(eBook PDF) Communication Research Methods 4th

Edition pdf download

https://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-communication-research-
methods-4th-edition/

Download more ebook from https://ebooksecure.com

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebooksecure.com
to discover even more!

(eBook PDF) Understanding Communication Research

Methods

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-understanding-
communication-research-methods/

Quantitative Research Methods for Communication: A

Hands-On Approach 4th Edition (eBook PDF)

http://ebooksecure.com/product/quantitative-research-methods-for-
communication-a-hands-on-approach-4th-edition-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) Quantitative Research Methods for

Communication: A Hands-On Approach 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-quantitative-research-
methods-for-communication-a-hands-on-approach-4th-edition/

Research Methods in Accounting 4th Edition (eBook PDF)

http://ebooksecure.com/product/research-methods-in-
accounting-4th-edition-ebook-pdf/
(eBook PDF) A Research Primer for Technical
Communication: Methods, Exemplars, and Analyses

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-a-research-primer-for-
technical-communication-methods-exemplars-and-analyses/

(eBook PDF) Introducing Communication Research: Paths

of Inquiry 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-introducing-
communication-research-paths-of-inquiry-4th-edition/

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Qualitative Research

Methods in Psychology 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-
qualitative-research-methods-in-psychology-4th-edition/

Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, 4th ed

4th Edition Dennis Howitt - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/introduction-to-research-
methods-in-psychology-4th-ed-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical

Thinking Approach 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-research-methods-and-
statistics-a-critical-thinking-approach-4th-edition/
Contents
Preface
Foreword

Part 1
The What and Why of Communication Research
1 Introduction to Communication Research
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Critical Thinking and Information Literacy
Academic and Proprietary Research and Creative Work
What Is Communication Theory?
Theory and Research Methods
» Everyday Ways of Knowing
» Research Methods as Argument
» Making Good Academic and Practical Arguments
Audiences for Communication Research
» Professional Associations
» Scholarly Journals
» Trade Journals and Popular Press Publications
Making Sense of Scholarly Journal Articles
» Research Reports
» Critical Essays
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
2 Three Paradigms of Knowing
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
 Why Three Paradigms?
Methodological Ways of Knowing
» Knowing Through Quantitative Social Science
» Knowing Through Interpretation
» Knowing Through Criticism
Paradigms: A Final Note
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
3 Ethics and Research
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
A Brief History of Communication Ethics
Codes of Conduct: Linking Values to Research Practices
The Institutional Review Board Review Process
Ethical Choices in Communication Research
» Before Doing Research: Motives for Projects and Topics
» During Research Projects: Protecting the Rights of Research Participants
Right to Freely Choose Research Participation
Right to Privacy
Right to Be Treated With Honesty and Respect
» Afterward: Reporting and Evaluating Research Ethically
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities

Part 2
How to Explain and Predict Communication
4 Making Arguments for Association and Causality
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Values of Quantitative Social Science Research
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning: Cycle of Inquiry
Claims in Quantitative Social Science
» Explanatory and Predictive Claims
 » Explanatory and Predictive Claims
Research Questions and Hypotheses
» Associative and Causal Relationships
» Independent and Dependent Variables
Evidence for Causal and Associative Research Arguments
» Data Sources
Texts
Self-Reports
Other-Reports
Observations
» Data Settings: When Settings Count
» Selecting Data Samples: Preference for Random Sampling
Random Selection Methods
Nonrandom Selection Methods
Warranting Quantitative Social Science Research Arguments
» Validity as a Standard for Evaluating Evidence
Bias: A Threat to Accurate Design and Measurement
Types of Measurement Validity
Errors That Threaten External Validity
External Validity
» Reliability as a Standard for Evaluating Evidence
Noise: A Threat to Consistent Measurement
Types of Measurement Reliability
» The Relationship Between Validity and Reliability
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
5 Measuring and Designing Quantitative Social Science Research
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Research Design as the Essential Framework
Measurement
» Conceptual and Operational Definitions
» Levels of Measurement
Nominal Level
Ordinal Level
Interval Level
Ratio Level
Building Arguments Through Research Designs
» Designs in Content Analysis and Survey Research
Cross-sectional Surveys
Longitudinal Surveys
 Longitudinal Surveys
» Experimental Research Design
Design Elements
Types of Designs
Warranting Quantitative Research Through Design Elements
» Time Progression Effects
History
Maturation
Mortality
Statistical Regression
Testing
Instrumentation
» Reactivity Effects
Selection
Treatment Diffusion
Compensatory Behavior
Researcher Attributes
Demand Characteristics
Evaluation Apprehension
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
6 Experimental Research: Predicting Causes and Effects
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Experimental Research Claims
» Emphasis on Deductive Reasoning
» Constructing Causal Arguments
» Experimental Research Designs
Experimental Research Data
» Data Sources and Variable Types
» Data Settings
» Data Collection and Analysis
Data Collection Strategies
Analysis of Variance Effects
Experimental Research Warrants
» Internal Validity
» Internal Validity Threats
» External Validity Threats
Sample Representativeness
Setting Appropriateness
Ethics in Experimental Research
 Ethics in Experimental Research
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussions Questions
“Try It!” Activities
7 Survey Research: Explaining and Predicting Attitudes and Behaviors
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Survey Research Claims
» Claims in Exploratory Surveys
» Explanatory and Predictive Claims
» Claims in Network Analysis
Survey Research Data
» Sources and Collection Modes for Survey Data
Primary and Secondary (Archived) Sources
Modes of Data Collection
» Survey Research Design
» Survey Construction and Measurement
Survey Format
Survey Structure
Question Formats and Functions
Warranting Survey Research
» Survey Coverage
» Survey Sampling
» Measurement Errors
» Response Rate
Ethical Issues in Survey Research
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
8 Content Analysis: Explaining and Interpreting Message Categories
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Content Analytic Claims: Explaining and Predicting Message Characteristics
Content Analytic Data
» Message Populations and Data Samples
» Unitizing and Categorizing Textual Data
» Frame Analysis
 » Operationalizing Social Media Engagement
» Computers and Content Analysis
» Content Analytic Results
Warrants for Content Analysis
» Valid Coding Schemes
» Reliable Coding Decisions
» Generalizable Findings
Ethical Issues in Content Analysis
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
9 Analyzing and Interpreting Quantitative Data
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
How to Describe Sample Data
» Visual Representations of Variables
Nominal and Ordinal Data
Interval and Ratio Data
» Numerical Representations of Variables
Measures of Central Tendency
Measures of Shape
Measures of Dispersion
The Logic of Hypothesis Testing
» Three Types of Distributions
» Estimation and Inference
Areas Under the Normal Curve
» Steps to Testing Hypotheses
Formulating Hypotheses
Framing Decisions Based on the Likelihood of Error
Calculating the Test Statistic
Deciding to Accept or Reject the Null Hypothesis
Tests of Differences
» Nonparametric Tests
» Chi-square
Single-Sample Chi-square
Multiple-Sample Chi-square
» Parametric Tests
t-test
Analysis of Variance
Tests of Relationships
» Correlation
Point-Biserial Correlation
 » Bivariate and Multivariate Tests
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
10 Conversation Analysis: Explaining Talk’s Structure and Function
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Conversation Analytic Claims
» Turn Taking
» Adjacency Pairs
» Preference
» Repair
» Action Sequences
Conversation Analytic Data
» Collecting Ordinary Conversations
Recording Techniques
Ethical Issues in Conversational Analysis
» Transcribing Conversations
Formatting Transcripts
Transcription Programs
Determining the Unit of Analysis
» Analytic Induction
Conversation Analytic Warrants
» Accuracy and Detail Level
» Transcription Veracity
» Sample Representativeness
Key Terms
“Try It!” Activities

