Culture, Symbols, and Consciousness

Graffiti in Portugal: The Other Side of the Wall

“I write graffiti because my head and my heart demands me to write. Because I wake up and I go to bed with graffiti in my mind. Because it’s the only thing that makes me forget my problems and my sadness completely. Because it makes me happy.”
-Mister Dheo, Portuguese Graffiti Writer.

At the Cockfight

“For it is only apparently cocks that are fighting there. Actually, it is men.”
-Clifford Geertz, Notes on the Balinese Cockfight

Controversial Urban Art

Whether flashing by on a cross-country freight train, displayed on concrete overpasses or on canvases in contemporary galleries, graffiti is a part of everyday life for all Canadians… whether they like it or not. Is graffiti vandalism or post-modern art? The answer depends on whom you talk to, the type of graffiti and where it appears. Long criticized, some graffitists are beginning to earn the respect of some municipalities, art galleries and city dwellers.

Video excerpt from YouTube: Interview of anthropologist Mary Douglas

Video excerpt from YouTube: Interview with Clifford Geertz

Culture and Public Action, Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton (editors), Stanford University Press, 2004. The South Asia Edition has been published by Permanent Black.

Symbolic anthropology (otherwise known as Interpretive anthropology) is an umbrella school that includes those anthropologists who stress culture as meaning, expressed through symbolic means. In many ways the movement took hold in reaction to what was being argued as the sterile scientism of both ecological materialist approaches and cognitive (modeling) approaches. The conceptualization of culture as symbolic implies an interpretive approach from the “natives point of view”. Generally speaking, symbolic anthropologists agreed on certain principals: Symbols carried multiple meanings. Symbols were used and created in public, social exchanges. The identification of cultural life requires isolating symbols, identifying their meanings, and showing how they resonate within a specific dynamic cultural context. However, there still existed several variants of the symbolic approach. The three most common stem from the works of Clifford Geertz, Harold Schneider, and Victor Turner.

Photos of Toronto Walls taken by Naccarato 2008. Artists unknown. When known, they will be credited. Copyright remains with all respective artists.

On the Plateau (Mont Royal)

ecole secondaire Jeanne Mance (1951 rue Rachel est)

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Photos of Montreal Walls taken by Naccarato 2008. Artists unknown. When known, they will be credited. Copyright remains with all respective artists.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

MUTO

An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls

Made in Buenos Aries and Baden

Animation and Editing by BLU

Tattoo Church Studio – Tokyo, Japan

Carlos aka Captain is a Brazilian born tattoo artist who runs Tattoo Church Studio in Tokyo, Japan. Tattoo Church has invited some of the top international tattoo artists to appear there and have built up such a good reputation that people from all over the world go there to be inked. Let Carlos give you the word up on life as a tattoo artist…

Making its North American debut at OCAD’s Professional Gallery, Tatau – Pe’a: Photographs by Mark Adams originated at Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery before touring New Zealand and Australia. This exhibit explores tatau, the Samoan tattooing tradition, as an example of cross-cultural collaboration and cultural diversity.