic superstructure.

Each term has its own history, going back centuries all the way back to the God-given proto-language of Adam. For a medieval person, the relationship between symbol and image (English “image” - image) was ontologically inseparable.

“For him the universe consists not of elements, energies and laws, but of images. The images represent themselves, but besides this they also represent something else, something higher; ultimately, the only truly sublime thing is God and eternal things. Thus, every image becomes a symbol,” wrote the Catholic priest and philosopher R. Guardini.

Here the meanings of “symbol” and “image” meet and intersect. That. the entire medieval world was filled with symbols that reflected the highest transcendental reality. The symbol, like a thread, connected the world below and above into a harmonious, harmonious worldview.

“The poet’s duty is to try to unite

the edges of the gap between soul and body.

And only death is the limit for all sewing,”

- this is the worldview of the poet, our contemporary Joseph Brodsky.

The holy fathers had the same attitude towards the world:

“The spiritual world in its integrity is revealed in the integrity of the sensory world, where it is mystically expressed in symbolic images for those who have eyes to see” (Maximus the Confessor, Mystery).

“A symbol is an essence whose energy, fused or, more precisely, dissolved with the energy of some other, more valuable in this respect, essence, thus carries within itself this latter,” we read from Fr. Pavel Florensky.

This was also the universal human attitude towards the world in times of widespread religiosity. The local image was combined with the supermundane prototype, was its symbol-parable, accessible to any open heart “through consideration of creation” (Rom. 1: 20).

1. Symbol

1.1 Concept of symbol

SYMBOL (from Greek - sign, omen) - 1) in artificial formalized languages ​​- a concept identical to a sign; 2) in aesthetics and philosophy of art - a universal category that reflects the specificity of the figurative development of life through art - a meaningful element of a work of art, considered in its symbolic expression; 3) in sociocultural sciences - a material or ideational cultural object that acts in the communicative or translation process as a sign, the meaning of which is a conventional analogue of the meaning of another object.

The complex nature of the concept of symbol in culture is revealed in its relation to the sign. Fundamental difference symbol from a sign is that the meaning of a symbol does not imply a direct indication of the signified object (denotation). A sign becomes a symbol when its use presupposes a generally meaningful reaction not to the symbolized object itself, but to an abstract meaning or, more often, a whole range of meanings, conventionally associated to one degree or another with this object.

But at the same time, the objective, sign form of a symbol can have and even strive to maintain external similarity with the symbolized object (up to maximum approximation), or be deliberately stylized to resemble it, or have as a denotation a specific feature, property, sign of this object. Thus, in relation to a symbol, we can talk about a certain desire and approach to the identity of the signified and the signifier, but this is an objective (sign) identity, behind which there is semantic abstraction. This very approximation (especially noticeable in art) can speak of semantic abstraction, testify to the desire to preserve, maintain an indication of the object at least on a formal level, or, conversely, to consciously separate formal similarity and meaningful abstraction, the depth that follows this similarity see.

The reason for these complex, seemingly paradoxical relationships is the nature of semantic activity in the culture itself. The diversity of meanings generated by a culture is never adequate to the finite number of existing generally accepted sign forms. The volume of additional abstract meanings accumulating in a sign, due to their greater relevance for specific communication, displaces its original (paradigmatic) meaning and becomes socially shared; a sign turns into a symbol (at the same time, it can continue to function as a sign (systemic or individual) in communicative situations of a different type. At stages of cultural development that presuppose the presence of abstract, abstract meanings, the symbolization of a cultural object is carried out much faster, often it is already created as a symbol .

The very nature of symbolization presupposes, on the one hand, the polysemy of the symbol (a symbol can have an informational, emotional, expressional semantic load) and the complex nature of its perception (rational cognition, intuitive understanding, associative conjugation, aesthetic feeling, traditional correlation) - this is the difference between a symbol and allegories or metaphors; with another, - dynamic character the existence of a symbol: its existence depends entirely on the communicative relevance of a particular meaning.

An important (but not necessary) property of a symbol is its representativeness, aesthetic appeal, which emphasizes the importance and universal significance of the symbol, but at the same time is often combined with formal simplicity, relevant for the use of the symbol in a communicative situation. Often, the consequence of the communicative relevance of a symbol is the formation of its everyday analogue, expressed by the linguistic means most commonly used in everyday communication (verbal, gestural).

A symbol can function as a general cultural one, within a subculture (ethnic, linguistic, professional), or be specific to a particular level or form of culture. A symbol is much more likely than a sign to be non-systemic; this follows from the very nature of its meaning - the existence of a system of symbols (symbolic language), as a rule, is associated with certain types of communicative situations (ritual, specific activities of institutional forms of culture, etc.).

1.2 Philosophical understanding of the concept of symbol

Philosophical understanding of the concept of symbol dates back to antiquity; It is often customary to associate the very appearance of abstract meanings and abstract thinking with ancient culture.