Part 3
How to Interpret, Evaluate, and Reform Communication
11 Making Arguments for Multiple Plausible Realities
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Humanistic Values
Inductive Reasoning as a Form of Argument
Interpretive Research Claims
 Interpretive Research Claims
Critical Research Claims
Evidence for Interpretive and Critical Arguments
» Preferred Sources of Evidence
» Preference for Nonrandom Selection of Evidence
» A Note About Research Settings
» Using Triangulation to Enhance Rich Descriptions
Basic Analytic Strategies for Interpretive and Critical Research
Warranting Interpretive and Critical Paradigm Research
» Researcher Credibility as a Standard
Researcher Training and Experience
Degree of Membership
Faithfulness
» Plausible Interpretations as a Standard
Adequate Evidence
Coherence
Negative Case Analysis
» Impact as a Standard
Two Views of Truth
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
12 Interviews and Focus Groups: Interpreting Guided Responses
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Interview and Focus Group Claims
Interview Evidence
» Should I Use Individual or Focus Group Interviews?
» Selecting and Recruiting Participants
» Creating the Interview Protocol(s)
» Moderating the Interviews
» Coding and Categorizing Interview Evidence
» Presenting Interview Evidence in a Research Report
Warranting Interview Studies
» Researcher Credibility
» Plausible Interpretations
Key Terms
“Try It!” Activities
13 Ethnography: Interpreting and Evaluating Cultural Communication
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
 What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Ethnomethodology
Ethnographic Claims
» Interpretive Claims
» Evaluative and Reformist Claims
Ethnographic Evidence
» Sources
Participant-Observation
Interviews with Key Informants
Archival Documents
Artifacts
» Triangulation in Ethnographic Research
» Collecting Ethnographic Evidence
Gaining Access to the Setting
Selecting Key Informants
Taking Field Notes
Exiting the Field
» Analyzing Ethnographic Evidence
Transcribing Interviews
Coding and Reducing Field Notes
Writing Case Studies
Ethical Issues for Ethnographers
Ethnographic Warrants
» Researcher Credibility
» Plausible Interpretations
» Impact
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
14 Discourse Analysis: Interpreting and Evaluating Language-in-Use
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Discourse Analytic Claims
» Types of Texts (Also Known as Discourse Genres)
» Interpreting Interactional Accomplishments
Social Practices
» Role and Identity Performances
Entities
» Interpreting and Evaluating Ideologies
Discourse Analytic Evidence
» Collecting Samples of Language-in-Use
 » Choosing a Unit of Analysis
» Coding Units and Developing Thematic Analysis
Discourse Analytic Warrants
» Researcher Credibility
» Plausible Interpretations
Ethical Issues in Discourse Analysis Research
Key Terms
“Try It!” Activities
15 Rhetorical Criticism: Interpreting and Evaluating Messages
Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Rhetorical Theory and Rhetorical Criticism
Neoclassical and Genre Rhetorical Criticism
» Neoclassical Criticism
Claims and Data
Warrants: Standards for Evaluating Rhetorical Effectiveness
New Directions in Neoclassical Criticism 282
» Genre Criticism
Traditional Aristotelian Genre
Claims and Data
New Approaches to Genre Studies
Warrants
Interpretive Rhetorical Criticism
» Metaphoric Criticism
Claims and Data
Warrants
» Dramatism
Claims and Data
Warrants
» Narrative Analysis
Claims and Data
Warrants
Shifting Directions for Rhetorical Criticism
» Reconsidering Rhetorical Symbols and Contexts
Ethical Concerns in Rhetorical Criticism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities
16 Critical Studies: Evaluating and Reforming Ideologies
Introduction
 Introduction
What Will You Get From This Chapter?
Outline
Claims in Critical Studies
» Evaluating and Reforming Social Structures
Marxist Criticism
Gender and Feminist Criticism
» Evaluating and Reinventing Discourse Processes
Postmodern Criticism
Cultural Criticism
Semiotic Criticism
Evidence in Critical Studies
» Actions and Events
» Texts
» Researchers’ Experiences and Beliefs
Analytic Moves in Critical Studies
» Deconstruction
» Narrative Analysis
» Frame Analysis
Warrants for Critical Studies
» Researcher Positionality
» Plausible Evaluations and Reforms
» Impact: Changes in Awareness and Praxis
Ethical Issues for Critical Scholars
Chapter Summary
Key Terms
Discussion Questions
“Try It!” Activities

Glossary
References
Index
Preface
This book started in conversations between two teacher-scholars. As both researchers and educators,
we share a commitment to multiple ways of knowing. We believe that different research methodologies
are useful for exploring different questions about communication. Since the early 1990s, we have
taught undergraduate research methods courses at San Francisco State University (Gerianne Merrigan)
and the University of San Diego (Carole Huston). Carole has taught multiple methods courses for
undergraduate students, and Geri has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in quantitative and
multiple methods. Together, we have amassed over 55 semesters of teaching experience with more than
1,800 research methodology students.
We developed this book to reflect changes that have happened over the past 75 years, as
communication research grew from being predominantly concerned with persuasion and media effects
in the 1950s to the array of experiments, surveys, content analyses, conversation analyses,
ethnographies, and discourse analyses, along with all the forms of rhetorical, media, and critical studies
that our field now includes. We locate a variety of research methods within this historical context, and
we highlight the role of different methodologies for making different types of research arguments (i.e.,
different kinds of claims, supported by different forms of data or evidence, and warranted in distinctly
different ways). We hope to introduce undergraduate and introductory graduate students to a range of
communication research methods. Ideally, those students should be upper-division majors in a
communication-related program who have completed their university’s graduation requirements in
critical thinking, mathematical reasoning, and information literacy. However, no other prerequisite
background knowledge or skills are assumed (e.g., communication theory, statistics, or specific
computer programs).

