num_pages: 157
description: This important new work by Roy Wagner is about the autonomy of symbols and their role in creating culture. Its argument, anticipated in the author's previous book, The Invention of Culture , is at once symbolic, philosophical, and meaning is a form of perception to which human beings are physically and mentally adapted. Using examples from his many years of research among the Daribi people of New Guinea as well as from Western culture, Wagner approaches the question of the creation of meaning by examining the nonreferential qualities of symbols—such as their aesthetic and formal properties—that enable symbols to stand for themselves.
language: English
title: Symbols that Stand for Themselves
titlecomplete: Symbols that Stand for Themselves
genres: Anthropology
ratings_count: 17
publisher: University of Chicago Press