Plato gave a holistic interpretation of the symbol as an intuitively comprehended indication of the highest ideal form of an object. This idealistic, intuitionistic interpretation of the symbol (separated from rational forms of knowledge), developed by the Neoplatonists, became the basis of Christian symbolism, in which everything that exists was thought of as a symbol of the highest unknowable essence - God. The mystical, intuitive, supernatural understanding of the symbol, transferred to the sphere of aesthetics, is characteristic of romanticism and literary symbolism (symbol as an indication of the inexpressible, mystical, otherworldly content).

However, already in Goethe one can find the seed of a different understanding of the symbol - as a universal form of human creativity. This approach was developed in the philosophy of Hegel, in which the symbol is primarily a means of human communication, symbol.

The rationalistic approach to symbols was developed in the positivist scientific tradition (D.S. Mill, Spencer) based on the material of evolutionary human civilization. In the “philosophy of life” (Dilthey, Nietzsche, and partly Simmel), symbolization acts as the main means of culture and, at the same time, as an instrument of its criticism, a means of normalization, distortion of the manifestations of life, and limitation of human will. Cassirer makes the symbol a universal category: all forms of culture are considered by him as a hierarchy of “symbolic forms”, adequate spiritual world human (which is defined as a "symbolic animal").

For Spengler, symbolization is the main criterion for identifying local cultures (the theory of “primary symbols”). Psychoanalysis viewed the symbol as a product of the individual (Freud) or collective (Jung) unconscious, as an “archetypal image” that arises as a result of the mediation by human consciousness of the deep imperatives of the ancestral past. Losev, who relied on the analysis of ancient and early medieval aesthetics, developed questions of external similarity between the signifier and the signified in a symbol in connection with the problem of realism in art. The specific features of human symbolic activity are also studied by Langer, Todorovs, Ricoeur, and Gadamer.

The socio-communicative approach to symbols has received scientific development in symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, cultural anthropology, and the works of representatives of the structural-functionalist movement. However, in its communicative function, the symbol in the works of representatives of these movements was often confused or identified with a sign.

Structuralism raised the question of culture as a set of symbolic systems and cultural texts, and made it possible to identify the basic mechanisms and structural foundations of symbolic activity in relation to local groups of cultural texts. Poststructuralism implemented this approach to the symbol not in structural, but in contextual analysis. Today, the problems of symbol are being developed in aesthetics and theory of art - as problems of expressive means of an artistic image; in sociocultural anthropology - in relation to local aspects of communication and mass culture.

2. The role of the symbol in culture

Within each existing culture, there is a certain relationship between symbolism and linguistics, or more precisely, systems of their cultural consumption. At the same time, it does not matter what specific linguistic matter we are talking about, just within each cultural-ethnic complex, both when viewed simultaneously and in a historical perspective, one or another scale of the use of symbols is necessarily revealed. Perhaps we can talk about culture in general only when there is a use of both symbol and sign.

The classical cultures of antiquity, as we see them in their diversity in the middle of the first millennium BC (when they already receive a regular historical retrospective), show us a picture of - on the one hand, an unprecedented "surge" in the use of specifically linguistic means, and on the other - a sharp identifying cultural phenomena that, given the predominance of these means, are based directly on symbolism.

A symbol, in the order of development (or vice versa, reduction) of its use, is always given to us in observation as something that connects a person’s cultural life with consciousness. In the purely psychological plane of this observation (the opposite of “states of consciousness”), the symbol is obligatory. When we are talking about any specific form of human activity, about mental activity, about a cultural movement, then whenever we observe the contact of the psyche and consciousness from the side of the psyche, that is, from that end of the thing called the symbol, which “looks” at the psyche, then human life in consciousness without these symbols is impossible.

2.1 Symbolism

In the late 60s - early 70s. 19th century Initially in literature, then in other types of art - visual, musical, theatrical, and soon including other cultural phenomena - philosophy, religion, mythology - an artistic movement arose, called symbolism. Having developed in Western European culture, it thereby laid claim to cultural universality and inclusiveness. Symbolism fulfilled the romantic dream of a synthesis of arts, embodied the idea of ​​an aesthetic breakthrough to the high, enduring content of reality and overcoming the limitations and routine of current everyday life. The center, component of the symbolic worldview is the symbol - a generalized and conventional sign that combines the properties of an abstract concept (characteristic of science or philosophy) or allegory as a form of allegory and a fundamentally polysemantic artistic image, surrounded by many branched and subjective associations.

Symbolic thinking, resorting to symbols and symbolism is one of the most ancient properties of human culture in general; in this regard, symbolism is inherent in all ancient mythologies and religions, archaic forms of art, and the initial manifestations of philosophy. Features of symbolism can be seen in the culture of Dr. Egypt and antiquity, in the era Western Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Big influence on the formation of the theory and practice of symbolism at the end of the 19th century. influenced by the philosophical and aesthetic ideas of Goethe, the philosophy of art of the late Schelling and Schopenhauer, E. Hartmann, Nietzsche, E. Swedenborg.

