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Symbolic Mediation
The symbolic mediation of reality is a central tool and applied mechanism of alternative anthropology. Symbolic mediation of reality refers to the central functional mechanism of human cultural integration and behavioral response to environmental stimuli. Systems of symbolic mediation are fundamentally arbitrary, and hence are subject to deliberate design manipulation. Much of propaganda that is designed to persuade and influence people is based upon the mechanism of symbolic mediation.
Symbolic mediation implies the use of symbolism and the manipulation of symbols to mediate cultural realities and to effect symbolic transformations and transculturation of reality. Conflict resolution is a specialized form and function of symbolic mediation, and symbolic mediation encompasses a broader range of inter-cultural interaction and possibility than what is implied within the framework of conflict resolution. Symbolic mediation can be better described in terms of the facilitation of intercultural exchange and relation, providing people a means of crossing cultural boundaries and communicating across the distances such boundaries imply.
The links to the primary portals of this framework are found below:
