Uncle Sam’s story and represents
When I was in China, my father told me about five famous symbols of American culture. They were: American Gothic, Uncle Sam, Buffalo Nickle, The Statue of Liberty and Barbie Dolls. I never tried to explore more about them before. However, as the only human figure among them, Uncle Sam’s speciality remained in my mind. How could a man solely represented the culture of a whole nation? The nation contained hundreds of millions of man. I was curious about his stories and deep meanings and took him as the Cultural Object to study about. Firstly, what was a cultural object? According to Wendy Griswold (1999), “A cultural object may be defined as shared significance embodied in form.” (p.13) He believed “Specifying …show more content…
In 1789 Samuel Willson went west, to Troy, New York, with his brother Ebenezer, and the two became successful businessmen. As David Hackett Fischer tells the tale in Liberty and Freedom: An American History (2004), Sam was much loved and admired, and after he married Betsey Mann, relatives and friends in the area began to call him Uncle Sam (and his wife Aunt Betsey). During the War of 1812 he shipped meat to American troops in barrels marked with the initials “U.S.” Legend has it that when a soldier asked what the U.S. stood for, he was told “Uncle Sam Willson.” The “New York militia,” says Fischer, “began to speak of their rations as Uncle Sam’s. The name caught on and was soon attached to the government itself.” …show more content…
(White, 1969, p.268) “Cultural objects are made by human beings.” (Griswold, 1999, p.16) When Uncle Sam became famous and perfect, he was no longer a man, but a national personification which was placed hopes and proud of numberless nameless American people. Together, these people were the creator and receiver of Uncle Sam, for they gave out and received in a shared system. Americans used to believe they are the heir of Uncle Sam and should inherited his characteristic, but the social world changed violently by industrialization and globalization. Sexton (1896) pointed out: “It used to be said and sung, with quite literal truth, that ‘Our Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm’; and our expectancy, as his heirs, is not less valuable now than it was in the more bucolic days when his lauded estate consisted in larger degree of virgin pastures.” Uncle Sam’s characteristics became useless in the different society with different norms, values, beliefs and expressive symbols. While culture changed, “how people act in concert when they do share understandings” (Becker, 1982, p.515)changed, as a culture object existed in old culture system, the expressive symbol Uncle Sam’s fame
When I was in China, my father told me about five famous symbols of American culture. They were: American Gothic, Uncle Sam, Buffalo Nickle, The Statue of Liberty and Barbie Dolls. I never tried to explore more about them before. However, as the only human figure among them, Uncle Sam’s speciality remained in my mind. How could a man solely represented the culture of a whole nation? The nation contained hundreds of millions of man. I was curious about his stories and deep meanings and took him as the Cultural Object to study about. Firstly, what was a cultural object? According to Wendy Griswold (1999), “A cultural object may be defined as shared significance embodied in form.” (p.13) He believed “Specifying …show more content…
In 1789 Samuel Willson went west, to Troy, New York, with his brother Ebenezer, and the two became successful businessmen. As David Hackett Fischer tells the tale in Liberty and Freedom: An American History (2004), Sam was much loved and admired, and after he married Betsey Mann, relatives and friends in the area began to call him Uncle Sam (and his wife Aunt Betsey). During the War of 1812 he shipped meat to American troops in barrels marked with the initials “U.S.” Legend has it that when a soldier asked what the U.S. stood for, he was told “Uncle Sam Willson.” The “New York militia,” says Fischer, “began to speak of their rations as Uncle Sam’s. The name caught on and was soon attached to the government itself.” …show more content…
(White, 1969, p.268) “Cultural objects are made by human beings.” (Griswold, 1999, p.16) When Uncle Sam became famous and perfect, he was no longer a man, but a national personification which was placed hopes and proud of numberless nameless American people. Together, these people were the creator and receiver of Uncle Sam, for they gave out and received in a shared system. Americans used to believe they are the heir of Uncle Sam and should inherited his characteristic, but the social world changed violently by industrialization and globalization. Sexton (1896) pointed out: “It used to be said and sung, with quite literal truth, that ‘Our Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm’; and our expectancy, as his heirs, is not less valuable now than it was in the more bucolic days when his lauded estate consisted in larger degree of virgin pastures.” Uncle Sam’s characteristics became useless in the different society with different norms, values, beliefs and expressive symbols. While culture changed, “how people act in concert when they do share understandings” (Becker, 1982, p.515)changed, as a culture object existed in old culture system, the expressive symbol Uncle Sam’s fame