The place of symbolism in the history of world culture of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. - simultaneously turning point and fateful. Symbolism put an end to the seemingly unchallenged dominance of realism in the 19th century; revived on a new basis the ideas, images and stylistic searches of previous cultural eras, inscribing them into the world cultural and historical process. Symbolism both connected cultural eras that were far apart from each other (for example, antiquity and modernity), and separated, contrasted, adjacent, historically close cultural phenomena, revealing fundamental semantic differences in them. Turning to the extremely universal and at the same time abstract substrate of art - symbolic motifs and models representing the intellectual and philosophical discourse of the world, symbolists were able to interpret any era, any cultural phenomenon, any artist and thinker as “eternal companions”, in the spirit “emblems of the world”, “keys of secrets”, “verbal magic”, in the conventional genres of ancient tragedy and archaic myth-making. Symbolism consciously (and demonstratively) abstracted itself from concrete historicism (and therefore modernity), appealing to eternity, timeless criteria of art, thought and life; recoding plots and images, ideas and concepts of world culture into mythologems and philosophemes of a universal order, organically fitting into the figurative and associative context of various arts.

Pathos, ideology, and poetics are similar in all phenomena of symbolism in world culture. Aestheticism and philosophy, generality and abstractness of images, their polysemy and vagueness, the denial of vulgar everyday life and the global scale of understanding reality, a tendency towards mysticism and the interpretation of religion as art - all this is common to symbolism in poetry and prose, in music and painting, in theater and aesthetic theories of different national cultures.

Russian symbolism recognizes itself not so much as art or philosophy, or aesthetic theory, or religious teaching in itself, but as a kind of “key of life” - a universal sociocultural phenomenon, more real than life itself. In this respect, Russian symbolism is fundamentally different from any Western European symbolism, which recognizes itself first of all as art, and then as “art for art’s sake.” For Russian symbolists, their work is the art of transforming reality, “art for life,” “life creativity.”

The place of Russian symbolism in the history of domestic and world culture is largely due to a trend that has consistently declared itself in silver Age: to develop a “holistic style of culture” “in the name of freedom of creativity and in the name of spirit” (Berdyaev), linking together philosophy, religion, art and a very broadly understood “public” (scientific and artistic, philosophical and religious) - as a primarily cultural activity , not social. Thanks to its “holistic style”, which accumulated various cultural phenomena, etc. Having realized the cherished dream of the romantics - the idea of ​​a synthesis of arts, Russian symbolism not only organically entered the context of world culture, responding to many of its phenomena, but also stood out among other national types of symbolism - as a cultural phenomenon, the most universal and synthetic.

A universal analogue of all creative processes - in art, religious knowledge, in everyday behavior, in the political revolution - for Russian symbolism there was the phenomenon of theurgy ( creative realization a man of deities, principles, or active likening himself to God the Creator). Therefore, Russian symbolism is characterized not by epistemological aspiration, not by ontologies for the construction of the universe, not by axiological judgments about the world in its various manifestations and aspects, but mainly by the creative orientation and realization of the individual (in any sphere accessible to it - be it the field of religion, philosophy, art or social reality itself). The goal of Russian symbolism (achieved in any form - poetic, journalistic, philosophical-religious, behavioral, political) is not knowledge, but the transformation of the world, not life contemplation or life writing, but “life building”, not the adaptation of the individual to the existing, imperfect and ordinary, but “transubstantiation” and creation of reality - in accordance with the ultimate ideals of the deities of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Of the three named components of the cultural universe, Russian symbolism gave preference to the aesthetic principle, following in this regard Dostoevsky’s thesis “Beauty will save the world,” later developed by V. Solovyov as the metaphysical basis of his concept of “all-unity.” As a result, the idea of ​​art in Russian symbolism expands to the scale of human activity in general, including almost everything. “Art” of one kind or another becomes in Russian symbolism a synonym for non-canonical religion and revolution, love and “smart fun” of the people, knowledge of the past and the spell of the future.

2.2 Symbols in Christian art

In the early years of Christianity, Christians adopted and reworked pagan symbolism: the seasons began to represent the resurrection of the dead, the ship - prosperity, and then the Church. The peacock, dove, palm tree and garden are reminiscent of paradise.

However, Christianity was not limited to simply borrowing ready-made symbols; new symbols were also invented, especially in the 2nd century. Thus, the worship of the Magi symbolizes the conversion of the pagans to the true faith, the multiplication of the loaves - the Last Supper, the vine - the sacrament of the life of God in the baptized.

This art was undoubtedly didactic in nature. Christian artists sought to preserve, strengthen and develop the faith of converts. The language of symbols made it possible to express what could not be expressed verbally. Surrounded by a hostile pagan world, symbols played a role secret code, gradually revealed to the catechumens (catechumens). In fear of persecution and desecration, during the first three centuries the cross was depicted primarily as an anchor, a trident, or simply a Greek monogram of the name of Christ. The most common and a significant symbol there were fish. In ancient times, fish were a symbol of abundance, and later among the Romans - a symbol of esotericism; in Christianity, it became a condensed formula of the Creed. Greek wordΙΧΘΥΣ (fish), consisting of five letters, is an abbreviation of the phrase “Ίησούς Χριστός Θεού Ύιός Σοτήρ”, which means: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

Therefore, it is not surprising that this symbol was found everywhere, as Clement of Alexandria says ( about 215): “Our seal should be decorated with a dove, or a fish, or a sailboat, or a lyre, or an anchor...” (“Pedagogue” III, 11, 59, 2).

