A. Contrast the "Venus" of Willendorf (Figure 0.5) with the Cycladic figure (Fig. 0.8). Discuss what you think might be the reasons for their differences.
Since the ancient cultures, from which both figurines came, was centered on food production and resulted in freeing people from wandering from place to place, worship of the Mother Earth, or Mother Goddess became almost a cult and was a prominent part of ritual to insure the goodness of the earth. There were many beliefs about the spiritual aspects of life, death, food production and health and the people worshiped the Earth Goddess seeking good crops, fertile land and health. People settled in a place and lived there.
Contrasting the "Venus" of the Willendorf (Fig. 0.5) with the Cycladic figure (Fig. 0.8), some of the reasons for their differences could be associated with the climate and the ability to grow things. It could be that the people who used the Willendorf needed more favor from the earth and thus exaggerated her features, or that the area was quite fertile and she represented the rich fertility of the earth. The same is true for the people who use the Cycladic figure. They stylized the female perhaps because the Earth was so abundant and they did not need to exaggerate her features or because the earth was sparse in her production and she represented the lack of fertility of their land. Either way, they both represented the fertility of Mother Earth and the fertility of women and probably were used in ritual to seek favor with Mother Earth for good crops and good health. Another difference could be the way in which the female was viewed. Sometimes cultures will exaggerate the features of the female because that is what they understand and relate to as the purpose of the female. Her breasts, hips and other sexual features are the necessary parts for reproduction. Viewing the woman in this way means that an association could be drawn between the womb or soil of the Earth and her fertility in crop production. This could just be the way they viewed the female in what they experienced with growing things and having children. It was important for the Earth to be fertile as a matter of survival. Another point in contrasting the two is that the Cycladic figure is strangely lacking in sexual features and her arms hide her breasts. We know it is a female, but the question is why did they stylize her and hide her breasts? In my mind, it could be because she was so sacred that they could not look upon her breasts, which represented the fertility of the land to "feed" and produce healthy and abundant crops. Maybe she was a mystery to them and they represented this by stylizing her. Could she have been the results of male dominance emerging in the culture? We now have severe male dominance, which has been consistent for 1,000's of years. Could this have been part of that evolution? No one actually know why both of these figures were made the way they were, but it is probably closely related to the concept of Mother Earth that each culture understood, how they reverenced her and how they may have tried to appease or please her in their rituals and worship of her.
B. Compare the "Venus" of Willendorf (Figure 0.5) with the Cycladic figure (Fig. 0.8). Discuss why you think they share the similarities that they do.
Comparing the "Venus" of the Willendorf (Figure 0.5) and the Cycladic figure (Figure 0.8), I think that they have the similarities that they do have because they both are female, they represent the Mother Earth, the Mother Goddess, and they both have to do with the fertility, both of the female and the Earth. Although their features appear almost opposite from one another, the basic understanding and use of these figures was most likely the same. They were put in graves, used in rituals and worshiped like a deity. Death was part of the cycle of life with all living things and the Earth Goddess insured that death was not the end, that life and fertility would once again return. Seasonal climates would tend to exaggerate by reason of the seasons and what occurred in each season. Winter was when the Earth was "dead". Spring was when the Earth came back to life. Summer was when crops grew and matured. Fall was when they were harvested and when things began to die again. Of course, when the people also went through their seasons of life, these beliefs correlated with their births and deaths. The rituals developed to accommodate the culture’s evolution and development of their beliefs over time. But, the female was the primary symbol of worship in most Ancient cultures because of food production and living in an area for extended amounts of time.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
"The Song of Creation" from the Big Veda of India
This is a copy from The Humanistic Tradition, by Gloria K. Fiero, of “The Song of Creation” from the Big Veda of India reading 1.2 on pg. 14
“The Song of Creation” from the Big Veda (India)
Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depth unfathomed?
Then there were neither death nor immortality,
Nor was there then the torch or night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.
At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
Arose at last, born of the power of heat.
In the beginning desire descended on it -
That was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is, is kin to that which is not.
