The Meaning of California's New State Symbols
Fri, 28/02/2025 - 04:00
By Matthew Palacios and Yanis Ait Kaci Azzou
California’s New State Symbols: A General Overview
Recently, a trio of State Assembly bills have added three new state symbols to California’s collection.
AB 1797, principally authored by Assembly-member Jim Wood, appoints the Dungeness crab as California’s state crustacean. Scientifically known as Metacarcinus magister, the Dungeness crab’s natural habitat extends from the Southern islands of Alaska down to Santa Barbara, with some specimens found even further down the California coastline. The Dungeness crab is a popular seafood catch in Northern California, with care being taken to ensure the stability and sustainability of its population. AB 1797, which adds section 425.15 to the Government Code, also includes declarations and findings of the Dungeness crab’s social and ecological importance.
Alumni of the University of California, Santa Cruz will be pleased to hear of AB 1850, which designates the banana slug as our state slug. The genus specified in the bill, Ariolimax, encompasses five species of gastropod who make their home primarily in the Northern regions of the state. These strikingly yellow, sometimes spotted slugs are quite sizeable, with the Pacific banana slug being the world’s second-largest terrestrial slug species. The bill, authored by Assembly-member Gail Pellerin, enshrines the banana slug genus in Government Code section 425.13.
Rounding out the trio of California’s invertebrate inductees is the shell of the black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii). Established as the state seashell by AB 2504, the black abalone shell is in fact the carapace of a species of critically endangered sea snail found along the Pacific coast. The shell, with its smooth near-black exterior and iridescent reverse, was historically used by the Chumash and other Native peoples to fashion tools and jewelry. Assembly-member Diane Dixon’s bill adds section 425.14 to the Government Code in recognition of the shell’s longstanding cultural significance.
All three laws took effect on January 1st, 2025. The Dungeness crab, banana slug, and black abalone thus take their place alongside California’s iconic symbols, with their inclusion providing us all a welcome opportunity to expand our knowledge about the natural wonders that make our state special.
California’s New State Symbols: Commentary
Whatever we would like to say about the importance of state symbols is tainted by their ubiquity on all levels of legislation within the United States government. A non-trivial amount of the limited time and resources allotted to these bodies goes to the legislation of such symbols and therefore demands some consideration. 2025 marks California’s official recognition of a state crustacean, seashell, and slug within its domain. What does a general consideration on the practice of introducing state symbols tell us about the meaning of these additions?
In an article published in the Kentucky Law Review, Ryan Valentin defines the state symbol as follows: Official state symbols are representations of particular qualities or attributes of a state, as adopted through a democratic process, that connect people to place (1). This definition is an elaboration of the two words in the phrase “state symbol.” On the one hand, the definition of a state is simple enough. In this context, it would simply refer to those living in the regions recognized as the 50 states of The United States. And the governments of those states would be the ones passing the legislation for those symbols. However, to define a symbol, Valentin reaches for the arcana of literary criticism.
The language we use to speak and write is generally symbolic in the sense that the words we use are representations of a thing that point to that thing, rather than the thing itself. The word ‘cat’ is different from an actual cat. Or, as Northrop Frye puts it, “the verbal symbol 'cat' is a group of black marks on a page representing an image or memory representing a sense experience representing an animal that says meow… the word 'cat' is an element in a larger body of meaning [and] not primarily a symbol 'of' anything, for in this aspect it does not represent, but connects (2).” When this connecting process operates smoothly, due to the fact we are typically speaking to people of the same community who speak the same language, the symbolic nature of language disappears. The arbitrariness of the name “cat” is not apparent until one is reminded that different languages have different symbols for the same thing. This arbitrary connection between words and their meanings makes it possible for a community to choose its symbols by charging certain words with meanings that go beyond their neutral description. It is one thing to attach the word “banana slug” to the literal animal, and it is further thing that our legislators have done to attach that word to “California.”
This philosophical digression only indicates why we, as humans, can create state symbols. It does not say why we should do that. Valentin indicates that this question quickly turns from concerning the general “we” to concerning the specific interests of the state government. He writes that, “the primary functions of official state symbols are to legitimize state power, promote state commerce, and create state allegiance(1).” An air of paranoia surrounds this formulation. Valentin cites an article titled The Native in the Garden: Floral Politics and Cultural Entrepreneurs, which mentions that state symbols often come from nature to demonstrate that the state is just as part of the natural order as, say, a flower (3). What this marks is the distance between the state legislation’s interests and those of the average Californian. Confusion upon hearing the news about California’s new state shellfish, slug, and crustacean may be justified!
Sources:
- Ryan Valentin, Milk and other Intoxicating Choices: Official State Symbol Choice (2014)
*This article can be accessed through our library’s connection on Lexis Nexis under citation 41 N. Ky. L. Rev. 1
- Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays 73 (1967).
- Dobransky & Gary Alan Fine, The Native in the Garden: Floral Politics and Cultural Entrepreneurs, 21 Soc. F. 559, 569 (2006).
Further Reading:
