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Myths, Icons, Sacred Symbols and Semiotics

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Myths, Icons, Sacred Symbols and Semiotics Myths, Icons, Sacred Symbols and Semiotics Roland Barthes and Structuralism as a Tool for Understanding Global Culture Roland Barthes Mythologies •Mythologies is a book by Roland Barthes, published in 1957. • Barthes examines “the tendency of contemporary social value systems to fabricate/create modern myths about itself and its people and the important prioritized cultural values. • Barthes looks at the process of myth creationand the people or organizations that are involved. • He focuses on a second level semiotics where signs/symbols are elevated to the level of myth through media and cultural repetition and sociological propaganda • Such a sign/symbol analysis is a key foundation of cultural studies and STRUCTURALISM. – Structuralism. Every social system has a structured order of signs/symbols which we use to derive meaning and relationships. Whoever controls “meaning-making” structures or processes also tends has the POWER in our society. Structuralism + Semiotics Popular Culture Studies •Roland Barthe’s Mythologies (French) + Frankfurt School of Theorists (German) Popular Culture Studies (USA) •CONCEPTUAL BELIEFS: Pop culture as SOFT POWER 1. In the 20th & 21st Centuries, SOFT POWER has become equally as important as traditional HARD POWER (Military, Nation, Resources) 2. The geo-politics of SOFT POWER MUST be more critically analyzed in order to understand CULTURAL POWER within globalization. 3. Pop-culture studies are FUN! Popular Culture studies Focus: The systematic study and critique of … 1.CULTURE INDUSTRIES and Patterns of Behavior associated with Music Fashion Celebrity Fads/Trends Popular books/fiction Magazines Movies Sports Video Games Food 2.Media and Communication systems (both the Technologies AND Techniques) 3.The “SACRED SYMBOLS” and trends of POPULAR CULTURE 4.AUDIENCES and Identities (Mass and individuals) 5.ENCULTURATION & Socialization Processes Celebrity as Global Symbol Poltical & Economic Power Global Logos Myanmar: Copy Stars Important Terms & Ideas Cultural/Media Anthropology • Authenticity: refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions. • Aura/Original: a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object (like the halo or aureola in religious art). The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power, spirit, or even holiness. • Meme--A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture or across cultures. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. • Interpretive Communities: Communities of people who share common cultural codes and ways of Interpretation • Cultural Fusion is the mix of two or more cuMigrationCultural Fusion: ltures. Now apart from that there are to different types of fusion. • Cultural Imperialism (exploitation): Utilization of another person or group for selfish purposes: exploitation of unwary consumers. Pastiche • Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) PASTICHE--imitation, artificial, copy, derivative, hodge- podge, amalgam •a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work; also, stylistic imitation • LOSS of the “AURA” – Aura = the spirit, magic, connection of the truly original or authentic. – With constant reproduction/copying what is lost is AUTHENTICITY, the “aura” (spiritual magic) of the original. Pastiche in People? The Precession of Simulacra Borneo, Malaysia Presession of Simulacra 4 stages: 1. STAGE#1 the representation is a faithful image/copy a) we believe it b) sign is a "reflection of a profound reality“ c) a good appearance, in what Baudrillard called "the sacramental order". 2. STAGE#2 is perversion of reality, a) we come to believe the sign to be an unfaithful copy which "masks and denatures" reality 3. STAGE#3 masks the absence of a profound reality, where the sign pretends to be a faithful copy, but it is really a copy of a copy (the original is lost). 4. STAGE#4 is pure simulation, in which the simulacrum has no relationship to any reality whatsoever. a) This is a regime of total equivalency, where cultural products need no longer even pretend to be real in a naïve sense, because the experiences of consumers' lives are so predominantly artificial that even claims to reality are expected to be phrased in artificial, "hyperreal" terms. Bull Leaping Google’s NOTO.
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