Dear Peter,
Peirce described the way in which symbols can grow over time. And
clearly one of the meanings of the symbol of the nativity is the family.
Feuerbach called attention to how the holy family symbol is a
representation of the earthly family. Marx took it further by claiming that
the holy family symbol of the earthly family is also a projection of the
bourgeois family in his time.
A year ago Pope Francis adapted the symbol to the refugee situation by
including a Maltese fishing boat in the nativity scene at the Vatican, a
reference to refugees arriving by boat.
Perhaps George Herbert Mead can have more to say on this than Peirce,
in Mead's description of what he termed "the significant symbol." In Mead's
significant symbol the other is included reflectively in the meaning of the
symbol:
"it is through the ability to be the other at same time that he is himself
that the symbol becomes significant."
(From "A Behavioristic Account of the Significant Symbol").
The implication here is that the experience of the nativity scene, with
refugees representing today as echoing Jesus as a refugee, imparts in the
witness an ability to empathize with "the other."
Gene H
On Dec 28, 2017 9:34 AM, "Skagestad, Peter" <peter_skages...@uml.edu> wrote:
> Listers,
>
>
> I have a somewhat unusual question. My sister is writing an Art History
> thesis on nativity scenes and their contemporary relevance. An example is
> one at a street mission in Trondheim, Norway, depicting the Holy Family as
> present-day refugees from the Middle East. Now the question is what, if
> anything, might semiotics have to say about such depiction? The answer may
> be obvious, but it escapes me, at least for the moment. Any suggestions?
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter
>
>
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