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Symbolic culture, or non-material culture, is the ability to learn and transmit behavioral traditions from one generation to the next by the invention of things that exist entirely in the symbolic realm. Symbolic culture is usually conceived[by whom?] as the cultural realm constructed and inhabited uniquely by Homo sapiens and is differentiated from ordinary culture, which many other animals possess. Symbolic culture is studied by archaeologists,[1][2][3] social anthropologists[4][5] and sociologists.[6] From 2018, however, some evidence of a Neanderthal origin of symbolic culture emerged.[7][8] Symbolic culture contrasts with material culture, which involves physical entities of cultural value and includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects.
Examples of symbolic culture include concepts (such as good and evil), mythical constructs (such as gods and underworlds), and social constructs (such as promises and football games).[9]
Symbolic culture is a domain of objective facts whose existence depends, paradoxically, on collective belief. A currency system, for example, exists only for as long as people continue to have faith in it. When confidence in monetary facts collapses, the "facts" themselves suddenly disappear. Much the same applies to citizenship, government, marriage and many other things that people in our own culture consider to be "real". The concept of symbolic culture draws from semiotics, and emphasises the way in which distinctively human culture is mediated through signs and concepts. In sociology, Emile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz and many others have emphasised the symbolic aspect of distinctively human culture.
^Marshack, A. 1972. The Roots of Civilization. The cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
^Chase. P. G., 1994. "On symbols and the palaeolithic". Current Anthropology 35(5), 627-9.
^Watts, I., 1999. "The Origins of Symbolic Culture", in R. Dunbar, C. Knight. C. Power, (eds) The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View, Edinburgh University Press.
^Geertz, C. 1973. Interpreting Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
^Knight, C. 2010. The origins of symbolic culture. In U. Frey, C. Stormer and K. P. Willfuhr (eds), Homo Novus - A Human Without Illusions. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 193-211.
^Durkheim, E., 1965 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York (NY): Free Press.
^Hoffmann, D. L.; Standish, C. D.; García-Diez, M.; Pettitt, P. B.; Milton, J. A.; Zilhão, J.; Alcolea-González, J. J.; Cantalejo-Duarte, P.; Collado, H.; De Balbín, R.; Lorblanchet, M.; Ramos-Muñoz, J.; Weniger, G.-Ch.; Pike, A. W. G. (2018). "U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art" (PDF). Science. 359 (6378): 912–915. Bibcode:2018Sci...359..912H. doi:10.1126/science.aap7778. PMID 29472483. S2CID 206664238.
^Hoffmann, Dirk L.; Angelucci, Diego E.; Villaverde, Valentín; Zapata, Josefina; Zilhão, João (2018). "Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals 115,000 years ago". Science Advances. 4 (2): eaar5255. Bibcode:2018SciA....4R5255H. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar5255. PMC 5833998. PMID 29507889.
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Chase. P. G., 1994. "On symbols and the palaeolithic". Current Anthropology 35(5), 627-9.
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