Final Blog Post

Humanities have an origin that began both in history and even within the human brain. This is what we focused on in the introductory unit: the basic way in which we as individuals and as society view the human condition. Within this realm we looked at the domains of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain, and their differences in function. In Shlain’s The Alphabet vs. the Goddess, he discusses the respective roles of each half of the brain. Essentially, Shlain states that the right brain is concerned with “being” in a special and emotional sense, while the left brain functions linearly in the way that time does. The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram wrote about the evolution of written language. Written language has its origins in meaningful symbols that have, over the ages, transformed into symbols with no other value than the letter-sound. It was with the Greek aleph-beth that written language moved entirely out of the realm of the right brain (which interprets meaningful symbols), into the left brain where the symbols are simple and meaningless. This transition shows the transition humanity has made from being primarily right brained to almost completely left brained, in the way that Shlain defined the two hemispheres. We followed this evolution in a sort of class experiment. First we read a passage for homework and took notes on our awareness of our surroundings while reading and the degree of how well absorbed we felt while reading the text. Next we listened to an audiotape of a story told by David Sedaris, and took notes in the same way. Lastly, we watched people tell stories in front of the class and observed our reactions to this method. It was clear that reading the story was the most left brained way of absorbing a story, essentially because of the way in which we read: in a linear pattern across the page. In the next two trials, more of our senses were being used, and the experience became more right brained. While listening to the story, we could hear the inflection and emotion of the reader’s voice, which is interpreted by our right brain. In the final stage, the storytellers took up physical space and used both their inflection and body movements to engage in the story.

The following unit focused on the relationship between nature and human beings, and with these two subjects we also looked at sacred space. As part of this unit we watched a portion of the documentary entitled, “How Art Made the World.” In this Spivey talks about ancient art and how it all began. Some of the most basic shapes in art are universal and the documentary explored how these appeared in cave paintings around the world. The movie explains that when in the darkness of the cave, the artist experiences such sensory deprivation that they begin to “hallucinate” and see certain shapes and patterns. This is why we see dots and rectangular patterns in caves all around the world, because they are patterns made by the human mind in the absence of any light. In this unit, we watched another movie called “Grizzly Man”, which follows Timothy Treadwell and his encounters with the grizzly bears that he lives among. After watching this movie we spoke, as a class, about the different views that one may have of nature. There is the view that nature is a caring and good thing and that humans should in tern take care of nature. This is Treadwell’s view. However, the producer of the film, Werner Herzog, has a different idea of nature, and it is apparent in his narration of the film. Herzog believes that nature is a brutal force that is essentially built for destruction and does not have the ability to show mercy. Treadwell believed that he belonged with the bears and not with humans, because they understood him better. He felt that his relationships with the bears were more meaningful than the relationships he had with human beings. In order to further our understanding of he relationship between humans and nature, we next read Of Cannibals by Montaigne. In Of Cannibals, Montaigne talks about the levels of barbarism by comparing cannibals to European high society. Montaigne makes the claim that the Europeans are just as barbaric as the cannibals because, while the cannibals are following their true nature while the Europeans are dressing themselves up in fancy clothing and pretending to be above all of that. While, in reality they are waging wars and killing other humans just as the cannibals do, but they claim to be of a higher kind. Essentially, Montaigne is stating that one is less like a barbarian when he or she follows the tendencies that come naturally.

The most uncomfortable unit, Love and Beauty, followed the unit on nature. In this we discussed the views of humanity on beauty and love through time. We spoke about the Venus of Willendorf, which was created by an ancient nomadic tribe of Europe. This Venus displays very prominent hips, breasts, and stomach, while features such as her face and arms are not at all important. This find gives us insight into the views on beauty of that time. It is obvious that the features that relate to reproduction were emphasized, which shows that a beautiful woman of that time was one who was very well qualified for carrying children. Following a time line, we then read Greek myths about beauty and love. One that I believe stood out to the entire class was The Phallic Priapus. In this story, a man carves a woman’s figure out of marble. She is so life-like that the man calls her his wife and sleeps with her in his bed every night. Aphrodite sees how this man loves the stone and decides to turn her into a real woman. This story gives us a view into the nature of love in these times. He loves the woman, not for her personality, but for the way the smooth marble feels under his had. This speaks to the value of physical beauty in this time. As a class, we also looked at the views that philosophers have on beauty. Two that we looked at were Neitsche and Kant, who have almost apposing views of beauty. Neitsche believed that we reflect something of ourselves onto the world and that is what makes it beautiful. While Kant believed that beauty is a universal thing, and that if one person believes something is beautiful then the whole world must as well.

The next unit focused on the subjects of ethics, law, power, and human frailty. In this unit we talked about religious codes of ethics, specifically the Ten Commandments, The Holiness Code, the Buddhist Precepts, and the Sermon on the Mount. These four texts have differences, but there are some subjects that are universal across culture and religion, such as no murdering, coveting, or stealing. All of these texts provide a code of morals that should be followed by the people in order to live a fulfilling life. In most of these texts a fulfilling life is one that pleases God, but in the Buddhist Precepts it is one without attachment because that is what leads to suffering. The Buddhist Precepts are meant to lead one to a life of further enlightenment, through detachment. The Ten Commandments are a set of rules dictated by God that must be followed in order to have a place in heaven. The Ten Commandments say that one does not covet, kill, steal, commit adultery, say the Lords name in vain, bear false witness against a neighbor, or have idols, and one must remember the Sabbath, honor the parents, have only one God. At the end of this unit we watched the Woody Allen movie, Crimes and Misdemeanors. This movie talks about different views on morals. Ben, a rabbi is the moral example in the movie and believes entirely in a moral system and that all are good. Ben consults his eye doctor in a matter about infidelity, but the man does not listen to Ben and instead takes the advice of his highly immoral brother and kills the woman he has been sleeping with. However, at the end of the movie he no longer has guilt about the murder and feels that he is freed from it. These are two opposing sides of a moral code: one where there exists a natural moral code and those who do not follow it will be punished, and the other that there is no moral code and there are no repercussions.

In the final unit, we discussed the hero’s journey. We read Shakespeare’s Hamlet. According the movie The Power of Myth, an interview with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. The hero’s journey is about coming out of an abyss and moving forward. Hamlet’s character models this by coming out of his negative ideas of death, given to him by the restless ghost of his father, and moving past it and accepting his own death. Joseph Campbell’s view of the hero is that there is a set path for heroes, almost like a formula. Moyer believes that through stories, such as stories of the hero, we try to relate our lives to reality and make sense of it all. The example that they used in this movie was Star Wars. This follows the exact path of the hero’s journey. They travel to somewhere far away and overcome the dark side to bring good to the galaxy.