The Research-as-Argument Model

Because many departments require a research methods course for students majoring in communication
(or speech or media), in this book we treat communication research comprehensively. We have
organized the book around three epistemological paradigms, each a response to the question, How can
we know about communication? These paradigms include quantitative social science, interpretation,
and criticism. If you are an experienced teacher of research methods, you will find the concepts you are
used to teaching in this book. But you may find that those concepts are presented in a different order or
are organized somewhat differently than you have encountered in other texts. If you have used this
book before, you will find the order of paradigms changed in this edition, a point we will return to in a
moment.
Part 1 of this book gives readers an overview, some essential questions in communication research:
why and what to study. We used Toulmin, Reike, and Janik’s (1984) model of argument to talk about
research as a way of making arguments. We think that model is applicable to quite different research
methodologies. The research-as-argument model is embraced by scholars in a variety of disciplines.
For example, here is what a Yale statistics professor of 42 years wrote about the approach:

Rather than mindlessly trashing any and all statements with numbers in them, a more mature response is to
learn enough about statistics to distinguish honest, useful conclusions from skullduggery or foolishness. . . . My
central theme is that good statistics involves principled argument that conveys an interesting and credible point.
(Abelson, 1995, pp. 1–2)
Similarly, in their textbook The Craft of Research, published by the University of Chicago Press, W. C.
Booth, Colomb, and Williams (2009) wrote,

People usually think of arguments as disputes. . . . But that is not the kind of argument that made them
researchers in the first place (p. 86). When you make a claim, give good reasons, and add qualifications, you
acknowledge your readers’ desire to work with you in developing and testing new ideas. In this light, the best
kind of argument is not verbal coercion but an act of cooperation and respect. (p. 93)

In this book, we use Toulmin’s model to show that research methodology is a process of making
claims about communication and supporting those claims with evidence and background reasoning.
The reasoning is always based on the values of a particular way of knowing, whether that paradigm is
quantitative social science, interpretation, or criticism. Therefore, in Part 1 of this book we introduce
students to “The What and Why of Communication Research.” In Chapter 1, we consider links
between communication theories and methods and some audiences for communication research. We
also introduce students to two types of academic manuscripts, including research reports and critical
essays. In Chapter 2, we introduce our claim–data–warrant model and develop the three paradigms for
communication research: quantitative social science, interpretation, and criticism. In Chapter 3, we turn
to research ethics, its history in our field, and some of the ethical choices students will face when they
decide what to study and how to study it, as well as when they collect and report data or evidence.
In Parts 2 and 3 of this book, we show students how to conduct communication research using the
methodologies associated with each epistemological paradigm. Part 2 consists of seven chapters, each
concerned with how to conduct quantitative social science research: We begin Part 2 with a chapter
devoted to making arguments for association and causality, followed by a chapter that shows students
how to design quantitative social science research. These chapters are followed by chapters devoted to
experiments, surveys, and content analysis. In one chapter we will help students interpret and analyze
descriptive and inferential statistics. We conclude Part 2 with a chapter on conversation analysis, which
we position as a bridge between the values of quantitative social scientists and those of interpretive
researchers (for more on this, see “New to this Edition”).
Part 3 consists of six chapters, each concerned with how to conduct interpretive and critical
paradigm communication scholarship. We begin Part 3 with a new chapter about how to make
arguments for multiple, plausible realities. This parallels the Part 2 chapter on making arguments with
quantitative social science. The remainder of Part 3 consists of chapters devoted to conducting
interview and focus group studies, ethnography (including autoethnography and performance
ethnography), discourse analysis, rhetorical criticism, and critical studies.
Each of the Part 2 and Part 3 chapters includes special attention to the ethical issues involved in their
respective methodologies. Most of those chapters (except Chapters 4, 5, 9, and 11) are organized in
parallel fashion, using the elements of research as argument (i.e., claims, data or evidence, and
warrants).
Parks, Faw, and Goldsmith’s (2011) national survey of research methods instruction in the United
States showed that “over 85% of responding programs offered an empirical methods course” (p. 406).
Representatives from nearly all the 149 responding programs from undergraduate, master’s, and
research institutions reported that they wanted students “to read published research and to evaluate the
research that they encounter in everyday life,” and they hoped to give “students research skills that will
be useful in a career” (Parks et al., 2011, pp. 411–412). However, only half of the individuals from
responding programs listed conducting original research as a requirement in their research methods
courses. When students were required to do research activities, they typically developed “original
research hypotheses,” administered surveys, calculated descriptive statistics, and did content analysis
(p. 414). Conducting research is a high-impact educational practice “that has been shown to be
beneficial for college students from many backgrounds” (Association of American Colleges &
Universities, 2008). As with students who participate in first-year seminars, learning communities, and
writing-intensive courses, students who conduct research improve their academic writing, group
collaboration skills reasoning and information literacy
collaboration skills, reasoning, and information literacy.
Parks et al. (2011) cautioned, however, that time constraints and the sheer range of methods
employed by communication scholars today make it unlikely that students can learn to do all research
methods in one course. Instead, they advocated introducing students to research methods early in their
programs and using course sequencing, or linked content across courses, to accomplish integration.
Oxford’s custom publishing services allow instructors to select only the chapters that are most
appropriate for their department and students. This book works well in a two-term sequence that
focuses on quantitative social science methodologies in one term and interpretive and critical
methodologies in another term. It also works very well in courses in which students explore one theme
using a variety of methodologies (e.g., media violence and society; social media and nonprofit
organizations); potentially, themed courses can be team taught by scholars with different paradigmatic
and methodological backgrounds. A variety of “Try It!” activities in each chapter can give students a
smaller taste of all the different methods.

New to This Edition

• Chapter 4, “Making Arguments for Association and Causality,” and Chapter 11, “Making
Arguments for Multiple Plausible Realities,” now replace the separate chapters in former editions
that were devoted to claims, data, and warrants across all three paradigms. This change should
make it easier for students to connect our three paradigms to their associated methodologies. It
also will be useful to instructors who want to customize the book and/or their course.
• Separated chapters for conversation analysis (Chapter 10) and discourse analysis (Chapter 14)
more clearly represent the paradigmatic differences in those ways of studying language-in-use
(i.e., as mentioned above, we present conversation analysis as a bridge between quantitative social
science values and interpretive paradigm values, whereas discourse analytic scholarship spans the
interpretive and critical paradigms).
• We added a chapter on interviews and focus groups (Chapter 12) in response to instructor and
reviewer feedback. This chapter will function to improve students’ abilities to conduct interviews
and code evidence based on repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness (Owen, 1984). Then, in
Chapter 13, “Ethnography,” and Chapter 14, “Discourse Analysis,” we build on those skills,
adding in vivo codes and thematic codes to the students’ repertoire.
• We extended the chapter titles for all Part 2 and Part 3 chapters to help students more quickly
recognize the differences and similarities among these methods.
• Based on our experience teaching CRM3e and the feedback we received from other instructors
and reviewers, we removed the step-by-step instructions and screen capture shots for using SPSS
and Excel software. The material in Chapter 9, “Analyzing and Interpreting Quantitative Data,”
will help students understand how to test hypotheses and to analyze and interpret descriptive and
inferential statistics. However, step-by-step instructions become quickly outdated as software
changes; and students can readily find YouTube videos and other online sources to determine how
to enter data, create visual displays, and run tests.
• Part 1 includes a greater emphasis (relative to CRM3e) on how proprietary and academic research
is utilized in different industries and careers, especially in the media industry.
• The ethics chapter (Chapter 3) now includes links to the ethical codes of conduct for 10
professional associations relevant to communication researchers in academics and industry.

