Lebanon
Semiotics is the study of people and their culture through evaluatingthe signs and symbols which the culture holds as important. If it ispossible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as partof social life, and interprets the meaning of those symbols to the life ofthe community or culture itself, then semiotics is that course of study.Much like the process of interpreting paintings on cave walls in order tounderstand pre-historic man, semiotics looks at the 'cave paintings' of amodern society and interprets some of the underlying thoughts, beliefs and Semiotics is derived from part of social psychology, and hence ofgeneral psychology. From the Greek semeion, 'sign', semiotics investigatesthe nature of signs of a culture, and the laws governing them. Linguisticsis one branch of this general science which contributes to semiotics, asdoes sociology, history, and cultural psychology. The laws which semioticswill discover will be laws applicable in these other fields; these fieldswill thus be assigned to a clearly defined place in the field of humanknowledge. (Saussure 1983, 15-16; Saussure 1974, 16)
Lebanon's archaeological pastdates back to Phoenician times, 3,000 years BC, and the following era ofRomans, Greeks, Byzantine and Crusaders. The wine was put to age in the cavesthat the priests had discovered under the convent and which are believed tobe from Roman times. Wine has been the great survivor of the bitter conflict and, everyyear as fall approaches, around 5,000 tons of Cinsaut, Sauvignon, Syrah,Mourvedre and other kinds of grapes are carefully collected at the variousLebanese wineries. `It's attractive without being provocative. (Ghattas,1999)Food Products In the Lebanese valley of the Bekaa, not far from where Romansvenerated the god of wine, Bacchus, Bedouins are busy harvesting grapes forthe new vintage of Lebanese wine -- as they did during the 1975-1990 civilwars. In 1983, the ancient city of Tyre was put onthe UN's list of protected world heritage sites and later so were Byblos,Anjar, and Baalbek, with its impressive Roman temples, dedicated toBacchus, Venus and Jupiter. "The head of the municipalitychanged laws to erect buildings in protected areas; his deputy is a money-shark. Today, Ksara wine is probably one of the most knownlocal wines on the Lebanese market. He says the modern Muslimwoman increasingly wants clothing that reflects her individual personalityand tastes, especially here in fashion conscious Beirut. Furthermore, the military battles hadreinforced the distances between sects by causing demographic changesthrough the eviction of members of a whole sect from one region to another. This paper investigates the roles of Lebanese food, clothing, andother objects through a semiotic lens in an attempt to more deeplyunderstand the Lebanese culture. Styles are even changing in ultra conservative Iran, where adress code was imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Modern semiotic theory is also sometimes alliedwith a Marxist approach which stresses the role of ideology in the courseof cultural development. (Chadwick, 2001) Outside the store, posters ofIran's late Ayatollah Khomeini are a reminder of the neighborhood's largelyconservative Shiite Muslim community which ultimately determines thedirection of any new trends. The clothing and style of the Lebanese havelong been governed by strict religious codes.
Common topics in this essay:
Introduction Semiotics,
Mount Lebanon,
Beirut Chadwick,
Clothing Tekbir,
Syrah Mourvedre,
Cairo Egypt,
French Jesuits,
Shiite Muslim,
Crusaders Bekaa,
Lebanon's Bekaa,
ghattas 1999,
lebanese culture,
signs symbols,
signs symbols culture,
bekaa valley,
chadwick 2001,
culture semiotics,
muslim woman,
lebanese society,
fashion conscious,
culture evaluating signs,
evaluating signs symbols,
concept freedom,
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Acceptance Essays
