Icons, Indexical Symbols and Metaphorical Action: An Analysis of Two East African Rites

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Periodical article

Title:	Icons, Indexical Symbols and Metaphorical Action: An Analysis of Two East African Rites
Author:	Ruel, Malcolm J.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Journal of Religion in Africa
Volume:	17
Issue:	2
Period:	June
Pages:	98-112
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Kenya Tanzania
Subjects:	Kuria Nyakyusa Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1581034.pdf
Abstract:	This paper converts a well-known and much discussed classification, Peirce's trichotomy of signs as icons, indexes and symbols, into a set of concepts that can be used in the processual, contextual analysis of ritual. Two rites are described - the planting of two trees at a young Nyakyusa chief's 'coming out' and the Kuria act of 'opening' a slaughtered cow's stomach, a beerpot or a room. It is argued that these acts are not classified as ritual by virtue of their iconicity, but because of their indexical symbolism that has accrued to their iconicity. In other words, their formal prescription and special significance are closely dependent on their two-way mediation of values and conditions between the wider social and physical context and the particular occasions on which they are performed. Bibliogr., notes.