On the social life of a city anthem. semiotic objects, ideologies of belonging, and the reproduction of sociocultural difference

Abstract

This article takes a closer look at the role of semiotic objects such as texts, monuments, songs, and flags in the definition of both sociocultural boundaries and legitimation of the resulting relations of difference. The focus is a specific anthem, Z'Basel an mym Rhy [In Basel on my Rhine], which is the official anthem of Basel, a city in northwest Switzerland. In line with Appadurai's [1996. The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] claim in favor of a complex analysis of an object's social life, this article is a historiographical investigation of the circulation of this semiotic object across time and space – from the moment of its conception as a poem in 1806, to the present day. The analysis centers on how this specific semiotic object has been re-appropriated and transformed continuously, throughout its social life, by new actors, in new contexts, and for new purposes. Indeed, from its origin as a romantic ode for intimate private consumption, this text gradually emerged as an object of cultural consumption on a larger scale, taking on the role of an instrument of pride and power, and becoming a tool to legitimize social structuration.