Author(s): Banu Hatice GÜRCÜM, Didem KALELİ
The word culture has passed from Latin to Western languages with the root word “colere” meaning to plant, cultivate. The ethymological roots of the word show a great correspondance to the contemporary usage of it. Like a cultured person, a cultured society will comprehend the cultural symbols planted deep down in its history and adopt as a cultural elements instinctively. Thus, the transfer of cultural symbols from the memory of the individual to the memory of society and the transfer these symbols from generation to generation as a social value are long lasting results of all these interactions. From past to present human has provided form and significance to any material and used them in religion, language, writing and art figuratively as symbols. Cultural heritage is effective as a media to carry symbols. Mythology, folklore and humanities try to compile and evaluate this heritage. Thus, the general target of this paper is to evaluate the basic values of the symbols embedded in our social memory, which was gained as a cultural motif throughout history; to raise awareness towards evolution and transformation of these values within our self-culture in thousands of years. To embody this purpose symbol of Tree of Life that transformed into one of the universal symbols without being limited to single culture and without losing its essential meaning it has carried to the present day and the unity of meaning in neighboring cultures was chosen.
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