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Culture as a Moving Symbolic Border

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose the notion of culture as a symbolic moving border. Departing from both, Boesch’s (1991) concept of culture as a symbolic field of action, and Herbst’s (1995) co-genetic logic, I will discuss the dynamics of self-other relationships in terms of their potentiality as sources of movement in culture. A brief analysis of an empirical material is given in illustrative character of the ideas here exposed.

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Notes

  1. According to Leary (1990), metaphors “(…) are part of a group of comparison processes by which we use some parts of our knowledge to illuminate others” (p. 28). Ricoeur (1994) considers metaphor “a semantic event that takes place at the point where several semantic fields intersect” (p. 98).

  2. This aspect refers to the human potentiality of functioning in terms of polarities, oppositions and antinomies, which are essential for thinking and communicating (cf. Marková, 2003, p. 26).

  3. These understandings keep similarities with some accounts of plasticity and flexibility by contemporary evolutionary biologists and ecologists aiming to account for the living beings’ diversity that increases complexity and gives place for novelty (see, for instance, Pfennig et al. (2010); Bergmüller and Taborsky (2010); Lövdén et al. (2010) A Theoretical Framework for the Study of Adult Cognitive Plasticity. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4), 659–676).

  4. In respect to this, see also De Luca Piccione and Freda, this issue.

  5. Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most known, celebrated, dearest and studied painters of Western Culture. He was born in the Brabant village of Zundert on 30 March 1853. In August 1880 he decides to become an artist, probably on his brother Theo’s advice. Together with the painter Gaugin, Theo may have been one of the closest persons to Van Gogh, giving him personal and financial support throughout his whole life. In 27 July 1890, after several mental breakdowns, Van Gogh committed suicide. A detailed biography of Van Gogh and other historical-cultural sources about him can be accessed at http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html and http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en

  6. About the “ever cosmopolitan character” of Antwerp, see, for instance the milestone work of Giucciardini (1567).

  7. Regarding the relationship between disquieting experience and tradition, in the hermeneutic sense, see Simão (2015).

  8. Information available at http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/vincents-life-and-work/van-goghs-life-18531890/from-dark-to-light).

  9. Picture available at http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0114V19620 .

  10. See, for instance, Van Gogh’s The Bridge in the Rain - after Hiroshige at http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0114V1962; also his the Courtesan (after Eisen) at http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0116V1962).

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Acknowledgments

I am thankful to Jaan Valsiner for our always profitable dialogue, including during the preparation of this article.

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  1. University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Lívia Mathias Simão

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  1. Lívia Mathias Simão
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Simão, L.M. Culture as a Moving Symbolic Border. Integr. psych. behav. 50, 14–28 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9322-6

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