The Human Existence

An essential part of the human experience is the biological differences between cultures. Everyone has their own, unique genetic make-up, but similar evolutionary traits are often exhibited in separate civilizations. In Leonard Shlain's "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess," he describes the different hemispheres of the brain and their separate functions. He goes on, however, to write that these functions have evolved due to the culture in which they are present. Even though all individuals in a culture have right and left sides of the brain, their brains could have a stronger senses of smell, or a heightened feelings of love. I have heard of a group in Africa that is immune to AIDS. Another cultural phenomenon is the advancement of the written language. As David Abram indicates, groups can develop a written language unique to their own living situation. Glyphs were originally created to copy the images we see in life, and then be copied down for future stories. Stories incorporated written language later in human history, but primarily started as an oral tradition. Cultures from around the world have been known to tell stories, often about the same subjects, but the way in which they tell them are always different. Europeans often told stories that related to Jesus and his ideas with Christian morals. These stories always follow a linear, chronological pattern. The Native Americans, however, told stories that approached the same topics as the Europeans (death, life, ethics, etc.), but used a more cyclical pattern and involved the natural world around them more. The way humans change due to their surroundings is a common theme of humanity.

Our next unit was about Nature and Sacred Spaces. These deal with the human experience because it approaches a very common theme among all people. We assign different amounts of value to places according to our individual beliefs and the values of our culture combined. Our internal beliefs guide us to hold certain places holy, like religious locations, such as the Kaaba and the Chartres Cathedral. These two locations hold great merit for people who believe in those two religions, but would not have as profound an effect on people outside the faith. These need not be solely religious, too. Many sacred spaces are simply places that we, personally, find to be important, even if they aren’t important to others. Timothy Treadwell decided to live in the Alaskan Tundra with grizzly bears because he thought they were the most special creatures on the planet. He considered that his Sacred Space although it did not have the same impact on him as it did others. Nature is a place that can produce profound, Sacred Space-like, emotions, but also can be considered something to be dominated. In The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, Nature is a sacred space to characters like Caliban, but is equally unimportant to people like Sebastian. Nature is simply another Sacred Space that could have an effect on the individual or not.

Love and Beauty are the most common themes. They are ideas that are exhibited cross-culturally. They are humungous parts of literature, stories, and evolution. They are probably the most common theme in all of history. The Venus of Willendorf is a figure that exhibited a focus on beauty in the probable years of 22,000-24,000 B.C.E. Whatever culture she came from thought that a figure like this was beautiful. She has enormous breasts and hips and no head and no arms. She is an example of what that culture found beautiful. About 25,900 years later, Oscar Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray. Beauty is described in this book as much less practical as the Venus of Willendorf. It is now thought of in tandem with the possession of money. If a person has money and exhibits in their clothing and appearance, they are considered beautiful. We studied many Philosophers who tried to tackle this monumental figure that is love. Nietzsche believed that you reflect yourself in who you love, while Kant believed in the power of universal beauty. Love and beauty is a prevalent topic in all cultures and thus is a massive part of the human experience.]

Ethics are representative of the human experience because they are most influenced by others. Ethics is an idea that would not exist without social constructs. Many of our ethics, here in the United States, are based off of European values. These values are mainly Judeo-Christian ideas that have been imposed on our culture. We covered such topics as the 10 commandments, the Holiness Code, the Buddhist precepts, and the Sermon on the Mount. These all have similar values but with distinct differences that alter cultures. The Buddhist precepts focus more on the rightousness of the mind, and not the righteousness of the actions. These leas a culture to be more intuitive, irrational, and probably right-brained dominant as many Eastern Civilizations are. The Judeo-Christian values are more action based, and less idea based. That will lead to a civilization filled with logic and actions, probably a more left-brained dominant culture. We read the Stranger by Kamus. His ideas of ethics were a little more vague, as he is an absurdist. He believed in the randomness of the universe and that there was no order to life. His ethics, however, were still indicative of being affected by outside sources. He alludes in his writing that murder and coldness is wrong, and compassion and Judeo-Christian values are right. The piece of art that directly faced many ethical dilemmas was Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. In the film, he approaches ideas of solidarity vs. submission into a system. He essentially proves that those who follow a system are the successful ones and those who try to verge are usually unsuccessful. This take on ethics heavily influenced by others thoughts and feelings. The unit delves deeply into the topic of human existence.

Finally, we covered the Hero’s Journey. This is the most external idea that will challenge our inner souls. The Hero’s Journey is not an inborn idea. It is something that is imposed on us by figures like Hamlet, from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Moses, and pop icons like Simba. These characters have to go into an abyss, discover something about themselves and return to the world outside them. This idea is most described the most by philosopher Joseph Campbell. He describes the hero’s journey as an idea that is a valuable part of human existence. He shows it as a part of life that is heavily influenced by others, as we use these people as our personal models. The Hero’s Journey is an idea that influences the situations around us and is a valuable part of human existence.