Lecture 2: Signifying Reality

Question 1

Political “Correctness”

Answer 1

• we shouldn’t avoid discussions about race; we can’t get to the bottom of our society’s problems by using “nice language” (i.e. political correctness)
  
  • what is “correct”?
  • this course isn’t about what’s correct; we believe that knowledge might change things, but to change the world we first have to look at it as-is
  • “we describe before we can prescribe”
• anthropologist don’t aim to tell you what terms to use

Question 2

Race in the U.S. Today

Answer 2

• “white entitlement”—subtle and systemic discrimination
  
  • systemic: it’s not just personal; the unspoken, not thought about type of discrimination
  • you may not want to be a racist, but you live in a system that’s racist and pick up on the prejudices that are a part of the culture
• it’s not about “are you a racist?”
  
  • when most people say “I’m not a racist” it’s usually followed by “but…”
• e.g. right now, the Oscars are a prime example of white entitlement
• but, take for example the many police will kill black people where they wouldn’t kill white people; they aren’t racist in the sense that perhaps they would be inherently racist if you sat them down in an interview, but it’s a result of the society they live in

Question 3

Naturalization

Answer 3

• naturalization: when something was invented in society, it becomes regarded as if it is something that occurs naturally
• race is given by society, although it’s presented as “natural”
  
  • however, race is related to nature, but it’s not given by nature
• social construction works with natural materials, but is not itself part of nature
• it’s part of society and history
  
  • in North America, it’s very related to slavery
• other examples: national identities, gender roles

Question 4

Social Responsibility

Answer 4

• wrongs caused by social construction my entail historical rights
• if we recognize that race is a category that people are put in, how do we write the wrongs caused in history?
  
  • why should we care about these issues that happened so long ago, and that have nothing to do with us today?
• should African-Americans have the right to financial compensation for slavery?
• should First Nations people have group rights to lands?
• should French-speaking people in Ontario have language rights?
• should Catholics in Toronto have the right to pay for Catholic rather than secular schools?
  
  • context: Catholic people in Toronto don’t have to pay taxes for public school

Question 5

The Role of Anthropology

Answer 5

• unravel the social and historical constructed-ness of invented (bur real) categories like race, national identity, or gender
• anthropologists like to make the familiar strange
  
  • first, out of scientific interest
  • second, because there are social implications
• this work must precede any advice anthropologists can give on what is right or “correct”

Question 6

Signifying Reality: How Signs Reflect But Also Make Our World

Answer 6

• signs: image of a dog, written word, smell of dogs, the spoken word, dogs barking, and a physical object on which the word is written (what we consider signs)
• signification: making sense, making signs; the action of making significance
• how do language, culture, and societies make signs?
• linguistic and non-linguistic signs
  
  • every word is a sign; language is a signifying system
  • non-linguistic would be the bark of the dog
• everything is a sign (?)
• the nature of signs:
  
  • signifier and signified
  • symbol, icon, index
  • denotation and connotation
• we can make up meanings, signify things that aren’t true

Question 7

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913): Anthropological Linguistics and Semiotics

Answer 7

• how signifying (through language and other signs) is part of life in human society

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

• a classic (“Sassurean”) view of signification
• e.g. traffic sign
• signifier: the material on which the sign is made, the physical sign
• signified: what it stands for (or means)
• the signifier and signified make up the sign
• why does this matter?
  
  • suppose you have a friend named Matilda who steals a road sign and puts it in her room; the sign no longer has the same meaning in her room
  • it says more about Matilda now than it does about the road

Question 8

Three Kinds of Signs

Answer 8

• icon: share some of their physical form (shape, sound, etc.) with the referent; i.e. where the signifier resembles very closely the signified (e.g. picture)
• index: (indices) do not share any of their form with the referent; i.e. they don’t sound/look “the same” as the reference (i.e. animal droppings or smoke)
• symbols: have arbitrary relation to the signified; i.e. connected only via the system of signification (e.g. language, barber pole, flags)
• reference: the thing being signified
• arbitrary is the opposite of motivated: you have a motive for believing what they stand for
  
  • indexes and icons are motivated (symbols are not)

Question 9

Most Words Are Arbitrary (Signs & Symbols)

Answer 9

• all words are signs
• there’s nothing in the word that iconically indicates what it means: e.g. cat, happy, scrambled, totally
  
  • you know what these words mean because you know English
  • you wouldn’t understand these words if you didn’t understand English
• but some words are not pure symbols: onomatopoeia; e.g. moo, oink, splash, scratch
  
  • are onomatopoeia symbols, icons, or indexes?
  • icons; of the sound, “oink oink” means the sound made by a pig
  • also indexes; of the animal that makes the sound, the pig itself
  • yet from another point of view onomatopoeia are symbols; in Japanese, pigs go “buu buu”
• e.g. (from the online textbook) ☏ 647-908-7621
  
  • the telephone symbol in this case stands for the telephone number; index
  • the number itself is arbitrary because you have to know English to read out those numbers, and by looking at it you can tell it’s a phone number, but you have to know the social conventions to understand that it’s a phone number; symbol
• e.g. ☪ symbol of (“Islam”)
  
  • arbitrary because you have to know the system of symbols to under stand what it means
• e.g. ☯ index (“Tao”)
  
  • in the Taoist religion, this represents two diverging roads, but the white dot in black and black dot in white mean they’re not completely different
• e.g. ✈ icon for “airplane”; but index for “airport”
  
  • on the 401 in Toronto, this indicates that the airport is a certain direction
• universal, cross-specifies signs? e.g. a woman pointing to an elephant. is this an icon, index, or symbol?
  
  • it’s an indexical gesture; it indicates to the elephant that there is water in the bucket

Question 10

Denotation and Connotation

Answer 10

• denotation: “the literal meaning”
• connotation: “what else is meant”
• e.g. three pictures of Trudeau
  
  • in each picture, it is an icon of him, it denotes that it’s Trudeau
  • in one picture he’s embracing his wife, in one he’s dancing in Indian dress, in one he’s walking; these pictures all different connotations
• e.g. two pictures of Trump (icons)
  
  • in one he has a serious face, the denotation is that it’s Trump, and the connotation is that he’s serious and thoughtful
  • in the other he is making a silly face, and the connotation is that maybe someone who didn’t like it chose to use it
• denotation is more precise than connotation
• e.g. high heeled shoes
  
  • by putting on high heels, you become taller; what does becoming taller signify?
  • usually, tall signifies power
  • but the main significance is not tallness
  • what is the connotation of these shoes?
• linguistic signs have connotations too
• linguistic sign: e.g. words, phrases, and sentences
  
  • what is the connotation of “slob”?
  • what is the connotation of “cat”? it’s usually associated with women; cats in cartoons are portrayed as females, we call females “catty”