Symbolic anthropology

When applying this theory to religion one can see how various interpretations of religion can create individual differences in beliefs, and interpretations as well as how these variations come to be. More specifically, the symbolic interactionist theory would argue that religion is a social construct, reality that serves as a safety net for society while solidifying individual and group identities. The idea of religion as a way to form group identities is seen today,…

What is considered as the term ‘the gaze' can be constructed of how a society views individuals or even a group of individuals of the same qualities. An individual's perception can affect the functionality of society and civilisation. By assessing the gaze, we can determine how groups of individuals will be treated. It is common that the different groups of minorities that make up society, for example- homosexuals, will stand out of the ‘norms' that make up our everyday lives which can, in turn,…

Communication is the study of social science, a collaborative construction and negotiation of meaning between the self and others as it occurs within cultural contexts. It is the process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express ideas, thoughts, feelings, and so forth, to someone else. The goal of this discourse community is to inform members of the community about new research ideas and understand how people use messages to generate meanings…

SIT maintains that people use different processes to define their social reality and their own position in relation to others (Ellemers & Haslam, 2012). These processes are social categorisation, social comparison and social identification. Social categorisation is the process of deciding which group you or others belong to and is a psychological process that provides a way of responding to complex social situations. Individuals think of people in terms of certain social categories in order to…

When analyzing information it is important to keep in mind how perspective shapes the reality through which information is analyses. Sociologists have formed different perspectives to attempt to explain behavior in particular social situations. Symbolic interactionism, phenomenology/ethnomethodology, and feminist theory perspectives all take different approaches and angles towards trying to answer questions about behavior and reality in society. No one perspective is seen as correct, but all are…

It is said without a doubt, that pop culture has profound influence on our lives every day. From advertisements before YouTube videos to the ads that sponsor our favorite radio station, we are surrounded by pop culture. Whether the effect is subliminal or prominent, there is no denying it. From a young age, we are subject to our environment. Things don’t just “go in one ear and out the other,” they stick and we learn from them, we are influenced and socialized because of them. As we grow up,…

Symbolic interactionism is studies the relationships that individuals have in a society. It focuses on how people interact and form meanings through their language and symbolisms. This theory was developed in the early 20th century from the work of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. George believed that people respond to certain things based on what it means to them, and these meanings come from social interactions within a society and are modified by interpretation. Social…

Social philosophy claims to have prominent places for protest and mass movement. This paper is an attempt to explore these concepts in the eyes of three Modern Indian philosophers, i.e., Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. People protest for many reasons. Social psychology has lots to offer the study of protest. At the heart of every protest are grievances, such as experience of illegitimate inequality,…

1. The two contemporary perspectives I chose for this assignment are Symbolic Interactionism and Functionalism. 2. I plan to dissect the two perspectives and apply them to the modern world with a focus on sexism. In this paper, I will discuss the silent battle between the two genders in modern day. 3. Symbolic interactionism is easy to understand when we compare it to a theatre play. In class, we discussed how “actors” create social norms and abide by them and the “actors” who don’t abide by…

First off, Mead definition for social conceptions of human actions is that “if individuals are so distinguished from each other that they cannot identify themselves with each other, if there us nit a common basis, then there cannot be a whole self-present on either side”(Society pg. 317). This meaning is that people need to be able to communicate with one anything and if not then we will not be able to be ourselves, find out who we are, be who we were meant to be because of other people around…