Features of This Book

The style of presentation and writing in this book is similar to that of our previous editions. We worked
to provide more attention to proprietary and electronic research in this edition (e.g., analytics,
Mechanical Turk) and to show students how research skills will matter in their roles at work; as
consumers, parents, and voters; and in health-care and community contexts during school and after
graduation Each chapter begins with a short reader-friendly introduction and student learning
graduation. Each chapter begins with a short, reader friendly introduction and student learning
outcomes. Most chapters conclude with a summary table, and each chapter has discussion questions,
experiential exercises for hands-on learning, and a list of key terms. Each chapter includes extensive
up-to-date examples from published communication research, examples that our many reviewers have
said are accurate, current, and readable.

Acknowledgments
To all our students and teachers: We have learned from you, and we will continue to learn from you.
We are grateful for the support of our families and friends over the nearly 20 years that we have
worked together on this project. We appreciate and have benefited from the expertise of our reviewers,
both the anonymous reviewers hired by Toni Magyar at Oxford University Press and our colleagues,
who read chapters, suggested resources, and encouraged us in the writing of this book. Finally, we
value the contributions made by Brian Spitzberg, both as a reviewer and critic and for writing the
Foreword to this book. Any errors or omissions remain our own, however.
Our sincere thanks are extended to reviewers of this text, including the following individuals:
Barbara Baker, University of Central Missouri
Gary Beck, Old Dominion University
Jay Brower, Western Connecticut State University
Thomas Christie, University of Texas at Arlington
Foreword
Islands of Inquiry

Imagine an island archipelago in the vast, uncharted sea of scholarly inquiry. Long ago, intrepid
explorers from a nation-state far, far away settled the islands of this archipelago. Once the various
islands were settled, the peoples found themselves separated by shark-infested waters, treacherous
reefs, and inaccessible ports. Consequently, little commerce today occurs between natives of these
separate islands. Over time, the peoples developed alternative customs, rituals, religions, values,
dialects, and modes of exchange.
Because each island yields slightly different desirable natural resources, the various peoples of these
islands face a fundamental choice: Do they compete to take the territories across the waters by force, or
do they find sufficient commonality to negotiate normative and mutually compatible relations for
continued commerce? Conflict is costly but may be seen as a means to possess the entire archipelago,
the entire territory with all the resources and power entailed by the success of such a conflict. In
contrast, a negotiated cooperative arrangement may reduce the total resources available to the
inhabitants of each individual island, but enable greater benefits by avoiding the costs of waging war
and arranging complementary exchanges of the best each culture has to offer. Conflict can make a
group stronger by steeling the motives to pull together against the external enemies, yet it can also
reveal the weaknesses and fractures of a given group and, potentially, the entire overthrow of one’s
own cherished culture.
The methodological cultures of social scientists are a lot like these separate island cultures. They
each have their rules, customs, beliefs, and values. Each knows the others exist, but they engage in
relatively little commerce and often view each other with suspicion and incredulity. Conflict, or at least
indifference, occurs more often than cooperation.
Social science began, as did religion, in the ancient, perhaps primal, desire to understand the world
around us. Although religion and science have their similarities, they also have many differences (S.
Fuchs, 2001). Nevertheless, long ago, Eastern and Western traditions evolved across and into various
eras, cultures, and locales of enlightenment. As it was increasingly realized that scientific methods for
understanding the world could be cumulative and increasingly valid, the approaches to understanding
the physical world were increasingly emulated and extended to investigating the social world.
These scholars eventually evolved into tribes of methodological and theoretical disciplines and
associations. These tribes settled distinct islands of academe, often only dimly aware of the seemingly
bizarre and mysterious practices and beliefs of the tribes occupying the academic programs across
continents, universities, colleges, departments, and even hallways and faculty room tables. The
methods by which these tribes became acculturated and accustomed became claims to their natural
resources of the truth(s) of the world and the academic prestige implied by successful claims to this
domain. Over time, these different methods have more often fomented indifference, alienation, and
occasional struggles for respect, rather than negotiated cooperation. Scholars peer derisively at the
alien practices of the heathen tribe across these methodological divides and chant the righteousness of
their own personal beliefs and customs.
The domain of truth is often viewed as a limited resource and any successful claims by other tribes
 The domain of truth is often viewed as a limited resource, and any successful claims by other tribes
result in territory no longer available to conquer except through renewed conflict. These territorial
skirmishes often strengthen the spirits of believers and sometimes eliminate more destructive or flawed
cultural customs of certain tribes; but often, the ongoing battles serve no higher purpose than to fuel the
conflict itself. The tribes intuitively understand that identifying a foil, or a common enemy, helps
reinforce the resolve of the group. The destructiveness of the conflicts is typically exacerbated by the
tendency of the different cultures to employ distinct symbols, vocabularies, and dialects (Kuhn, 1970).
Misunderstandings become common, even when negotiation efforts are pursued in the interest of
cooperation.
Social scientists have developed different methodological idioms of scholarly inquiry. These
methodological practices represent distinct cultures, sometimes cooperating, but more often competing,
to claim the larger territory of social science (Bryman, 2007; G. R. Miller, 1975). Even when
representatives of these distinct cultures claim publicly the importance of getting along, in private
conversations with those of their own tribes, the rhetoric generally becomes incendiary and resentful of
the others’ intrusions into territories more rightly reserved for one’s own endeavors.
Competition for the sake of competition may have reached the limits of its evolutionary value. Two
millennia have helped hone a verdant array of methodological islands. Productive progress in the future
may well require more than a mere truce. Instead, the academic archipelago of social sciences may
need a common bill of rights, a common sense of collective purpose, and a common recognition of
each other’s contributions. Unfortunately, such a revolution is not in the immediate offing. Before such
a revolution can occur, bridges must be forged between and among the academic islands (Craig, 2015).
This textbook lays the preliminary pontoons, in two important ways: first, by locating the nature of
methods in the nature of argument, and second, by representing the broader scope of methods currently
employed by the communication discipline.
By locating the central underlying architecture of all methods in the structure of arguments, this text
helps decode the Rosetta stone of methodological languages, the symbolic intersection through which
negotiations for collective commerce in the pursuit of knowledge must progress. No matter what else
researchers attempt to accomplish using a method, they must rely on, and establish the validity of, its
practices through argument. Every method serves to guide the production, collection, and analysis of
data, which consist of artifact(s), observation(s), case(s), example(s), or counts of something. But data
only become meaningful in the crucible of argument, which connects the data through warrants to
claims. Warrants are the reasons, rationale, or answer to the question why: Why should I, or you,
believe the claim being made by this research? The claim is the conclusion, or the particular
proposition (e.g., hypothesis, value judgment, belief statement), that contextualizes the reasonableness
of the data in connection with a claim. The claim, once established, may then become the warrant for
subsequent arguments. Warrants are the bridges between data and claim, and claims so established
serve as bridges to further arguments.
This textbook examines ways of knowing as arguments. When ordinary people make claims, they
generally consider them privileged by their own personal credibility or experience (see Figure 1). In
contrast, when a scholar has reached a conclusion, it stands as a claim privileged by methodology—a
claim that this scholar’s method has provided specialized or expert insight. Scholars apply a specialized
method that they have mastered through the apprenticeship and mentor(s) of their education, and their
methodological expertise serves as a way of privileging their voice compared to any given layperson’s
view of the world. This does not invalidate the layperson’s views; it only suggests that methods provide
a more reasoned or systematic approach to knowing than the average person will have had the
opportunity or expertise to apply to making claims about some topic of investigation.
There are many ways of scholarly knowing, but three prototypical paradigms in the communication
discipline consist of quantitative, interpretive, and critical approaches. These paradigms will be defined
and detailed more extensively throughout the text, but for now, they can be illustrated in general ways.
With the quantitative method we assume a singular objective reality, and although no method can
reveal this objective truth in the social world, the quantitative method involves the use of various
methods of objectification including experiments control and quantification in an attempt to inch
methods of objectification, including experiments, control, and quantification, in an attempt to inch
ever closer to that reality. Reality is waiting to be discovered, and it is revealed through statistically and
experimentally designed methods of objective procedures, intersubjective perspective, and control.
With the interpretive method we assume that reality is socially constructed, that there are as many
realities as there are people perceiving and influencing such perceptions through their communication.
Realities are revealed only through the lens of an intensely engaged or expert interpreter. With the
critical method we assume that reality is always influenced by underlying systems of often-hidden
influence and power, and such structures must be evaluated through an evaluative perspective that
reveals these hidden forces, thereby presenting opportunities for pursuing more noble or practical ends.
If these paradigms are analyzed through the lens of the rationales they rely on, they might look
something like the following arguments (see Figure 2).