And they have stretched their cord across the void,
And know what was above, and what below.
Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.
Below was strength, and over it was impulse.
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows - or maybe even he does not know.
Dianne M. Parker
Humanities 2211- 02Z
Professor Karen Scheafer
September 20, 2008
Nothing is known about what was in the beginning. I wonder where it was and who had it? Was water somehow in space, present in the midst of its unknowable existence?
Neither death nor immortality, nor time or eternity existed. Fire did not light the way, nor was day and night imagined. There existed only the One Being; silent, without motion, and present in the nothingness. The One was alive, complete and full, needing nothing to sustain self.
In the beginning, the blackness was wrapped up in itself and did not exist, but yet it was there. Its vastness was like water without light, thought without substance. From nothing, the One came to be, and was enfolded in it like a garment.
Finally, the One was in motion. Desire, the creative thought, was the heat by which the one moved in the void. His “want”, the first primeval thought, fell upon non-existence and planted the first seed; that which can grow, and became something that was.
The ancients looked within themselves with their great wisdom and found out their hearts. They know that what exists now is brother or sister to that which does not exist. They have searched the spirit world in their meditations, leaving their bodies and stretching their silver chords across the vastness of nothing. They have found out what is in the heavens and what is below the earth.
The One, who is “He”, released his thought projected heat of desire. His pregnant masculine forces moved into the void and impregnated all with the certainty that something will grow and become all that will be. He has fertilized the egg of hope.
His passion lept from him, before he knew it, in an uncontrollable urge to create.
But this is conjecture. No one really knows. Even the gods are not as old as the One and did not exist until after creation came to be. No one actually knows about any of it.
Whether the One did or did not create all things, only He knows for sure. He can look at all that is from His place in the heavens. “But, wait, maybe He doesn’t know either!” (1)
Source:
1. Fiero, Gloria K. “The Song of Creation from the Big Veda.” The Humanistic Tradition Book 1. New York: McGraw Hill 2006. (Reading 2.1, p. 14, 5th edition)
“The Song of Creation” (translated from the Big Veda) in The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham (Macmillan, 1954) (Credit to original work: Page 173)
“The Song of Creation” from the Big Veda (India)
Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depth unfathomed?
Then there were neither death nor immortality,
Nor was there then the torch or night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.
At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
Arose at last, born of the power of heat.
In the beginning desire descended on it -
That was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is, is kin to that which is not.
And they have stretched their cord across the void,
And know what was above, and what below.
Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.
Below was strength, and over it was impulse.
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows - or maybe even he does not know.
Dianne M. Parker
Humanities 2211- 02Z
Professor Karen Scheafer
September 20, 2008
Who Really Knows How Creation Happened?
Before anything existed, there was nothing. Air and heaven did not exist.Nothing is known about what was in the beginning. I wonder where it was and who had it? Was water somehow in space, present in the midst of its unknowable existence?
Neither death nor immortality, nor time or eternity existed. Fire did not light the way, nor was day and night imagined. There existed only the One Being; silent, without motion, and present in the nothingness. The One was alive, complete and full, needing nothing to sustain self.
In the beginning, the blackness was wrapped up in itself and did not exist, but yet it was there. Its vastness was like water without light, thought without substance. From nothing, the One came to be, and was enfolded in it like a garment.
Finally, the One was in motion. Desire, the creative thought, was the heat by which the one moved in the void. His “want”, the first primeval thought, fell upon non-existence and planted the first seed; that which can grow, and became something that was.
The ancients looked within themselves with their great wisdom and found out their hearts. They know that what exists now is brother or sister to that which does not exist. They have searched the spirit world in their meditations, leaving their bodies and stretching their silver chords across the vastness of nothing. They have found out what is in the heavens and what is below the earth.
The One, who is “He”, released his thought projected heat of desire. His pregnant masculine forces moved into the void and impregnated all with the certainty that something will grow and become all that will be. He has fertilized the egg of hope.
His passion lept from him, before he knew it, in an uncontrollable urge to create.
