Symbolic Appropriation Research Articles

Symbolic Appropriation of the U.S. Flag: Findings from a Photovoice Study

Symbolic Appropriation of the U.S. Flag: Findings from a Photovoice Study

La iglesia arcoíris: la apropiación LGBTI del espacio religioso en Lima

The present ethnographic study aims to describe the symbolic strategies in the ritual processes of a religious congregation founded by gay men in Lima. The name of the congregation is Comunidad Cristiana Ecuménica Inclusive El Camino, founded in 2009 by gay men, first evangelicals and, later, gay Catholics. El Camino displays a system of Christian rituals symbolically overlaid with images and symbols of the LGBTI community. By means of deheterosexualized religious symbols in three key spaces, the Sunday worship, the cells and the LGBTI pride parade, they have managed to appropriate and conquer a historically hostile field for the LGBTI community. The symbolic appropriation of the religious space leads to the softening of the Christian moral framework and, specially, the reconciliation between religious beliefs and sexual orientation.

Beyond Sun, Sand, and Sea: The Role of Hittite Heritage in the Transformation of Turkey s Cultural Heritage Regimes

This article scrutinizes the cultural heritage regimes pertaining to the Hittite Empire within the Turkish context, with a specific emphasis on archival records, media narratives, and significant political figures. Drawing upon the concept of cultural heritage regimes, this paper argues that the Hittite cultural heritage played a pivotal role in crafting the self-understanding of the emergent Turkish Republic. The focus lies on the strategic appropriation of Hittite symbols by the Republic to foster a palpable connection with an ancient past that thrived within the geographical bounds of contemporary Turkey. This connection aimed to kindle a sense of unity and shared origins among Turkish citizens. In a significant shift, the twenty-first century exhibits a noticeable change in priorities where the media discourse primarily accentuates the economic potential of Hittite cultural artifacts, largely in the context of heritage tourism. Coupled with this economic and touristic orientation is a deliberate endeavor to redefine Turkey’s image. By strategically projecting Turkey’s historical depth, the aim is to catalyze heritage tourism and move beyond the country’s mere representation as a natural “paradise” known for its stereotypical trio of sun, sand, and sea. This shift exemplifies a metamorphosis of cultural heritage regimes, where the anticipated fiscal returns from heritage tourism begin to steer the narrative, simultaneously highlighting the economic dividends of cultural preservation and catalyzing a redefinition of Turkey’s global image.

Shades of whiteness

This study examines the appropriation of religious symbols by the Nordic Alt-Right over the last decade, focusing on their use for völkisch identity construction around whiteness. It locates this signification historically, both before and during the Third Reich, to reveal a complex genealogy complicated by racial ideals, nationalistic agendas and magical thinking. Analysis centres around a selection of symbols – ranging from various Norse runes to the Valknut, the Sonnenrad and the swastika – used both explicitly and in more private contexts by members of the Nordic Alt-Right, with special attention focused on two groups that are active today, the Nordic Resistance Movement and the Soldiers of Odin. This opens a discussion on the semiotic range of appropriation itself, in order to expose how it is operative in different ways and on different levels, not only in terms of cultural borrowing or contestations of meaning but as an appropriation of ideological frames and systems of belief.

Local History and the Development of Heritage Bonds: A Primary Education Intervention

The Roman Baths of Valduno (Spain) possess significant educational potential, as recognized by visitors in a previous study, even though the facilities have not been maintained properly or have not been given enough publicity , which has resulted in their neglect. Through participation in a school project, a specific intervention is planned, following the ideas of community archaeology, regarding the study and dissemination of the Baths by following the ideas of community archaeology throughout. This study aims to analyse the impact this intervention has on 16 students regarding their knowledge of heritage and the bonds forged and reinforced concerning the site, as well as to identify the difference in historical knowledge acquired after a classroom explanation of the Baths and an open guided tour focused on the interests of the students. A case study was designed following the educational ethnography method, as it facilitates daily attendance as well as close observation of the case in question. The instruments developed (a register for participant observation and a semi-structured interview) reveal that symbolic appropriation of the site occurs as interaction and related knowledge increase. Furthermore, open guided tours facilitate greater significant learning in contrast to a classroom explanation on a heritage site. Educational experiences that embrace experimental, transdisciplinary, and participative methodologies contribute to a holistic understanding of heritage.