Figure 1 An underlying argument of everyday or intuitive ways of knowing.

Figure 2 Diagramming the underlying argument of the majorly scholarly paradigms of knowing.

Each paradigm or method can be further elaborated into its own rationale. With the quantitative
paradigm we presuppose that in any given process there is a set of causes and effects and that methods
properly designed to manage or control for subjectivity of the researcher(s) and translate observations
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
were observed, it was believed these creatures represented a
regeneration or reincarnation, since it was not realized that the eggs
or larval and pupa stages had anything to do with the generation of
the beetle. Thus the scarab was used as a symbol of immortality.
While, however, this was the popular view, it seems unlikely that
such close observers as were the more cultured Egyptians should
have been entirely unfamiliar with the real genesis of the Scarabæus
sacer; but, in this case also, there would have been no difficulty in
finding it emblematic of immortality in the various stages through
which it passed. The larval stage might well signify the mortal life;
the pupa stage, the intermediate period represented by the mummy,
with which the soul was conceived to be vaguely connected, in spite
of its wanderings through the nether-world; and, lastly, the fully
developed beetle could be regarded as a type of the rebirth into
everlasting life, when the purified and perfected soul again animated
the original and transfigured form in a mysterious resurrection.

Scarabs are frequently engraved with the hieroglyph ☥(anch,

“life”) and (ha, “increase of power”). The emblem of stability
(tet) is also employed, as well as many others. In addition to these
simple symbols, many scarabs bear legends supposed to render
them exceptionally luck-bringing. The following are characteristic
specimens.169

maat ankh neb, “Lord of Truth and Life.”

“abounding in graces” (very deeply cut as a seal).
“May thy name be established; mayst thou have a son.”

(within ornamental border), “good stability.”

ikht neb nefer, “All good things.”