The doctrine that God is one, but manifests himself in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - was substantiated by Augustine the Blessed in his treatise On the Trinity. The absence of this theme in ancient Christian and early medieval religious art is probably explained by the reluctance to naturalistically depict the first person of the Trinity, which, being invisible, was unknowable. The Trinity could thus be depicted in the form of an ideogram - for example, three connected circles. God the Father was originally depicted as a symbolic eye or hand extending from a cloud, perhaps holding a crown. The Holy Spirit was most often symbolized by a dove. The symbol of the Trinity is also a triangle with the “eye of God” facing upward.

The importance of color in iconography

Color in Byzantine icon painting acts not only as decorative element, but plays a leading role in it. Being a kind of language, the icon strives to express the transcendental world. The choice of color often follows from Tradition and is largely determined by its symbolism. In religious terms, the play of chiaroscuro symbolizes uplifting power.

Colors - children of light - animate the form and give it fullness. A major contemporary art critic and artist, Johannes Itten, stated: “I know that the deepest and most essential secret of the effect of color is inaccessible to the eyes, and can only be contemplated with the heart…. Colors are radiant forces that emit energy that has a positive or negative effect on us, whether we are aware of it or not. Ancient stained glass artists used colors to create a mystical and supernatural atmosphere in the church space and direct the thoughts of believers to the spiritual world.”

Christian art provides many examples of the use of color as a symbol: for example, red - love and the Holy Spirit, white - the Father, faith and purity.

Unlike other colors, which only reflect light, gold itself means a pure color. Therefore, it relates to the Divine, to the invisible world; it flows like molten metal through transformed bodies.

The icon painter uses all colors in their symbolic, otherworldly use to separate the beyond sky from our here plane of existence. This is the key to understanding the indescribable beauty of iconographic symbolism.

Colors and their meaning in iconography

White is not an independent color: it is the sum of all the colors of the rainbow. Therefore, nothing is lighter than white. Naturally, whiteness symbolizes light, which tends to fill the entire space. White color, a symbol of eternity, has been associated with the gods since ancient times. The Tibetan word hot-tkar, referring to the unity of the Divine, means "White and One". Celtic priests - Druids - dressed in white clothes. The ancient Egyptians considered white to be the color of joy and splendor. They wrapped their dead in white shrouds, because death separates the light from the dark, the soul from the body.

The first Christians called baptism “enlightenment.” The newly baptized person put on shining white clothes as a sign of his birth to true life. Since then, white has been the color of Revelation, Grace and Epiphany.

Blue color on the material level is passive due to its dimness, but on the spiritual level it becomes unusually active, since it is aimed at the transcendental. It directs the spirit on the path of faith, which it symbolizes. In addition, he is characterized by introversion and restraint, reminiscent of silent humility. Deeper tones highlight it internal action and attraction to the infinite. Bright hues create an impression of detachment and indifference. For the Chinese it was a symbol of immortality, and for the Egyptians it was a symbol of truth.

Blue and white - the colors of the Virgin Mary - express renunciation from the world and the rise of the liberated soul to God.

Red and purple colors, having an earthly character, symbolize youth, beauty, wealth, health, love, but at the same time war.

A symbol of love, sacrifice and altruism, the color red occupies a large place in Christianity. Note that red can also mean selfishness, hatred, devilish pride and, more broadly, hellfire.

Purple, intended for high dignitaries, symbolizes the highest power among the Byzantines.

Red and blue, sharply opposed to each other in a spiritual sense, however, form a great harmony. Thus, the Mother of God is depicted in red (human) clothing under a blue cloak (a symbol of the Divine, for She carried the Son of God within herself). The purple and blue cloak of the central figure on the Rublev icon of the Trinity, in turn, emphasizes the humanity, sacrifice and divinity of Christ. The purple vestment is both royal and priestly. These two colors indicate two natures united in a single hypostasis.

Green is complementary to red, like water to fire. Greenery and life are words deeply connected. Clean green color represents perfect balance and peace. Green, a symbol of spiritual rebirth, is often the color of the prophets and the Evangelist John - the heralds of the Holy Spirit.

Pure yellow means truth, cloudy or pale yellow symbolizes pride, adultery, betrayal and smacks of hellish brimstone.

