We've been talking a lot about dominant symbols. As we've used the term, dominant symbols are condensation symbols that stand for the group or team and they simultaneously call up a feelings about the team. It's important for us to appreciate, however, that not all symbols are dominant ones. The anthropologist Victor Turner distinguished dominant symbols from what he called instrumental symbols. Instrumental symbols are ones used to accomplish a specific goal. An example I want to use here is the gavel, which you see on the screen. It's rapped to make a loud noise and call a meeting of some sort to order or maybe to a close, or it could be to bring about attention or order in a meeting when a certain amount of disorder exists. Gavels can be used, for example, in auctions. The auction in the US is actually quite an interesting ritual. You can search for auctioneering videos on the internet. There are even videos that will teach you how to do the auction chants. In this case, the gavel is often used to call an end to the bidding. As a symbol, rapping the gavel here has a specific purpose, namely to call everyone's attention to the fact that the bidding has come to an end and that the item is now sold. Gavels in the US are also typically used in the courtroom when a judge wants to bring the assembled group to order, especially to open and close a particular proceeding, as in these brief excerpts from the courtroom proceeding in the US during the 1950s. In the first excerpt, the judge raps the gavel twice to open the proceedings in a case. [SOUND] We then cut to the second excerpt with the judge holding the gavel and rapping it once again to conclude the trial. >> Dollars and cost. >> It has a specific purpose here, the gavel. It is instrumental in this sense, it's doing something specific. Turner's idea was that such instrumental symbols are not merely referential. That is, they do not only direct attention to something already known to consciousness. The way, for example, the word cat directs our attention to the idea of a cat or maybe to a specific cat. Symbols, instrumental symbols, condensation symbols also behave in some ways like other condensation symbols we've looked at. In the case of the gavel, the feeling summoned has something to do with respect for authority. Indeed, the gavel has become a kind of symbol for authority in various contexts. I actually have a little firsthand experience myself with using a gavel as a symbol of authority. When I first took over as chairman of my department more than 15 years ago, I encountered a little problem. One of our senior faculty members was constantly disrupting faculty meetings. He was actually a fairly prominent figure in the field, and I was much younger, and certainly in his mind, at least, less accomplished at the time. He had an ongoing antipathy towards another very senior faculty member who just happened to be female. Every time she began to speak, it would incite him almost instantly to respond to her in a decidedly vociferous and aggressive manner, never allowing her to finish what she had to say. It was difficult for me to run the meetings and I and other members felt that I needed to do something about the situation. But, I didn't know exactly what to do. I tried talking to the faculty about the need for civility but nothing seem to work. After pondering the matter for awhile, i decided to ask my assistant to order a gravel that would have engraved upon it the words Anthropology Department, University of Pennsylvania. You can see it here on the screen. That's the actual one. I can recall the very first meeting to which I brought the gavel. I was actually eager and a little bit nervous and curious to try it out. I explained to everyone that I would use the gavel to maintain order. At some point in the meeting, the senior woman tried to make a point. The senior man became livid, leaning over the table, he began arguing before she could finish. I picked up the gavel and rapped it sharply several times, and actually, to my astonishment, he immediately quieted down and the female professor was able to finish her statement. There were a few more incidents but before long, order was restored. There did seem to be some kind of effective response produced by the gavel. For me, it proved to be an effective instrumental symbol as part of the ritual process of the meeting.