(Inlaid). “A good day” (a holiday).
“A mother is a truly good thing” or “Truth is a good Mother.”
 The scarab, for the Egyptians a type of the rising sun and hence of
the renewal of life after death, was copied by the Phœnicians from
the Egyptian types and modified in various ways to suit the religious
fancies of the various lands to which they bore the products of their
art. Much of the original significance of this symbol must have been
lost; probably in many cases little was left but a vague idea that an
amulet of this form would bring good luck to the wearer and guard
from harm.
Funeral scarabs were often made of jasper, amethyst, lapis-lazuli,
ruby, or carnelian, with the names of gods, kings, priests, officials, or
private persons engraved on the base; occasionally monograms or
floral devices were engraved. Sometimes the base of the scarab was
heart-shaped and at others the scarab was combined with the “utat,”
or eye of Horus, and also with the frog, typifying revivification. Set in
rings they were placed on the fingers of the dead, or else, wrapped
in linen bandages, they rested on the heart of the deceased, a type
of the sun which rose each day to renewed life. They were symbols
of the resurrection of the body.170
Some of the Egyptian scarabs were evidently used as talismanic
gifts from one friend to another. Two such scarabs are in the
collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One bears
the inscription “May Ra grant you a happy New Year,” the text of the
other reading as follows: “May your name be established, may you
have a son,” and “May your house flourish every day.” It is a curious
fact that the modern greeting “Happy New Year” was current in
Egypt probably three thousand years ago.171
On the Egyptian inscribed scarabs used as signets were engraved
many of the symbols to which a talismanic virtue was attributed. The
uræus serpent, signifying death, is sometimes associated with the
knot, the so-called ankh symbol, denoting life. Often the hieroglyph
for nub, gold, appears; this symbol is a necklace with pendant
beads, showing that gold beads must have been known in Egypt in
the early days when the hieroglyph for gold was first used. All these
symbolic figures, of which a great number occur, served to impart to
the signet a sacred and auspicious quality which communicated itself
to the wearer, and even to the impression made by the seal, this in
its turn acquiring a certain magic force. Few of us would be willing to
confess to a belief in the innate power of any symbol, but the
suggestive power of a symbol is as real to-day as it ever was. Any
object that evokes a high thought or serves to emphasize a profound
conviction really possesses a kind of magical quality, since it is
capable of causing an effect out of all proportion to its intrinsic
worth or its material quality.
Many scarabs and signets exist made of the artificial cyanus,
which was an imitation lapis-lazuli made in Egypt. This was an
alkaline silicate, colored a deep blue with carbonate of copper. Often
a wonderful translucent or opaque blue glass was used. The genuine
lapis-lazuli was also used to a considerable extent for scarabs and
cylinders, in Egypt and Assyria, and gems were also cut from it in
imperial Roman times.172 A notable instance of the use of lapis-lazuli
in ancient Egypt was as the material for the image of Truth (Ma),
which the Egyptian chief-justice wore on his neck, suspended from a
golden chain.173
In Roman times some of the legionaries are said to have worn
rings set with scarabs, for the reason that this figure was believed to
impart great courage and vigor to the wearer.174
The Egyptian amulets of the earliest period, up to the XII dynasty
(circa 2000 b.c.), differ considerably from those made and worn after
the beginning of the XVIII dynasty (1580 b.c.). Those of the earlier
period are not numerous and present but a small number of types,
animal forms or the heads of animals constituting the most favored
models. The precious stone materials are principally carnelian, beryl,
and amethyst. After the close of the so-called Hyksos period, the
age during which foreign kings ruled over Egypt, came the brilliant
revival and development of Egyptian civilization that characterized
the XVIII dynasty. Some of the old forms were entirely cast aside
while others were greatly modified in form and significance, the
animal forms losing much of their fetichistic quality and coming to be
more and more regarded as images of the multifarious divinities
worshipped in this later period. In many cases the animal type was
entirely or partially discarded and the amulets figured the
conventional types given to the various divinities. However, while
some of these images were wholly human, many of them show a
human body with an animal head. Various symbolic designs were
also favored, one believed to signify the blood of Isis having the
form of a knot or tie. A frog fashioned out of lapis-lazuli and having
eyes of gold is one of these amulets of the XVIII dynasty or later.
An interesting Egyptian talisman in the Louvre is engraved with a
design representing Thothmes II seizing a lion by the tail and raising
the animal aloft; at the same time he brandishes in the other hand a
club, with which he is about to dash out the lion’s brains. The
Egyptian word quen, “strength,” is engraved beneath the design and
indicates that the virtue of the talisman was to increase the strength
and courage of the wearer, the inscription being a kind of perpetual
invocation to the higher powers whose aid was sought.175
The children of Israel, when in the desert, were said to have
engraved figures on carnelian, “just as seals are engraved.”176 This
statement, repeated by many early writers, may perhaps have arisen
from an identification of carnelian with the first stone of the
breastplate, the odem, unquestionably a red stone, and very
possibly carnelian. There can be no doubt that this was one of the
first stones used for ornamental purposes and for engraving, as a
number of specimens have been preserved from early Egyptian
times. Because of the cooling and calming effect exercised by
carnelian upon the blood, if worn on the neck or on the finger, it was
believed to still all angry passions.177
A class of amulets even older than the Egyptian scarabs is
represented by the engraved Assyrio-Babylonian cylinders. There has
been much discussion among scholars as to the original purpose for
which these cylinders were made, some holding that they were
exclusively employed as seals or signets, while others incline to the
belief that many of them were intended only for use as amulets or
talismans.
These cylinders are perforated and were worn suspended from the
neck or wrist, as is most frequently the case with talismans, and the
engraved designs often represent religious or mythological subjects,
the accompanying inscription merely consisting of the names of the
gods. Cylinders of this type could not have been used as personal
signets, and it is quite possible that Dr. Wiedemann is right in
supposing that their imprint on a document was considered to
impart a certain mystic sanction to the agreement, and render the
divinities or spirits accountable for the fulfilment of the contract.178
The oldest known form of seal is the cylinder. Babylonian and
Assyrian cylinder-seals are known of a date as early as 4000 b.c.
From the earliest period until 2500 b.c. they were made of black or
green serpentine, conglomerate, diorite, and frequently of the
central core of a large conch shell from the Persian Gulf. From 2500
b.c. to 500 b.c. the cylindrical form was prevalent, and the materials
include a brick-red ferruginous quartz, red hematite (an iron ore),
and chalcedony, a beautiful variety of the last-named stone known
as sapphirine being sometimes used. On the cylinders produced
from 4000 b.c. to 2500 b.c. the designs most frequently represent
animal forms; on those dating from 2500 b.c. to 500 b.c. are
generally inscribed five or six rows of cuneiform characters. Up to
the last-named date the work was all done by the sapphire point,
and not by the wheel, and it is not until the fifth century b.c. that
wheel work is apparent in any Babylonian or Assyrian stone-
engraving. In the course of the sixth century b.c. the cylindrical seals
became less frequent, and the tall cone-like seals came into use.179
A new type makes its appearance about the fifth or sixth century
b.c., namely, the scaraboid seal introduced from Egypt. From the
third century b.c. until the second or third century a.d., the seals
became lower and flatter, and the perforation larger, until they
sometimes assumed the form of rings; later the ring form becomes
general. They are usually hollowed a little in the middle, which gives
them the shape and size of the lower short joints of a reed; indeed,
it has been suggested that the original seal was rudely patterned
after a reed joint. The materials used for these cylinders include
lapis-lazuli, very freely used and probably from the Persian mines,
jasper, rock-crystals, chalcedony, carnelian, agate, jade, etc.; a hard,
black variety of serpentine is perhaps the most common of all the
materials used for this purpose.180

PHOENICIAN SCARAB, WITH ENGRAVED SCORPION. (See page 115.)

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CYLINDER IMPRESSION, BEARING FIGURES OF

THE GOD NEBO AND A WORSHIPPER, AND SYMBOLS OF SUN AND
MOON.
From Fischer and Wiedemann “Ueber Babylonische Talismane,” Stuttgart, 1881, Pl. 1,
fig. 3.
 A SMALL JADE CELT ENGRAVED WITH GNOSTIC INSCRIPTIONS IN THE
FOURTH CENTURY.

On one side are seven lines of characters, principally consisting of the seven Greek
vowels used to denote the Ineffable Name. On the reverse is cut a laurel branch with 18
leaves, enclosed within each of which are characters expressing the name of one of the
personifications of Gnostic theosophy. Brought from Egypt and deposited by its possessor,
General Lefroy, in the Rotunda at Woolwich. Now in the Egyptian Department of the British
Museum. (See page 129.)

A good example of these talismanic cylinders shows the figure of

the god Nebo, seated on a throne and holding a ring in his left hand.
Before him are two altars, over which appear, respectively, a star
and the crescent moon; in front of the god is the figure of a man in
an attitude of adoration. Borsippa, where the cylinder was found,
was the special seat of the worship of Nebo, whose name appears in
those of the kings Nebuchadnezzar, Nebopalasser, and Nabonaid.
Regarded as the inventor of writing and as the god of learning, Nebo
was the lord of the planet Mercury, and this shows a close
connection between Babylonian and Græco-Roman ideas in
reference to the god associated with that planet. Nebo was also
believed to be the orderer of times and seasons, and this character
is indicated by the star and the crescent.181
The Cretan peasants of to-day set a high value upon certain very
ancient seals—dating perhaps from as early as 2500 b.c.—which they
find buried in the soil. These seals are inscribed with symbols
supposed to represent the prehistoric Cretan form of writing. Of
course these inscriptions, which have not yet been deciphered by
archæologists, are utterly incomprehensible for the peasants, but
they undoubtedly serve to render the stones objects of mystery. The
peasants call them galopetræ, or “milk-stones,” and they are
supposed to promote the secretion of milk, as was the case with the
galactite.182 The careful preservation of these so-called galopetræ
by Cretan women has served the purpose of archæological research,
as otherwise so large a supply of these very interesting seals would
not now be available.

1. ENGRAVED HELIOTROPE.
 Head of Serapis surrounded by the twelve Zodiacal symbols. From Gori’s
“Thesaurus Gemmarum Antiquarum Astriferarum,” Florence, 1750. Vol. i, Pl. XVII.

2. ENGRAVED RED JASPER.

Head of Medusa, Museum Cl. Passerii.

