In Robert Layton's third chapter of Anthropology of Art, symbols speak for all aspects of human interaction throughout history and prehistory. He suggests that "social life, in all its aspects and at every period of its history, is made possible by a vast symbolism" (93) with representations present before language and writing was established. Visual representations and verbal sounds were in fact the basis of such communication. How people go about adding value to such projections relates to a collective human experience and a need for better cooperation amongst one another.
Society and symbols are equipped with making a living and a life. Even in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the cave dwellers could not exist without recognizing the shadows as a collective symbol. Art as a form of expression is lost in the vast modernity and different ways of perceiving an experience or object. With additional words, feelings and tools, art as a symbolic representation has lost its value of wall-hanging quality such as the constant exchange of money. Money was created from an artistic symbol of reciprocity, but its overuse has diminished its aesthetic appeal. Again, going back to previous discussions of expression and making special, age and origin reflects the value to the individual over the collective.
When the Spanish missionaries tried converting Nahuatl speakers of central America to the Catholic faith, language and ambiguity separated the two cultures. The missionaries tried expressing "good heartedness" through this language barrier as the Nahuatl term "cualli inyollo." Natural Mayan speakers, following their practices of ripping hearts out of people as sacrifice to their gods, misunderstood the intention behind the translation and took it for its literal meaning of "hearts are good." Through history and colonial Latin America, when language barred syncretism, images prevailed. The Virgin Mary for example was most prevalent in the syncretism of many natives because they saw the moon and the stars that adorned her in relation to their native goddess of feminine purity, Tonantzin.
Where would like to see a mural in your community?
- paiged15
- exeter, new hampshire, United States
- To diffuse what I have learned about food security, economic security, environmental conservation and social equity to inquisitive and various demographics, would allow me to reciprocate a greater asset of critical and situational reasoning. I feel confident in my ability to think critically and create an outlet for further communicating what sustains the individual in a way that would only become better with experience immersed within public initiatives for food empowerment.
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