8 - Signs of family life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
We turn now to see the process of cultivation at work in some concrete profiles of families. These case studies are geared to provide a different level of interpretation from the ones used in previous chapters. Through them we shall try to show how cherished possessions, persons, and events may be integrated in a pattern that reflects the goals of the self and the family and acts as a template that motivates the cultivation process.
We have already discussed the empirical patterns associated with cherished possessions. In statistical comparisons, however, the context for the individual is usually lost. The sign is turned into a variable in an attempt to determine the norms of common meanings, that is, the empirical context. With this purpose accomplished, we shall now return to the individual and family context in order to explore the richness and multiplicity of meanings that things can hold for their possessors. Here we hope to explore the transactions between people and things by concentrating on the signs of family life. In many families a common set of concerns was expressed in the meanings attributed to the ecology of signs in the household – the objects, events, and admired persons shared by family members. When these meanings are directed toward related goals, it is possible to see them as “signs of family life,” or vital webs of relationships that give each family a unique identity.
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- Information
- The Meaning of ThingsDomestic Symbols and the Self, pp. 197 - 224Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981