But this is conjecture. No one really knows. Even the gods are not as old as the One and did not exist until after creation came to be. No one actually knows about any of it.
Whether the One did or did not create all things, only He knows for sure. He can look at all that is from His place in the heavens. “But, wait, maybe He doesn’t know either!” (1)
Source:
1. Fiero, Gloria K. “The Song of Creation from the Big Veda.” The Humanistic Tradition Book 1. New York: McGraw Hill 2006. (Reading 2.1, p. 14, 5th edition)
“The Song of Creation” (translated from the Big Veda) in The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham (Macmillan, 1954) (Credit to original work: Page 173)
Moving Too Fast!
This semester is whizzing by me in a flash. I feel like I am constantly treading water just to keep my head up enough to gasp some air. With 5 courses, I expected some increase in the amount of time I needed to keep up, but I think I bit off a bit more than I can chew! If I was taking courses like Astronomy and Psychology, I think I would be OK. But, I am taking English, Statistics, Astronomy, Spanish and Humanities. These courses are the last of the prerequisites I need to finally move toward my BS in Psychology. Still with a BS in Alternative Medicine, I was hoping to be in a Masters program, but I am having to do 2 years of preparatory courses for the Masters by getting the BS at UCF. I feel like I am so involved in getting prepared to do something that I sometimes feel I will never get to do what ever it is I am going to do when I am done with all this preparation!
In the mean time, the English course is a writing course, which has been surprisingly amazing for me. It has been an experience of honing my writing skills as well as learning many things I did not know about writing. I always thought I was a good writer. But, this course has humbled me and shown me that my writing was crying out for improvement. Alot of improvement. So, it has become part of my routine and it is going well. Spanish is the same as it always has been. It takes alot of work to learn a language. You have to get creative in how you retain it and create opportunities to use it. Most challenging, but I do put the time into it and I am doing well. Astronomy is wonderful, fun and pretty easy. I am a die hard Sci-Fi enthusiast. I have no problem loosing myself in the work, enjoying learning the subject and getting a lot out of the activities, homework, classes, etc. The movies are a great perk. Moving on to Statistics. I do not have to say much about this subject because most people I know disliked it strongly. I, however, know that it is a course that causes boredom and frustration to reach new hights, but, working on a positive attitude right from the start, I approached this subject as if I was going to enjoy every minute of it. Hmmm. Not sure if that is working, but, I am finding it extremely challenging. The subject matter has its own challenges for me, but the amount of work that I must do as I move through this course is astonishing. The chapters are to be read and studied. The homework given for each chapter must be done. No credit for getting it done. The on-line classes in video must be watched and the worksheets that are additional to the book must be done with them. No credit for getting this done, either. Then, there is the in class work sheet each week, which never seems to get done within the class time and must be finished at home. Almost each week there is a quiz for 20 minutes and you can't use your book, notes, homework, or anything to do it. Memory is fading in the setting sun and I can't remember all this stuff! I am so slow and it takes me extra time to remember information and I many times do not finish the quizes, resulting in a poorer grade than I should get. The exams are also during class without books, notes, homework, etc. So at the end of it all, not much can be done if I don't get the good grades during these two opportunities to get a grade. The quizes and the exams are the only things counted for my grade. That's alot of work for so little toward the grade. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work required by this course, but I am keeping up OK. Just need a memory rejuvination so it works again!
Now, this ends us up on the final assessment of my 5th subject: Humanities. This course also requires much reading, posting or writing, essays, exams and this blog site as part of our asignments. By itself, the amount of work isn't as bad as statistics, but the amount of work is much higher than many courses I have taken. This course was not in my favorite's list either, but is a required prerequisite. So, I was not excited about it. However, keeping my attitude in check and making sure my initial introduction to the subject was positive, I determined that I would enjoy every minute of this subject, even if I didn't really want to. Too bad! Got to. So, with joy and anticipation, enthusiasm and excitement, I delved into the beautifully laid out text books and began to read and do the lessons. To my great surprise, I really do enjoy this course. I really do like learning about the humanities end of civilization. I thought there would be more dry facts, dates, places, events, etc. and I would struggle to remember them for tests. Instead, I struggle to remember things that I am really interested in. Just because my memory is useless, doesn't mean I can't enjoy the subject. It helps that I can use my books, notes, etc to do well on the tests. The writing is improving because both of these courses, English and Humanities, critique it and cause me to learn how to write better. I'm very interested in that kind of improvement. I think my writing is getting better as the semester progresses.