Many engraved stones of the Roman imperial period bore the

figures of Serapis and of Isis, the former signifying Time and the
latter Earth. On other stones the symbols of the zodiacal signs
appear, referring to the natal constellation of the wearer. The
astrologers, who derived their lore from the Orient, were consulted
by all classes of the Roman people, and it is therefore very natural
that the signet, or the ring worn as an amulet, should frequently
have been engraved with astrological symbols. These designs were
usually engraved on onyxes, carnelians, and similar stones, in Greek
and Roman times; but occasionally the emerald was used in this
way, and more rarely the ruby or the sapphire. Here the costliness of
the material was probably thought to enhance the value of the
amulet. The emerald ring of Polycrates must have possessed some
other than a purely artistic value in his eyes, when it could be
regarded by him as the most precious of his possessions.
In Roman times the image of Alexander the Great was looked
upon as possessing magic virtues, and it is related that when
Cornelius Macer gave a splendid banquet in the temple of Hercules,
the chief ornament of the table was an amber cup, in the midst of
which was a portrait of Alexander, and around this his whole history
figured in small, finely engraved representations. From this cup
Macer drank to the health of the pontifex and then ordered that it
should be passed around among the guests, so that each one might
gaze upon the image of the great man. Pollio, relating this, states
that it was a common belief that everything happened fortunately
for those who bore with them Alexander’s portrait executed in gold
or silver.183 Indeed, even among Christians coins of Alexander were
in great favor as amulets, and the stern John Chrysostom sharply
rebukes those who wore bronze coins of this monarch attached to
their heads and their feet.184
Nowhere in the world was the use of amulets so common as in
Alexandria, especially in the first centuries of our era, and the types
produced here were scattered far and wide throughout the Roman
world. Amulets made from various colored stones had been used for
religious purposes in Egypt from the very earliest period of its
history, so that the custom was deeply rooted in that land. When,
therefore, Alexandria was founded in the fourth century b.c., and
became a great commercial centre, attracting men of all races and
all religions, it is not surprising that the population eagerly adopted
the various amulets used by the adherents of the different religions.
The result was a combining and confusion of many different types.
With the rapid rise and growth of the Christian religion, a new
element was introduced. Unquestionably the leading Christian
teachers were strongly opposed to such superstitious practices, but
the rank and file of the faithful clung to their old fancies.
 In the second century the Gnostic heresy gave a new impulse to
the fabrication of amulets. This strange eclecticism, resulting from
an interweaving of pagan and Christian ideas, with its complicated
symbolism, much of which is almost incomprehensible, found
expression in the creation of the most bizarre types of amulets, and
the magic virtues of the curious designs was enhanced by
inscriptions purposely obscure. The incomprehensible always seems
to have a mysterious charm for those devoted to the magic arts, and
the adepts willingly catered to this taste, so that we can often only
guess at the signification of the words and names engraved upon
the Gnostic or Basilidian gems. So widespread was their use
throughout the Roman Empire, that there were factories entirely
devoted to the production of these objects.185
Regarding the sacred name Abrasax, which was inscribed on so
many Gnostic gems, we read in St. Augustine’s treatise De hæres.,
vi, “Basilides asserted that there were 365 heavens; it was for this
reason that he regarded the name Abrasax as sacred and
venerable.”
 1. Gnostic gem, heliotrope, with Abraxas god. Gorlaeus Collection. From the
“Abraxas seu Apistopistus” of Macarius (L’Heureux) Antwerp, 1657, Pl. II.
2. Another type; with seven stars.
3. Gnostic gem. Type of Abraxas god and mystic letters I A W. From Gori’s
“Thesaurus Gemmarum Antiquarum Astriferarum,” Florence, 1750, vol. i, Pl.
CLXXXIX.
 4. Abraxas gem, jasper, mystic letters I A W. From Gorlaeus, “Cabinet de Pierres
Gravées,” Paris, 1778.
5. Jasper engraved with the symbol of the Agathodaemon Serpent. The type of
amulet noted by Galen as that used by the Egyptian king “Nechepsus” (Necho
610-594 B.C.). Original at one time in the collection of Johann Schinkel. From the
“Abraxas seu Apistopistus” of Macarius (L’Heureux) Antwerp, 1657, Pl. XVII. See
page 385.

According to the Greek notation the letters comprising this name

give that number:

α= 1
β= 2
ρ = 100
α= 1
σ = 200
α= 1
ξ = 60
365

It is, however, not unlikely that the 365 days in the solar year are
signified; and this enigmatical name might thus be brought into
connection with Mithra, the solar divinity, who was worshipped
throughout the Persian and Roman empires in the first and second
centuries of our era.
A very recondite but ingenious explanation of the Gnostic name
Abrasax is given by Harduin in his notes to Pliny’s “Natural
History.”186 He sees in the first three letters the initials of the three
Hebrew words signifying father, son, and spirit (ab, ben, ruah), the
Triune God; the last four letters are the initials of the Greek words
ἀνθρώπους σώζει ἁγίῳ ξύλῳ or “he saves men by the sacred wood”
(the cross). This seems rather far-fetched, it must be confessed, and
yet to any one familiar with the vagaries of Alexandrine eclecticism,
and with the tendency of the time and place to make strange and
uncouth combinations of Greek and Hebrew forms, there is nothing
inherently improbable in the explanation. Indeed, the Hebrew and
Greek words in this composite sentence might have been regarded
as typifying the union of the Old and New Testaments, and such an
acrostic would certainly have been looked upon as possessing a
mystic and supernatural power.

ANTIQUE JADE CELT CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.

Enclosed within the outlines of the 18 leaves are as many names of the
personifications of Gnostic Theosophy.

