Applying Concepts to Irish Culture

            Everyone embraces their culture differently, whether it is their heritage culture or host culture. Some may have an assimilation approach, completely embracing the mainstream culture they are currently in, while others may have a separation approach, only embracing their heritage and nothing else. Miranda Ienn’s family has a combination of the two, an integrated approach. Her mother’s parents were born in Ireland and when they came to America they held on to some of their Irish values, while embracing American mainstream culture. After interacting with Miranda’s family to gain a deeper knowledge of her Irish culture, I realized that her family uses many symbols to represent this part of their life. The study of semiotics helps examine these signs to understand their meaning.

            There are a few terms to semiotics to comprehend before attempting to understand signs that represent her culture. Semiosis is the actual process of creating meaning through semiotics. Signifiers are words or symbols that people apart of a culture refer to mean something else, which is the signified. These two terms combined make up the sign. Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama explain why semiotics is important to understand in their text, because it allows us to “crack the codes” of another cultural framework (Martin & Nakayama, 2013)

            In Miranda’s family they have several different symbols that are signified to create important signs to her culture. An example of two of them would be her family crest and their Claddagh rings. Miranda’s family crest proudly hangings around her neck, in her parent’s home, and on nearly every dish, blanket, and decoration in her grandparent’s home. The crest is signified in Irish culture to mean loyalty to family. The website Archives, describes that the originally use of crests were to be placed on helmets during battles of tournaments, and played a tremendous role in identifying one's family origins (Family Crests, 2013). However in Miranda’s co-culture of her specific family, their crest depicts lions meaning bravery, a clover and harp representing Ireland, and a scribe symbolizing knowledge. These are all traits that her family value. Also, all of the women wear in Miranda’s family wear Claddagh rings. Each ring has signifiers that are a set of hands, a heart and a crown. Signified the hands mean friendship, the heart means love, and the crown means loyalty. The rings originated from Claddagh, Ireland in the 17^th century, and spread throughout the country. The ring is now a sign of Irish identify all around the world (Micheau, 2013).

            Miranda and her family are not 100% dedicated to everything that their ancestors in Ireland were. They all have different interests and experiences. However Miranda respects and values her Irish heritage, and these symbols are signs that her Irish heritage has built her to become the woman she is today.

Resources

(2013, October 21). Family Crests. Archives. Retreived from      http://www.archives.com/genealogy/family-history-crests.html

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013, October 21). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Micheau, E. (2013, October 21). Claddagh Rings. Irish Abroad. Retreived from            http://www.irishabroad.com/ireland/irish-culture/claddaghring.asp