The gold color is of great interest. Many peoples worshiped the sun. The Egyptians believed that the sun, gods and pharaohs were made of gold. The gilded Buddha statue evokes enlightenment, and the expression “golden age” indicates perfection. Byzantine gilded domes and mosaics symbolize another world where the sun never sets. Gold is not subject to change and therefore symbolizes eternal life and faith among Christians, but above all Christ: the Sun, Light, East. At the same time, gold as a color, a symbol of the sun, is opposed to gold as money, a symbol of perversion. Gold is not a color found in nature, so the gilded background of the icon creates a space in which bodies are not forced to conform to the elements of the landscape or architecture. Freed from everything earthly, they become spiritual.

Black, like white, is the absence or sum of colors. But white symbolically represents the fullness of light, and black symbolically represents its negation. Evoking ideas of nothingness, chaos, anxiety and death, black absorbs rather than returns light. And yet the blackness of the night contains the promise of dawn. The Bible sees black as the original darkness that preceded creation. A symbol of time, the color black is a place of germination, it is a transitional color leading to rebirth.

2.3 Symbol and symbolism in youth subculture

When considering the role of the symbol in culture, the Hippie System can be perceived as one of the communities, as an example of the community on the basis of which the material is being studied symbol, its pragmatics, its concrete life in a specific community. The purpose of the study is to trace connections on specific material symbol (its interpretations, reactions to it) with the structure of the community. And vice versa: relationship structure dependence in the community from the meanings embedded in its symbolism. The study is underway in the zone of contact between two realities: symbolic and social. There the ideal reality of the sign passes into material life, incarnating into action. The main thing that attention is focused on is action, reaction to symbol. The world of the hippie and post-hippie crowd is part of the social structure of society, no matter how much it tries to isolate itself from society.

The hippie System being studied is a very peculiar social education. It cannot be called a group - it is rather a social environment, a social circle, a conglomerate of groups or even their hierarchy. But still there is a pronounced division into “us” and “strangers”, common symbols and their standard interpretations, their traditions in behavior and appearance, even folklore. That is, this is a community with a self-name and self-awareness.

The indicated System is an example of a community where those who have fallen out of the social structure flock. These people do not have a definite position, a strong position - their status is uncertain. The state of uncertainty plays a special role in processes of self-organization. Many people, left to their own devices, interact and form similar communication structures. L. Samoilov, a professional archaeologist, by the will of fate ended up in a forced labor camp. He noticed that unofficial communities with their own hierarchy and symbolism were developing among prisoners. Samoilov was struck by their similarity with primitive societies, sometimes down to the smallest detail: “I saw,” he writes, “and recognized camp life a whole series of exotic phenomena that I had previously studied professionally for many years in literature - phenomena that characterize primitive society!

A similar structure is known in army units as “hazing.” The same is true among the youth of big cities.

There is a way to define (or represent) community: through symbolism. This is exactly what usually happens at the level of ordinary consciousness or journalistic practice: trying to find out who hippies (or punks, etc.) are, first of all, their signs are described. A. Petrov, in the article “Aliens” in the Teacher’s Newspaper, depicts a party of hairy people: “Shaggy, in patched and very worn clothes, sometimes barefoot, with canvas bags and backpacks, embroidered with flowers and covered with anti-war slogans, with guitars and flutes, guys and girls walking around the square, sitting on benches, on the paws of bronze lions supporting lanterns, right on the grass. They talk animatedly, sing alone and in chorus, have a snack, smoke..." The author conveys, as it were, a direct impression, simply pointing to the phenomenon: “here it is.” The indication here is a way of introducing a concept (instead of an analytical definition). If you look closely, it turns out that this “immediate impression” actually purposefully isolates the symbolism of the party community from the observed reality. Almost everything that A. Petrov mentions serves as identification marks of “their own” among the hairy ones. There is symbolism of appearance here: shaggy hair, shabby clothes, homemade bags, etc. Then graphic symbolism: embroidered flowers (a trace of the Flower Revolution, which gave birth to the first hippies); anti-war slogans, such as: “Love, don’t fight,” are a sign of the most important values ​​of this environment - pacifism, non-violence. The behavior described in the above passage: leisurely walks, free music playing, and generally exaggerated ease is also a sign. This is all the form, not the content of communication. That is, the signs of belonging to a community are the first to catch the eye - and they are what are described, wanting to represent this community. And indeed, the presence of special symbols, regarded as “one’s own,” is already an unconditional sign of the existence of a communicative field, some kind of social formation. A.P. Cohen, for example, generally defines community as a field of symbols: “The reality of community in the perception of people,” he writes, “lies in their belonging... to a common field of symbols.” And further: “People’s perception and understanding of their community... comes down to orientation in relation to its symbolism. The presence of its symbols creates the possibility of forming a community, since it provides a means of communication.

A symbol is a shell into which “its own” information is packaged; in this form it is distinguishable from someone else's. And, consequently, a difference arises in the density of communication connections within the sphere where the symbol operates and outside it. This is the thickening of contacts on the basis of which social structures. How fair is this for the System? Was social education formed on the basis of its symbolism? It is rather a kind of communication medium. However, the System can be considered as a community, since there are such characteristics as mutual language(slang symbolism), communication network - personal connections, superficial acquaintances. Eat general norms and values, as well as patterns of behavior and forms of relationships.

Slang and symbolism form the basis of the internal communication environment of the System, separating it from the outside world. At the same time, the symbols of the System are extremely eclectic; in its fund one can find symbols that came from different religious groups (for example, from Hare Krishnas or Baptists), youth and rock movements (attributes of punk rock or heavy metal), as well as various socio-political movements: pacifism, anarchism, communism, etc. The system has the ability to absorb other people's symbols and, through recoding, include them in its stock.

What is especially significant is that this community has developed its own tradition, based mainly on oral transmission mechanisms. Every two or three years a “generation” changes in the System – a new cohort of youth enters the arena. People change, but the traditions of the System remain: the same basic norms of relationships and values ​​are reproduced, such as “freedom”, “love” (in quotes, because these concepts are given a special, Systemic meaning); newcomers master slang and use System symbols, so that in appearance they are not much different from their predecessors. Thus, we have here a tradition capable of self-reproduction. “Live like children” is the essence of the Systemic worldview, and much of its symbolism is associated with images of childhood. “Generations” here change after two, three, sometimes four years. With the arrival of each of them, the Systemic tradition is replenished with new symbolism.

symbol culture iconography coat of arms

2.4 Traditional symbolism of Chinese costume

Many people know the achievements of Buddhists and Taoists in the field of correction of human psychosomatics. But not everyone knows that even in pre-Buddhist China, Confucius developed and described methods for correcting a person’s psychophysical state using clothing, its cut, color, ornaments and decorations with occult symbols... These principles formed the basis of the Chinese national costume.

Since the costume was ritual, it was very respected, because it was created by the great sages of the Celestial Empire and was worn by the Son of Heaven (the emperor) himself. The costume was likened to a temple, since the symbolism of its structural system was very similar. It was believed that he “helps the emperor manage the state, students and monks - to calm thoughts and concentrate to overcome trials on the path to enlightenment, I protect travelers from cold and wind, and I do not interfere with wushu masters to move smoothly and beautifully and deliver precise blows.” . The creators of the costume likened human relationships to the relationship between Heaven and Earth.

From an ancient Eastern legend we know about the existence of Mount Sunshan or Kunlun. She served as a connection between Heaven and Earth. Hence the frequently encountered image of a mountain in patterns of clouds, surrounded by twelve grains of rice (a symbol of the dependence of agriculture on the twelve months of the year and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac). The dragon is considered the lord of rain and the embodiment of "yang" (Sky). “Yang” merges with the element “yin” (Water) - the dragon was depicted soaring in the clouds, playing with a flaming pearl that gives birth to lightning. The dragon, like rain, is a symbol of the union of Heaven and Earth. The interaction of two opposite principles is the cause of the cycle of five elements, each of which had its own color and season. This was the basis for color symbolism in clothing, which became a state ritual during the time of Confucius.

The element of wood corresponded to green (spring), fire - red (summer), metal - white (Autumn), water - black (winter). The holidays that existed in China to welcome each new season of the year took place in an environment where the entire court and all government officials were obliged to wear clothes of the color that corresponded to the season being celebrated. The holiday of the end of summer, when bread ripened, was considered a holiday of the Earth. The symbolic color of this holiday was yellow. The existence of other shades and other colors was explained by the alternation of five elements according to the principle of mutual “conquest”: fire “conquers” (melts) metal - red and white give pink, metal cuts wood - white and green give turquoise, etc.

In addition to color symbolism, there was a system of allegorical images of animals and birds, which, in addition to ideological, also had social significance. Civil ranks were designated by symbols of various birds, and military ranks by symbols of animals in a hierarchical sequence.

2.5 Basics of color symbolism in coats of arms and banners

The basis of any coat of arms, of course, is the shield. Five forms of the Western European shield are known. According to the rules of theoretical heraldry, ladies and girls were required to use diamond-shaped shields. Typically the colors that were easiest to reproduce were used. Light colors alternate with dark ones so that they all stand out well.

From light colors yellow and white are used. They are called metals gold (or) and silver (argent). The remaining colors were depicted using enamel (enamel).

The symbolism of colors is not heraldic, but symbolic, and generally associative definitions:

Red is a symbol of blood, fire and courage. On the one hand, it symbolizes joy, beauty, love, power and greatness, on the other - war, revenge and enmity.

Black - mourning, misfortune, on the one hand, and nobility on the other. It is an emblem of the secret and unknown.

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. Also symbolizes purity and eternity. In the language of heraldry it denotes chastity, honesty, good fame and fidelity.

Green is the color of grass and leaves. Youth, hope and cheerfulness.

White (silver) - nobility, purity, purity.

Yellow (gold) - in ancient times was perceived as frozen sunlight. Wealth, power and fame.

Salvation Army Flag

The uniform and paraphernalia of the Salvation Army are deeply symbolic. They are designed to preach without the presence of a preacher. For ourselves.

Blue is the color of Heaven, purity: A symbol of the holiness of God the Father.