The Formalism Issue of Catholic Iconography in China

During the Republican period in China, the Catholic Church gradually developed and grew in China and made attempts to localize itself in different fields, one of which was the promotion of localized Catholic icon painting in the field of art. Due to the problem of divergence between Chinese and Western cultures and styles, formalistic expressions of these paintings emerged. As a representative practice of Catholic painting in China, Beiping Fu Jen Catholic University, with Chinese painting style as its main focus and Western style as its auxiliary, consciously innovated the expression of Catholic icon painting in China, however, in the expression of content and selection of subject matter, excessive emphasis was placed on Chinese visual language to cater to the tastes of Chinese audiences, and as the edifying function of Catholic painting failed to be exercised to a certain extent. There is still a certain degree of formalism. The development of Catholic painting in China needs to find a balance between the spirit of doctrine and Chinese visual culture, integrate Catholic aesthetics into the Chinese painting tradition, and create a new form of painting language, rather than the migration and appropriation of visual symbols.

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. <i>Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik</i>

Finland and Military Volunteers in the Swedish Fascist Imaginary, 1809–1944

AbstractThis article explores the place of Finland and the Swedish military volunteers of the 1918 civil war, and 1939–44 Finno-Soviet wars, in the Swedish fascist imaginary. The loss of Finland to Russia in 1809 was heavily romanticized in Swedish nationalist culture, and shaped Swedish responses to both conflicts, mediated through famous literary works which encouraged a sense of shame and betrayal. Through examination of the historical relationship between the two countries, the volunteer effort in 1918, and the subsequent emergence of fascism in the interwar period, it is shown that this imaginary of the Finnish–Swedish relationship strongly shaped Swedish fascism. The article traces key military volunteer veterans in various fascist organizations, and the symbolic appropriation of the veterans. Rather than a comparatively peaceful manifestation of fascism in neutral Sweden, Swedish fascism was possessed of a heavily militarized imaginary rooted in violent proxy conflicts in its former eastern borderlands – in this regard it also showed substantial overlap with Swedish conservative nationalism.

A Study of Symbolic Appropriation in Pop Art

As a way of artistic creation, misappropriation has long been studied and used by artists. This article will define the concept of misappropriation, by This article will define the concept of misappropriation, by combing the historical context of misappropriation in works in the art history, and at the same time, it will focus on the interpretation of the This article studies and defines the concept of misappropriation, by combining the historical context of misappropriation in works in the art history, and at the same time, it will focus on the interpretation of the misappropriation techniques of pop art in post-modernism, so as to deeply explore the performance value of misappropriation in contemporary art. article studies and defines pop art and post-modernism closely related to it, and interprets and studies it related to misappropriation through Digging into the different methods of misappropriation, it is mainly divided into three parts to elaborate and interpret .

Universalism, or the fabrication of concert music

The idea of a ‘universal music,’ which develops alongside the supposed hegemony of European classical music, has historical roots that have been expressed as disciplinary content since at least the Enlightenment. However, its current relevance is shown in processes of symbolic appropriation, which we analyze in the contemporary Brazilian scenario, where the dissemination of universalism as an unquestionable paradigm of cultural superiority guides the relationship with musical discipline and is shaped by the context of social, political, and economic fragility, which we will analyze in the case of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, concluding, finally, the difficulty of music in constituting itself as an epistemic object in this context.

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral as a Political Space: Transformation of the Image and the Search for Interpretations before and after the Russian Revolution of 1917

The article analyzes the problem of transformation of imperial political spaces in the historical context of the 19th – 20th centuries. The main attention in the article is focuses on the dominant of the architectural landscape of St. Petersburg – St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The struggle for its symbolic appropriation reflected the peripeteias of the socio-political development of tsarist, revolutionary and Soviet Russia. The article aims to study the process of transformation of symbolic meaning of St Isaac’s Cathedral and to analyze all comprehension models of that monument. The initial purpose of its construction was to honor the Russian monarchy, but after the Russian Revolution it required a new interpretation that would fit new realities. Based on numerous unpublished documents from the seven archives of St. Petersburg, the author concludes that before the Revolution St. Isaac’s Cathedral was marked on the symbolic map of Petrograd not only as a church but as a right-wing conservative political space, a visible monument glorifying the House of Romanov. The anti-monarchist revolution changed the fate of the building and its image forever. In the 1920s the perception of the cathedral caused a furious fight in society. It was a period of intense rivalry between three symbolic programs – exclusively church’s interpretation, interpretation of the cathedral as a monument of art, and antireligious model of the “anti-temple” – “the former St. Isaac’s Cathedral”.

La memoria de los espacios públicos en la movilización política

In cities, public spaces are shaped by the encounters they make possible the historical memory and the uses and customs that propitiate their "symbolic appropriation" and the constitution of the genius loci. Political mobilizations appropriate public spaces, which are momentarily transformed into "political spaces" whose strength, character and symbolic weight are assimilated to projects of identity, capacity for mobilization and political action. In Mexico City, two cases of politization of the public space are the Ángel de la Independencia and the Estadio Azteca.

