Symbolism
The Symbolic Significance of the Egg in Khasi Ritual and Culture
By: CLARISSA CANDACE GIRI – This paper seeks to examine the much-neglected role of the egg in the Khasi creation myth and their connection to its frequent usage in the rites of the original religion of the Khasi people. The paper looks at a few creation myths involving the egg, from different perspectives around the…
Il Tempo fermo. Le funzioni destorificanti del simbolismo
By: MARCO MENICOCCI – l mito è un linguaggio verbale costituito mediante il materiale linguistico che una certa lingua fornisce. L’originalità del racconto mitico rispetto a tutti gli altri fattori linguistici risiede nel fatto che esso utilizza i significati ordinari della lingua in modo del tutto strumentale per costituire significati specifici, quelli mitici, che rispondono…
Cup-and-Ring Marked Stones in Ancient Mesoamerica
By: ARNAUD F. LAMBERT – This paper presents an overview of all documented examples of cup-and-ring marked stones from Mesoamerican archaeological sites in order to evaluate previous interpretations of the meanings of these enigmatic symbols. Comparisons of their site-specific contexts demonstrate that while the aquatic symbolism of these marks is perhaps their most common attribute,…
The Jaguar: The Aztecs’ Dark Side of Power
By: SANDRA BUSATTA – Anthropologists have found especially useful to analyse human relationships with animals, including the meanings assigned to them and the ways of classifying them. Lévi-Strauss in particular, thought that animal species offered “conceptual support for social differentiation”. In his study of feline symbolism, Saunders, in turn, argues that studying it offers the…