The color red is a symbol of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Yellow color symbolizes the fire of the Holy Spirit.

The three colors used in the flag are found in almost every Salvation Army representation. These are the so-called Army colors. In fact, this is again evidence of three fundamental statements:

Blue – FAITH, God, Heaven. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6)

Red – SALVATION, Christ, Blood, Golgotha. “Without the shedding of Blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22)

Yellow – HOLINESS, Holy Spirit, Fire, purification. At one time (at the founding of the Salvation Army), the doctrine of holiness as we understood it was unique. The Salvation Army was one of the first Christian churches to affirm that holiness is available to every person.

Conclusion

The object of our research is symbols. The role of the symbol as a mediator of human development, the “spiritual vertical” of a person is quite fully represented in psychoanalysis and depth psychology of C. Jung. We settled on the symbol as the most capacious means of recording universal human experience. The “capacity”, or better yet, the “mystery” of a symbol stems from its semantic inexhaustibility. After all, a symbol is an embodied eidos, a directly revealed essence, a “sculpture” of meaning. In addition, symbolic language is the language of a holistic worldview; it structures the internal semantic space - transforms chaos into space.

“We think that a symbol can only be directly understood by those who are consciously associated with it in their lives.”

Bibliography

1. Guardini R. The End of New Time // Questions of Philosophy 1991 No. 4.

2. Culturology: A textbook for higher education students educational institutions/ed. Dracha G.V. – Rostov-on-Don, “Phoenix”, 2000.

3. Mamardashvili M.K., Pyatigorsky A.M. Symbol and consciousness. Metaphysical considerations about consciousness. Symbolism and language - M., School "Languages ​​of Russian Culture", 1997.

4. Michel Queneau ICON – WINDOW TO ETERNITY – Minsk-Bialystok “ORTHDRUCK”, 2001.

5. Rabinovich V.L. Confession of a bookworm who taught the letter and strengthened the spirit - M., Kniga Publishing House, 1991.

6. Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary - Moscow 1993.

7. Florensky Pavel To my children. Memories of past days - M., Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house, 1992.

30. The text examines signs as elements of culture. Using social science knowledge and your own social experience, illustrate with an example each of the three types of signs mentioned in the text.

Compare the answer you receive with the answer indicated in the "explanation" tab. If the answer is correct, then enter the "+" sign in the answer field; if the answer is incorrect, then enter the "-" sign.

In modern humanities, the concept of “culture” is one of the fundamental ones. Among the huge number of scientific categories and terms, it is difficult to find another concept that would have such a variety of semantic shades and would be used in such different contexts. Thus, culture means a separate sphere of social life, which exists in the form of a system of institutions and organizations involved in the dissemination of spiritual values. Culture is also understood as a set of values ​​and norms inherent in a large social group, community, people or nation. There is also an understanding of culture as a set of material objects, ideas, images created by man throughout his history. In this interpretation, culture appears as the sum of all the achievements of mankind, as a “second nature” created by man himself.

In reality, culture exists in the form of many cultures of different eras and regions, and within eras - in the form of cultures of individual countries and peoples, which are usually called local or ethnic cultures. Joint long-term residence of groups of people in the same territory, their collective economic activity, defense against attacks form their common worldview, a common way of life, manner of communication, style of clothing, specifics of cooking, etc. As a result, an independent cultural system is formed - the ethnic culture of a given people.<...>

No culture exists in isolation. Throughout its history, humanity has created a huge number of behavioral signs, without which not a single type of activity is possible. For a person, possession of these signs and sign systems means his inclusion in relationships with other people and in culture. Several types of signs have been created and are used: copy signs that reproduce various phenomena of reality, but are not this reality themselves; signs-signals; signs-symbols.

One of the first regulators of human behavior was morals—moral assessments of the admissibility of certain forms of one’s own behavior and the behavior of other people. Of all cultural norms, mores are the most fluid and dynamic. This type of cultural norms covers such forms of behavior that exist in a given society and can be subjected to moral assessment.

Culture, starting with organization, with order, with ritual, structures the world around a person in certain forms. These forms are symbolic in nature. When it comes to symbols and signs, the question always arises: a sign of what? symbol - what? This question means that the meaning of these concepts can only be revealed by analyzing their relationship to something third, to the original, which may not have (and most often does not have) anything in common in terms of physical, chemical and other properties with the carrier of reflection. But everyone is in some connection, being the result of human knowledge, putting this result in certain forms. The concepts of “sign” and “symbol” are often used in the same semantic context, but this is not always justified. Let us consider the specifics of their origin and functioning.

Sometimes you can come across the statement that signs are what distinguishes man from the animal world. The definition of a sign as a watershed between animal and human behavior is the result of a confusion between the concepts of sign and symbol. However, there is reason to believe that proto-languages ​​arose from sign systems formed in the animal world. The researchers say these systems can be quite differentiated. For example, dominant males in a school of vervet monkeys can produce six different danger calls. Some of these signals mean “just” danger, some mean specific “types” of danger (“man” or “snake”, “danger from above”, “leopard”, “danger from below”).