URBAN PUBLIC TRANSIT’S TERRITORIES: THE CASE OF ECOBUS IN CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO

The concrete use that traditional social groups make of Latin American urban mobility infrastructures stands as a great unknown in the social sciences and humanities. This use obeys both specific needs and ways of understanding the city similar to subaltern cosmogony. The denial or marginalization of these cultural practices by the public powers affects the processes of precariousness and social exclusion but, in this case, also it generates forms of symbolic resistance. To understand these specificities, I design an ethnography on wheels for a year in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The strategy includes observation-participation and various conversation techniques. The data were contrasted from a subaltern approach, including some concepts from human geography and the sociology of mobility. The most outstanding findings were the demonstration of the symbolic appropriation of public space through two mechanisms that I call in mobility and by mobility.

“Diverse Ormeau, shared Ormeau”. Lutte pour l’appropriation symbolique d’un quartier en cours de gentrification en Irlande du Nord

L’article retrace une lutte pour l’appropriation symbolique d’un quartier en cours de gentrification à Belfast. Cette lutte se cristallise autour de la présence de drapeaux unionistes, symboles du maintien de l’Irlande du Nord dans le Royaume-Uni. Depuis le milieu des années 2010, un groupe de propriétaires se mobilise pour demander la suppression de ces drapeaux dans l’espace public au nom du "partage" et de la "mixité sociale". Ces mots d’ordre sont bien souvent mobilisés pour légitimer la gentrification de quartiers centraux attractifs. Toutefois, nous expliquons que la mobilisation pour la "mixité" de ces propriétaires ne se réduit pas à la seule volonté de justifier la gentrification du quartier. Leur mobilisation contre les drapeaux s’analyse à l’aune de la restructuration de rapports de classe, mais également de la restructuration de rapports ethniques. Nous montrons en effet que le groupe de propriétaires, appartenant aux classes moyennes supérieures et se déclarant principalement "catholiques", lutte pour contrôler la présence des drapeaux dans un quartier où des individus assignés comme "catholiques" étaient auparavant mis à l’écart. Ces propriétaires font face à l’opposition d’élus unionistes qui souhaitent maintenir leur domination dans le quartier. Pour autant, ils ne prennent pas en considération les contestations portées par des associations sur les inégalités dans l’accès au logement, dans un contexte de gentrification et de privatisation du logement social.

Soviet stadium as a space of competition of official and informal models of behavior on the example of Kyiv (1950–1980)

The article considers the peculiarities of the strategies of behavior of fans in Soviet stadiums in the postwar period. On the example of the city of Kyiv and the “Republican” stadium, an analysis of the competition between officially permitted, acceptable models of behavior and alternatives to them, which took place during football matches, is conducted. The Soviet stadium during football matches was a kind of point of “inaccessibility” for the authorities. Watching matches at the stadium was accompanied by a more intense public display of emotions, in contrast to other sports spectacles (for example, a physical culture parade).Before the start of «perebudova» and the announcement of “glasnist”, the official press kept silent about the real situation in the stadiums and the scale of the conflicts that arose after the matches. Also, it ignored any unusual forms of manifestation by fans of their football-related identity (for example, a march of spectators through the city after the match). Violence in stadiums, “incorrect behavior” (such as insulting football players, songs with obscene language) could not be part of the official Soviet spectator culture. The deconstruction of the image of the “good” fan created by Soviet propaganda and its comparison with the materials of oral historical interviews leads to the conclusion that the practices of Soviet fans in and out of the stadium on the day of the match undermined the government’s monopoly on the city.The widespread popularity of football in the Soviet Union and its widespread discussion contributed to the construction of fan communities, the identity of which was formed by opposing the support of “our” against “foreign”, hostile teams. The principled nature of football matches for interested Soviet citizens turned the review of games at the stadium into a place of emotional demonstration of the fans’ identity. Violations of public order, collective “celebrations” or demonstrations of dissatisfaction with the results of the game, spontaneous marches from the stadium after the match became part of the unconscious resistance to the established models of “correct behavior”.The context of “perebudova”, the lack of prepared reaction of law enforcement officers led to the escalation of the conflict and, in fact, to the actual and symbolic appropriation of urban space by Kyiv fans during the clashes.

