Robert High

Symbols

Last class period while professor Lewis was discussing the origination of science fiction there arose a statement about symbols that I would like to expound upon. The idea was that humans are able to dominate animals because of our use of symbols. The example to clarify this statement that was used in class was the example of a wasp which paralyzes its prey, then takes it to a hole. The wasp doesn't take the wasp into the hole at first, but sets the insect to the side and goes in to check the hole before coming out again and taking the insect back into the hole. In an experiment, a scientist created the same environment for the wasp but simply moved the insect when the wasp came out of the hole. Instead of finding the insect and simply taking it to the now "safe hole" the wasp would find the insect and repeat the process. The scientist would repeat the process until the wasp ultimately died.

Being a communication major it is a part of my major to study the different symbols humans create. I am currently writing a research paper on the rhetoric of feminism where the feminists claim that their main use of rhetoric is to use symbols of communication to their advantage. Women have been associated with a male dominated speech community and the feminists that I am mentioning plead with women not to give into male dominated speech which discriminates against women. One way a women can do this is to not be unfairly labeled by society as a miss, or mrs. which separates her marital status. This is because men only have the mr. prefix which stands for every status known to them. This symbol shows the dominance of males over females in the English language.


There is no doubt that human beings are able to use symbols as a way of separating themselves from the rest of nature. Symbols are so important when it comes to communication, they often separate humans from other humans. This example of male dominated language shows how the patriarchal society has been able to influence a dominance based on the use of verbal symbols.