symbology

     

Also known as processual symbolic analysis, the symbology concept was eveloped by Victor Turner in the mid-1970s to refer to the use of symbols within cultural contexts, in particular ritual. In anthropology, symbology originated as part of Victor Turner's concept of "comparative symbology". Turner (1920-1983) was professor of Anthropology at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and finally he was Professor of Anthropology and Religion at the University of Virginia. In 1940, Robert A. Heinlein used "symbology" in Blowups Happen, a mathematics-based short story. He uses the word as a way to establish conceptual connections between behavioral psychology and mathematics.