The line between culture and nature is generally not as obvious as those who absolutize the shortest definition of culture believe: “culture is everything that is not nature.” C. Lévi-Strauss, who conducted field research in the tropical jungle of Central Brazil among tribes, where the layer of culture is still very thin and one can trace the connection between man and nature, when the signifier has not yet completely separated from the signified, concluded that the taboo on incest turned out to be that border , after which nature passed into culture. However, the German ethnologist Bischof proved that the same taboo exists in gray geese and that a similar behavioral model is most likely due to hormonal processes.

Based on this kind of research, we believe that human culture begins where and when the ability of consciousness to symbolize appears. Signs and symbols, wrote E. Cassirer, “belong to two different discursive universes: signal [E. Cassirer uses this term as a synonym for sign. – N.B. ] is part of the physical world of existence, while the symbol represents part of the human world of meaning. Signals are “operators”, symbols are “designators”... A symbol is not only universal, but also extremely changeable... A sign or signal is related to the thing to which it refers in a fixed, unique way.”

So, sign is a material object (phenomenon, event) that acts as an objective substitute for some other object, property or relationship and is used for acquiring, storing, processing and transmitting messages (information, knowledge). This is a materialized carrier of the image of an object, limited by its functional purpose. The presence of a sign makes it possible to transmit information through technical communication channels and its various – mathematical, statistical, logical – processing.

Symbol is one of the most ambiguous concepts. They believe that in a word simbolon called half a shard, given to the guest and served as proof of his identity during subsequent visits to the house. Symbol in culture it is a universal, multi-valued category, revealed through a comparison of the objective image and the deep meaning. Turning into a symbol, the image becomes “transparent”; the meaning seems to shine through it.

The aesthetic information carried by a symbol has a huge number of degrees of freedom, far exceeding the capabilities of human perception. “I call a symbol any structure of meaning,” wrote P. Ricoeur, “where the direct, primary, literal meaning simultaneously means another, indirect, secondary, allegorical meaning, which can only be understood through the first. This circle of expressions with double meaning actually constitutes hermeneutic field."

In table 6.1 an attempt is made to systematize information about the sign and symbol. It also includes information about such an important category of language as metaphor.

Table c. 1

Comparative characteristics of the categories "sign", "symbol", "metaphor"

Criteria			Metaphor
Origin	From the animal world	Arises with the development of the psyche, when the division into reason and feeling is realized, the real world and its reflection in artificial forms are distinguished	It arises spontaneously in the process of artistic exploration of the world as a consequence of the intuitive feeling of the similarity of matter and spirit (water flows, time flows), areas perceived by different senses (solid metal and solid sound)
Place of stay	It occurs in the animal world, in various spheres of social life: science, religion, art, communications, etc.	Culture as a whole is at the stage when its unity is formed through the forms of art, science, and religion. Happens in personal life, in society, state, ethnic, etc. community	Artistic, everyday and scientific speech (except for business discourse, where accuracy and unambiguity are required). Does not belong to any personal or social sphere
Purpose of application	Information, communication	Representation of objects, events or ideas	Co-nationalization of meaning
	And the Negru mentality and targeting, the desire for classification, the direct connection between the sign and the signified	It designates not oneself, but something else, opens access to consciousness, expresses general ideas, is extralinguistic, imperative. Has a generalized form. Easily overcomes “earthly gravity”, trying to designate the eternal and elusive, takes us beyond the limits of reality. Decomposes an image into symbolic elements, turning it into “text”	Verbal structure, seme! accuracy, does not strive for classification. Image-individuation. Bet on value. Used within meanings directly or indirectly related to reality, and thus deepens the understanding of reality. Maintains image integrity
	Archetypal meanings: based on the unchanging properties of nature and man
		Gravity towards graphic image, stabilize the shape

A person’s daily life is filled with symbols and signs that regulate his behavior, allowing or prohibiting something, personifying and filling with meaning. In symbols and signs, both the external “I” of a person (self) and the internal “I” (I), the unconscious, given to him by nature, are manifested. C. Lévi-Strauss claimed that he had found the way from symbols and signs to the unconscious structure of the mind, and therefore to the structure of the Universe.

The unity of man and the universe is one of the most ancient and mysterious themes in culture. In legends, people are stars, the spirality of celestial nebulae is repeated many times in the ornaments of all earthly cultures, red blood owes its color to iron, and all the iron that is on earth, according to astronomers, arose in stellar matter. Or take the spiral structure of many areas of the human body: the auricle, the iris of the eye... It was this sense of unity that allowed the mathematician and poet V. Khlebnikov to create his own model of a metalanguage consisting of seven layers.

Approaching the riddle, however, only increases its mystery. But this feeling of mystery is “the most beautiful and profound experience that befalls man,” as A. Einstein argued, “and lies at the basis of religion and all the most profound tendencies in art and science. Anyone who has not experienced this feeling seems to me if not dead, then at least blind"