象征人类学:意义的探求与解释

SYMBOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY:SEARCH FOR AND INTERPRETATION OF MEANING

象征人类学把文化当成象征符号体系加以探讨,主张人类学研究的主要目标不是探索人类文化的发展规律,也不是揭示文化和社会的功能结构,而是对文化意义的探索和解释。该学派代表人物道格拉斯认为,象征仪式实际上是服务于社会现实秩序和道德秩序的一种构建,仪式意义是特定社会文化环境所赋予的;特纳提出象征符号不仅是意义的载体,而且直接参与或促成社会行动;格尔兹把文化看成由人定义和操作的符号体系,倡导从象征体系来解释人类行为。尽管在象征人类学内部有着上述不尽相同的理论观点和研究取向,但在研究宗旨、研究范围,以及研究方法方面有着作为一个学派的共同特征。

Symbolic anthropology explores culture as a symbolic system. It proposes that the main goal of anthropological research is neither to explore the development law of human culture nor to reveal the functional structure of culture and society, but rather, to search for and interpret the cultural meaning. Douglas, the representative of the. school, thinks that symbolic rituals in fact serve the realistic social and moral order, and that the meaning of rituals is endowed by specific social and cultural environment. Turner suggests that symbols are not only carriers of meaning but also directly participate or promote social behaviors. Goltz regards culture as a symbolic system defined and operated by man and advocates interpreting human behaviors in the symbolic system. Although there are different theoretical ideas and research orientations mentioned above in symbolic anthropology itself, they have something in common in terms of its research objective, range and methodology.