A general method is presented which allows one to determine from the local gauge invariant observables of a quantum field theory the underlying particle and symmetry structures appearing at the lower (ultraviolet) end of the spatio--temporal scale. Particles which are confined to small scales, i.e., do not appear in the physical spectrum, can be uncovered in this way without taking recourse to gauge fields or indefinite metric spaces. In this way notions such as quark, gluon, colour symmetry and confinement acquire a new and intrinsic meaning which is stable under gauge or duality transformations. The method is illustrated by the example of the Schwinger model.