Many explanations have been offered as to the origin and

significance of the characteristic figure of the Abrasax god engraved
on a number of Gnostic amulets. There seems to be no doubt that
this figure was invented by Basilides, chief of the Gnostic sect
bearing his name, and who flourished in the early part of the second
century a.d. While the details of the type as perfected were
undoubtedly borrowed from the eclectic symbolism of the Egyptian
and western Asiatic world it is almost impossible to conjecture the
reasons determining the selection of this particular form.
A jasper engraved with the famous Gnostic symbol was set in the
ring worn by Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester (a.d. 1159). This ring was
found on the skeleton of the bishop and is now preserved in the
treasury of the Cathedral of Chichester. Undoubtedly the curious
symbolic figure was given a perfectly orthodox meaning, and,
indeed, it was not really a pagan symbol, as the Gnostics were
“indifferent Christians,” although their system was a fanciful
elaboration of the doctrines of the late Alexandrian school of Greek
Philosophy and an adaptation of this to the teachings of Christian
tradition. In many cases, however, gems with purely pagan designs
were worn by Christians, designs such as Isis with the child Horus,
which was taken to be the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus.
A curious amulet, apparently belonging to the Gnostic variety, and
intended to bring success to the owner of a racehorse, is now in the
collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. The
material is green jasper with red spots. On the obverse the horse is
figured with the victor’s palm and the name Tiberis; on the reverse
appears the vulture-headed figure of the Abraxas god and the
characters, “zacta iaw bapia,” which have been translated, “Iao the
Destroyer and Creator.”187 Possibly this amulet may have been
attached to the horse during his races to insure victory, as we know
that amulets of this kind were used in this way.
As illustrating the eclectic character of some of the amulets used
in the early Christian centuries, we may note one in the Cabinet de
Médailles, in Paris. This has upon the obverse the head of Alexander
the Great; on the reverse is a she-ass with her foal, and below this a
scorpion and the name Jesus Christ. Another amulet of this class,
figured by Vettori,188 also has the head of Alexander on the obverse,
while the reverse bears the Greek monogram of the name Christos.
After the third or fourth century of our era the art of gem-
engraving seems to have been lost, or at least to have been very
seldom practised, and it is noteworthy in the matter that after this
period writers who treat of the virtues of engraved gems as
talismans rarely, if ever, use the words “if you engrave” such or such
a figure on a stone, but write “if you find” such a figure.
 The figures engraved on precious stones were supposed to have a
greater or lesser degree of efficacy in themselves independent of the
virtues peculiar to the stone on which they were engraved, and this
efficacy depended largely upon the hour, day, or month during which
the work was executed. For the influence of the planet, star, or
constellation which was in the ascendant was thought to infuse a
subtle essence into the stone while the appropriate image was being
engraved. However, to exert the maximum power, the virtue of the
image must be of the same character as the virtue inherent in the
material, and the gem became less potent when this was not the
case. Certain images, those symbolizing the zodiacal signs for
instance, were looked upon as possessing such power that their
peculiar nature impressed itself even upon stones inherently of
different quality; others again were only efficacious when engraved
on stones the quality of which was in sympathy with them.189
Naturally, many of the ancient gems which had been preserved
from Greek and Roman times were recognized as being purely
products of art, but in medieval and later times the idea of the magic
quality of all engraved gems had become so deeply rooted that in
many cases a magical character was ascribed to them entirely
foreign to the intention of the engraver. Great ingenuity was often
displayed in seeking and finding some analogy between the
supposed significance of the design and the fancied power of the
stone itself. Taking the agate as an illustration, Camillo Leonardo
says that its many different varieties had as many different virtues,
and he finds in this an explanation of the multiplicity of images
engraved on the various kinds of agate, without realizing that the
true reason was that this material lent itself more readily to artistic
treatment than did many others.
The idea that some special design should be engraved upon a
given stone became quite general in the early centuries of our era.
The emerald, for instance, according to Damigeron, was to be
engraved with a scarab, beneath which was to be a standing figure
of Isis. The gem, when completed, was to be pierced longitudinally
and worn in a brooch. The fortunate owner of this talisman was then
to adorn himself and the members of his family, and, a consecration
having been pronounced, he was assured that he would see “the
glory of the stone granted it by God.”190 Possibly this may have
meant that the stone would become luminous.
A list of these symbolic designs is said to have been given in the
“Book of Wings,” by Ragiel, one of the curious treatises composed
about the thirteenth century under the influence of Hebrew and
Greco-Roman tradition. Although it owes its origin to the Hebrew
“Book of Raziel,” it bears little if any likeness to that work. As will be
seen in the following items, the fact that the design is on its
appropriate stone is always insisted on:
 MOSS AGATE MOCHA STONES, HINDOOSTAN.

The beautiful and terrible figure of a dragon. If this is found

on a ruby or any other stone of similar nature and virtue, it has
the power to augment the goods of this world and makes the
wearer joyous and healthy.
 The figure of a falcon, if on a topaz, helps to acquire the
goodwill of kings, princes, and magnates. The image of an
astrolabe, if on a sapphire, has power to increase wealth and
enables the wearer to predict the future.
The well-formed image of a lion, if engraved on a garnet, will
protect and preserve honors and health, cures the wearer of all
diseases, brings him honors, and guards him from all perils in
travelling.
An ass, if represented on a chrysolite, will give power to
prognosticate and predict the future.
The figure of a ram or of a bearded man, on a sapphire, has
the power to cure and preserve from many infirmities as well as
to free from poison and from all demons. This is a royal image;
it confers dignities and honors and exalts the wearer.
A frog, engraved on a beryl, will have the power to reconcile
enemies and produce friendship where there was discord.
A camel’s head or two goats among myrtles, if on an onyx,
has the power to convoke, assemble, and constrain demons; if
any one wears it, he will see terrible visions in sleep.
A vulture, if on a chrysolite, has the power to constrain
demons and the winds. It controls demons and prevents them
from coming together in the place where the gem may be; it
also guards against their importunities. The demons obey the
wearer.
A bat, represented on a heliotrope or bloodstone, gives the
wearer power over demons and helps incantations.
A griffin, imaged on a crystal, produces abundance of milk.
A man richly dressed and with a beautiful object in his hand,
engraved on a carnelian, checks the flow of blood and confers
honors.
 A lion or an archer, on a jasper, gives help against poison and
cures from fever.
A man in armor, with bow and arrow, on an iris stone,
protects from evil both the wearer and the place where it may
be.
A man with a sword in his hand, on a carnelian, preserves the
place where it may be from lightning and tempest, and guards
the wearer from vices and enchantments.
A bull engraved on a prase is said to give aid against evil
spells and to procure the favor of magistrates.
A hoopoo with a tarragon herb before it, represented on a
beryl, confers the power to invoke water-spirits and to converse
with them, as well as to call up the mighty dead and to obtain
answers to questions addressed to them.
A swallow, on a celonite, establishes and preserves peace and
concord among men.
A man with his right hand raised aloft, if engraved on a
chalcedony, gives success in lawsuits, renders the wearer
healthy, gives him safety in his travels and preserves him from
all evil chances.
The names of God, on a ceraunia stone, have the power to
preserve the place where the stone may be from tempests; they
also give to the wearer victory over his enemies.
A bear, if engraved on an amethyst, has the virtue of putting
demons to flight and defends and preserves the wearer from
drunkenness.
A man in armor, graven on a magnet, or loadstone, has the
power to aid in incantations and makes the wearer victorious in
war.191
 An Italian manuscript, dating from the fourteenth century, gives
the following talismanic gems:

If thou findest a stone on which is graven or figured a man

with a goat’s head, whoever wears this stone, with God’s help,
will have great riches and the love of all men and animals.
If a stone be found on which is graven or figured an armed
man or the draped figure of a virgin, bound with laurel and
having a laurel branch in her hand, this stone is sacred and
frees the wearer from all changes and haps of fortune.
When thou findest a stone on which is graven the figure of a
man holding a scythe in his hand, a stone like this imparts
strength and power to the wearer. Every day adds to his
strength, courage and boldness.
Hold dear that stone on which thou shalt find figured or cut
the moon or the sun, or both together, for it makes the wearer
chaste and guards him from lust.
A jewel to be prized is that stone on which is graven or
figured a man with wings having beneath his feet a serpent
whose head he holds in his hand. A stone of this kind gives the
wearer, by God’s help, abundant wealth of knowledge, as well
as good health and favor.
Shouldst thou find a stone on which is the figure of a man
holding in his right hand a palm branch, this stone, with God’s
help, renders the wearer victorious in disputes and in battles,
and brings him the favor of the great.
Finding the stone called jasper, bearing graven or figured a
huntsman, a dog, or a stag, the wearer, with God’s help, will
have the power to heal one possessed of a devil, or who is
insane.