Symbolic meanings - present and significant, or merely armchair speculations?

 

About 6 months after the presidential election the road sign lingers.

Social observers are trained in various academic traditions, from (public) art criticism to social psychology to social anthropology. Ethnographers who document individuals and groups of people within their cultural landscape draw on diverse theoretical approaches to interpret the things they seize upon. One scholarly field is  Symbolic Anthropology, in which artifacts like flags or architecture or lyrics are closely examined for layers of meanings carried, sometimes easily explained by local residents, but other times only dimly recognized or felt. So the question of which meanings govern the people's uses, intentions, and reactions can be hard to answer: must a person be consciously aware of a certain facet of the multiple meanings for that sense to make an impact? Or can dormant meanings in one generation turn out to be dominant meanings in another generation. Even within the same generation will different factions of people emphasize different significance according to their own purposes? Furthermore, leaving the firm ground of conscious discussion and perception, will meanings that are only dimly perceived also bear on a person's seeing and behavior. Going further still, can certain dimensions of a ritual, a habit, or a living space that are unseen, unable to be verbalized, and are claimed to be absent or are dismissed as mischaracterizations (lies) made by others also be real?

The case of this photo illustrates some of this wondering out loud. The USA election of the nation's chief executive takes place every 4 years, in this instance early November 2020, with the newly chosen president's term of office beginning with the swearing in at noon of January 20, 2021. That is when Joe R. Biden took the place of Donald J. Trump. In many cities there is a local ordinance that requires property owners to remove political campaign signage within 3 weeks of election day. But this large display is a few miles east of the city of Lowell, Michigan, outside the city limits. It consists of a blue TRUMP flag facing west and the white edition facing east, sandwiching heavy black plastic lining material to withstand rain, snow, and wind. For months the "Thank you, President Trump [thank you for working so hard to] Keep America Great" message greeted passing motorists on state highway M-21. But then sometime early in April or possibly March 2021 the sign was shredded with the sharp slashes made to it. Without talking to the person or persons who expressed one or more meanings in this act, it is hard to know what it signifies precisely, at least within the scope of awareness in the perpetrator's intentions. 

From a symbolic point of view, the assault on the fabric of the political campaign flags could be an uncomplicated action to tell the property owner (or the person who the property own gave permission for the display) that the election is finished, the new president is in office, and the old president's traces and trappings should disappear. A more complicated statement might take into account the audience of curious drivers - those who resonate outrage to the offense, those who agree with the defacing action, and those indifferent to political matters all together. In this wider interpretation, not only does the vandal send a message to the display owner, but also communicates to the wider world of spectators: "Ex-president Trump is a blight to be removed," for instance. "I am doing that public service for you all. Since he shredded civil social life, now let his fabric representation be torn, too." An even more tenuous interpretation might be to view the violence as not only physical, but also symbolic: slashing apart the Trump name is hoped to work like a Voodoo doll to harm the one being referenced in name or in the form of figurine.

Going back to the initial question posed in the title of this article, there are seemingly unlimited layers of meaning to distinguish singly or in various combinations. In the eyes of those conducting the symbolic work of creating the display, and those destroying the display; or in the eyes of those passers-by who live in the vicinity or who happen to take this road one day and notice the sign, can anybody trained in Symbolic Anthropology ever make a convincing conclusion about the truest and most comprehensive interpretation for the whole thing? Or will any declaration have to be bracketed as "conscious meaning," "semi-aware," and "present but unacknowledged" dimensions of the significance. That is an open question: just because one interviewee says it is true, or on the contrary, denies a given point of view, that does not serve as the final word on the way that meanings are expressed, impressed, reworked, and associated from the immediate to more figurative or abstract realms of significance. This confluence and contradiction in interpretation echoes the tensions sometimes seen between "insider" (emic) and "outsider" (etic) standpoints.

In the end, symbolic interpretations have a valuable place in social analysis by widening the frame of meanings and motivations. But the most reliable assessment about one interpretation rising above others would seem to come from cross-checking the stated interpretation against observable responses: how people react, take action (or fail to act), and what they say that is consonant or that contradicts that claimed interpretation. The more that these parallel forms of meaning speak to each other, the more likely that the particular interpretation holds true. For this roadside statement near the intersection of Pinkney Road and M-21 just east of Lowell one thing is certain: the printed message associated with Trump now is rendered illegible. It shows the strike-through editing made of it.