The “Poetic Justice” Done by Hardy to Nature in The Woodlanders

In the diegesis of Hardy’s novels, the symbolic appropriation of nature is manifest: it is brutal, mortifying. Tragedy often results from a linguistic “error” that conflates bodies and tropes – a deadly confusion between nature and culture. In Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess’s “corporeal blight”, which many Victorians viewed as a moral “fault”, ceases to be a metaphor when it turns into “sticky blights” making real stains on her skin. The sexual act taking place in the forest of the Chase is a form of writing on Tess’s body. Nature here is impregnated by culture. The novel ends with the triumph of the sign: the phallic tall staff, the “black flag” fixed on the tower of the Wintoncester prison, is a writing on the sky which indicates that Tess has been hanged. But Hardy’s poetic texts, whether they be poems or fiction, operate differently. This essay will try to argue that they take us beyond the Symbolic, “beyond the printed page”, to the Real, perhaps to “nature” itself. “Stepping over language” is conceivable in the perspective opened by the Lacanian concept of “lalangue” (“llanguage”), which does not reduce language to its signifying function. This essay will focus on the issue of the textual voice and will ask the following question: whose voice is it that we hear as we read the (silent) text? Do the famous assertions by Deleuze and Guattari on “becoming-animal” through literature seem relevant to Hardy? Could we see “llanguage” as operating a kind of reversal which cancels the symbolic appropriation of nature manifest in the diegesis, thus achieving some kind of “poetic justice” through the text?

The role of tourism in personal nationalism: A case study

Drawing on interviews with twenty tourists at the National Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland, this case study uses the concept of personal nationalism to understand how national identity is interpreted and communicated in personal and (post) tourist space. It uses a narrative analysis of domestic and international tourists’ experiences to realise how heritage tourism sites could benefit from understanding individual meanings of a nation. The research reveals personal nationalism is characterised by inclusion, interaction and individualisation. Participants consolidate their personal nationalism by connecting with and on behalf of others as well as through various ways of belonging, and by interpreting their experiences in relation to their families. The findings represent a nuanced articulation of the role of tourism in the appropriation of national symbols, myths and values by tourists at a national heritage site. The study offers an alternative perspective on the relevance of what cultural producers convey to tourists.

The Amazon and the art of income in the environmental crisis

Two objectives are integrated in this work. The first objective is to discuss the diffusion of values regarding social-environmental responsibility in the current public sphere and how they confer comparative advantages in obtaining differentiated income by companies. The second objective is to apply this discussion to the Amazon by exemplifying the relationship that Natura company develops with traditional Pan-Amazon communities, as well as the notion of sustainability and how the Amazon can be a strategic region when it comes to environmental crises. The methodology used was based on scientific articles, magazine publications directly linked to the environmental balance of the companies and reports of the Natura company that were published in their website. We concluded that the way to produce market singularities is increasingly due to the combination of production and value diffusion in the public sphere, including the symbolic appropriation of the strategic Spaces of production.

‘Ingratitude! Treachery! Revenge!’: Race, Empire, and Mutinous Femininities in Harriette Gordon Smythies’A Faithful Woman(1865)

Harriette Gordon Smythies’ overlooked sensation novel A Faithful Woman (1865) engages with two cultural formations instrumental in shaping the Victorians’ representations of race, and to a large degree, also their understanding of it: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 and minstrelsy. As its various symbolic appropriations of mutinous women show, the novel is highly critical of the easy and essentialising recriminations of ‘vile’ Indianness and offers a keen appreciation of the parallels between the Empire’s racialising oppressions abroad and its gendered oppressions at home. At the same time, however, its representations of African American characters seek to enshrine Britain’s moral superiority vis-à-vis the United States’ slavery system. Particularly, A Faithful Woman’s examinations of racialised imaginations of Indian Britons and African Americans – contrasting, for instance, British sculpture and portraiture with (allegedly) American minstrelsy – speak to its attempt to dissociate the practices of Empire from its former colonies across the Atlantic. Its critical examination of imperial notions of race in post-Rebellion sensation fiction, this article argues, helps to reaffirm the very colonial practices that it seeks to undermine.

Building Burhanpur: The Process of Constructing a Mughal City

Abstract When Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) conquered Burhanpur, the capital of the Khandesh sultanate, in 1601, he catalyzed a decades-long process of transforming the city into a regional capital of the Mughal empire. In this essay, I argue that Mughal Burhanpur was constructed in three stages of spatial and architectural developments over the course of three decades. In the first stage, Akbar symbolically appropriated Burhanpur’s preexisting monumental architecture to demonstrate his conquest over the city. In the second stage, subimperial officers expanded the city through prolific patronage of civic architecture, most notably an underground canal system that carried fresh water several kilometers into the city. Lastly, when Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58) moved to the city in 1629, he implemented a new program of architectural construction that transformed Burhanpur from a provincial capital into an imperial one in just over two years. From symbolic appropriation to urban expansion and then to the implementation of an imperial architectural program, this three-part construction process ultimately transformed a town on the edge of an empire into a legible Mughal city.