So, as overwhelmed as I am, I now will attempt to embelish this site with the highlights of my work in this course. Thanks for stopping by, checking me out and reading about my saga, the adventure of learning in academia.
In the mean time, the English course is a writing course, which has been surprisingly amazing for me. It has been an experience of honing my writing skills as well as learning many things I did not know about writing. I always thought I was a good writer. But, this course has humbled me and shown me that my writing was crying out for improvement. Alot of improvement. So, it has become part of my routine and it is going well. Spanish is the same as it always has been. It takes alot of work to learn a language. You have to get creative in how you retain it and create opportunities to use it. Most challenging, but I do put the time into it and I am doing well. Astronomy is wonderful, fun and pretty easy. I am a die hard Sci-Fi enthusiast. I have no problem loosing myself in the work, enjoying learning the subject and getting a lot out of the activities, homework, classes, etc. The movies are a great perk. Moving on to Statistics. I do not have to say much about this subject because most people I know disliked it strongly. I, however, know that it is a course that causes boredom and frustration to reach new hights, but, working on a positive attitude right from the start, I approached this subject as if I was going to enjoy every minute of it. Hmmm. Not sure if that is working, but, I am finding it extremely challenging. The subject matter has its own challenges for me, but the amount of work that I must do as I move through this course is astonishing. The chapters are to be read and studied. The homework given for each chapter must be done. No credit for getting it done. The on-line classes in video must be watched and the worksheets that are additional to the book must be done with them. No credit for getting this done, either. Then, there is the in class work sheet each week, which never seems to get done within the class time and must be finished at home. Almost each week there is a quiz for 20 minutes and you can't use your book, notes, homework, or anything to do it. Memory is fading in the setting sun and I can't remember all this stuff! I am so slow and it takes me extra time to remember information and I many times do not finish the quizes, resulting in a poorer grade than I should get. The exams are also during class without books, notes, homework, etc. So at the end of it all, not much can be done if I don't get the good grades during these two opportunities to get a grade. The quizes and the exams are the only things counted for my grade. That's alot of work for so little toward the grade. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work required by this course, but I am keeping up OK. Just need a memory rejuvination so it works again!
Now, this ends us up on the final assessment of my 5th subject: Humanities. This course also requires much reading, posting or writing, essays, exams and this blog site as part of our asignments. By itself, the amount of work isn't as bad as statistics, but the amount of work is much higher than many courses I have taken. This course was not in my favorite's list either, but is a required prerequisite. So, I was not excited about it. However, keeping my attitude in check and making sure my initial introduction to the subject was positive, I determined that I would enjoy every minute of this subject, even if I didn't really want to. Too bad! Got to. So, with joy and anticipation, enthusiasm and excitement, I delved into the beautifully laid out text books and began to read and do the lessons. To my great surprise, I really do enjoy this course. I really do like learning about the humanities end of civilization. I thought there would be more dry facts, dates, places, events, etc. and I would struggle to remember them for tests. Instead, I struggle to remember things that I am really interested in. Just because my memory is useless, doesn't mean I can't enjoy the subject. It helps that I can use my books, notes, etc to do well on the tests. The writing is improving because both of these courses, English and Humanities, critique it and cause me to learn how to write better. I'm very interested in that kind of improvement. I think my writing is getting better as the semester progresses.
So, as overwhelmed as I am, I now will attempt to embelish this site with the highlights of my work in this course. Thanks for stopping by, checking me out and reading about my saga, the adventure of learning in academia.
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