Blog 10

Clifford Geertz’s ideas about symbols as well as culture and how they are defined in our society is something that I found fascinating in last week’s discussion. Geertz defines culture as “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about attitudes towards life.” Here I think that Geertz is just saying that culture is expressed through the symbols that people ascribe to and identify with. He also said that culture comes to an agreement on a symbol and all agree with the meaning that is given to that particular symbol. Finally Geertz said that our reality is made up of a bunch of different symbols; physical symbols like the American Flag or the bald eagle as well as non-physical symbols such as a hand shake or a smile.

A very basic example that I hold close to me is the symbol of the cross. I have a tattoo of one, so for me it means a lot more than just two lines of ink that are stuck on my body forever. The symbol of the cross, for most people, means church, religion, faith, God or something along those lines and that is why the cross is viewed as sacred (the value of religion), not profane (just two lines of ink).

The two pictures that I have found for this blog are pictures of the cross and the bald eagle. I found these pictures interesting and very representative of our country. I thought that it was neat that someone tied these two images into one to both represent our freedom (from the bald eagle) and the faith that someone holds (from the cross). Both pictures are very powerful and, for me at least, represent two of the most important things that I believe and trust in.