Eating fish on Fridays

menu reminder of weekly fish dinner in the six weeks before Easter (click image for full size view)

There are places and times and groups of people for whom a main dish of fish, rather than customary habits of eating meat, is considered a minor expression of personal sacrifice. Sometimes this is practiced all year in communal dinners or at the private household level, but other times this is undertaken as a group experience or private dietary habit only in the six week period leading up to the Christian celebration of Easter, when the resurrection of the rabbi Jesus Christ is commemorated every year in springtime (northern hemisphere) around the time of the Jewish commemoration of Passover.

School districts, particularly when there are many Catholics in the surrounding catchment area, as well as other public institutions like elderly care facilities, or hospitals, for example will also commonly include fish on the menu in acknowledgment of those dietary practices for those who wish to follow the fish on Friday custom.

Deep-fried foods like french fries (FF abbreviation in the miniature menu card, above) and battered fish (very often perch and/or smelt and/or cod - at least here in the Midwest of USA) once were rare treats because of the amount of oil needed to do the frying, and for the rich taste of fatty and crunchy food. But with the public education of dietary health and concerns about high cholesterol and heart healthy foods more generally, the public dinners like this one advertised, often provide baked fish as an alternative to the batter-dipped and deep-fried entree.

Leaving aside the nutritional & ecological dimensions of sustainable fisheries and humane harvest of live natural resources, there are the many historical and cultural associations of the fish among followers of Jesus of Nazareth. For example, there is the phrase quoted in the Bible from Jesus that speaks of "making [his disciples] fishers of men." And there is a story of a meal for 5,000 men along with their women and children (loaves and fishes). Another story describes an ancient Christian code to identify fellow believers: it took the form of two curves in mirror image to resemble the head, body, and tail of a fish. Scenes like the stormy Sea of Galilee that Jesus commanded to become calm; the small businessmen who ran fish catches there who Jesus counted as some of his disciples; and the word-play of the ancient Greek word for fish, ICHTHYS, as an abbreviation for "I" + "CHristian" also can be attached to the fish. Finally, since according to tradition, Jesus was executed on Friday before sunset and the start of the weekly Jewish Sabbath, by serving fish on Friday instead of ordinary meat, the penitent follower is signaling a dim echo of the suffering that Jesus went through before and during his crucifixion. Dissertations and books probably discuss the meaning of fish for Christians at great length, but for now these scattered meanings give some of the sense of the context for "Fish on Fridays," as seen in this picture, above, from middle Michigan, USA on February 19, 2019.

Symbolism? Old glory in tatters 2018 December 13

Shredded USA flag hanging together by a thread (click image for full-size view)

As a visual representation of the abuses to USA democracy during the campaign, election, and first 23 months of DJ Trump's occupation of the White House, this flag seems to sum up the situation. The red and white are meant to symbolize the initial 13 colonies that joined together to declare independence from the United Kingdom, while the blue field carries one star to symbolize each of the present-day 50 states. Translating the scene into words, it could be read as "distraction and distress are tearing apart the union; what is more this economic and social fabric of the society is only hanging on by a thread."

A recent news story tells about the 44 former US senators who signed an open letter that appeared in the Washington Post in early December 2018 to urge the current national leaders to stand up to the abuses and illegal acts of the disgraceful occupant of the White House. See https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676346772/former-sen-william-cohen-among-those-who-urge-current-leaders-to-defend-democrac

Thanks to technology of mass communication and social media, as well as mass participation in public discourse and decision-making, it is increasingly possible, practical, and expected that citizens can scrutinize the words and deeds of elected officials and civil servants, and to hold them accountable for their words and deeds. Perhaps that oversight and pressure will lead to better governance in the future, but for now the fragmentation and chatter of so many people seems to result in the opposite to oversight and accountability; rather, we see divisiveness and distractedness.

see also https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flag-desecration-laws