Exercise 1: The Mysteries of Sumerian MusicArchaeologists have unearthed musical instruments and a few written works on music theory from Sumerian sites. Visit the following web resources and explore some of what we do and do not know about the music of this ancient society.
William Sound
http://www.williamsound.com/gold_lyre_music_info.html
William Sounds includes photographs of carefully restored Sumerian instrument replicas. It also has a review of what is known about Sumerian music.
1. What is noteworthy about the design of these instruments apart from their musical function?The World of Ur University of Pennsylvania Museum
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/Zine/ninkasisdance.html
This page describes some of the attempts to reproduce at least some aspects of Sumerian music.
2. Do you think modern listeners will ever experience what Sumerian music sounded like? Why or why not?Gateways to Babylon: The Temple Hymns
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/enheduanna/templehymns.htm
This website provides English translations of ancient Sumerian hymns.
3. How are these hymns different from the religious tradition you are most familiar with? How are they similar?Exercise 2: The Code of HammurabiWorld Civilizations: The Code of Hammurabi
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM
The World Civilizations website includes a translation of “The Code of Hammurabi,” the earliest-known example of a written body of organized laws.
What are some examples of what would in modern times be called “civil laws” in the Hammurabi Code? What are some examples of criminal laws? In what way does the code attempt to regulate the economic life of the society?TopExercise 1: Gender and Power in Ancient EgyptTour Egypt: “Hatshepsut, Female Pharaoh of Egypt”
http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hatshepsut.htm
The Tour Egypt website includes a summary of Hatshepsut’s reign in ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut was not the only female ruler of Egypt, but she was probably the most successful, and the best known after Cleopatra.
1. What circumstances led Hatshepsut to assume the role of pharaoh, despite the fact that she was a woman? What were some of the ways she maintained power despite the pressure for a male to assume the role? How do we know that she attained the status of a pharaoh in the minds of the people she ruled?Kelsey Museum: Woman and Gender in Ancient Egypt
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/galleries/Exhibits/WomenandGender/title.html
This online exhibition uses Egyptian artifacts to examine the roles and lives of women in ancient Egyptian society, and how these fit into the larger patterns of gender definitions and relations.
2. How was the status of women different in ancient Egypt than in other ancient civilizations?Exercise 2: Egyptian Writing Tour Egypt: Ancient Words
http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/lifeinEgypt6.htm
This Tour Egypt articles explains that a professional administrative class in Egyptian society called “scribes,” were highly prized by both the pharaoh and the priesthood. In fact, they were so highly regarded that in some of the pharaoh's tombs, the pharaoh himself is depicted as a scribe in pictographs.
1. What were some of the abilities of scribes that set them apart form other Egyptians? What were the duties of a scribe? The British Museum: The Rosetta Stone
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/home.html
Lost for nearly two thousand years, the British Museum is home to one of the most important keys to understanding the ancient world, the Rosetta Stone.
2. What is the significance of the Rosetta stone? How was it used to help understand the Egyptian civilization? How is it that the British Museum came to possess this important artifact?BBC: World: “Oldest alphabet found in Egypt”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/521235.stm
This BBC News story reported in 1999 that recent discoveries in an Egyptian valley called Wadi el-Ho had pushed back the known beginning of alphabetic writing to 2,000 B.C.
3. Why do you think this article suggests that the alphabetic system of writing was “more democratic”?New York Times: Discovery of Egyptian Inscriptions Indicates an Earlier Date for Origin of the Alphabet.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/alphorg.htm
Here is another article about this landmark discovery from the New York Times.
4. How is it believed that writing evolved from pictographs to an alphaphonic code?TopExercise 1: LabyrinthsCrete is the cradle or cornerstone of Greek civilization and one of the most enduring legends concerning Crete is that of the Minotaur, a half-man and half bull monster, trapped within a Labyrinth, that devoured Athenian youth.
The inspiration for the story was the renowned Minoan palace at Knossos on Crete; itself an architectural maze of up to 1300 rooms spread over 3 acres of land. The palace at Knossos burned in 1500 B.C. but the labyrinth legends endured.
University of Buffalo: Adventures of the Greek Hero Theseus
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~erukulla/theseus.htm
The adventures of Theseus are found here including his slaying of the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth.
1. How did Theseus manage to escape?Crystalinks: “Labyrinths and Mazes”
http://www.crystalinks.com/labyrinths.html
The Cretan labyrinth legend has also endured as a symbol. Known as the Cretan Classical or seven-circuit labyrinth, a version of the image was found at the remains of a burned Mycenean palace at Pylos in Greece from 1200 B.C. Other examples from throughout the ancient Mediterranean have survived. The symbol also appears on ancient Cretan coins. This “New Age” website looks at the history of labyrinths as an archetype and as a metaphor for life's journey.
2. What is a labyrinth? How is it different from a maze? How have labyrinths come to take on spiritual significance?The Labyrinth Society: “What is a Labyrinth”
http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/html/about_labyrinths.html
The Labyrinth Society believes that labyrinths can be a useful tool in spiritual and psychological transformation. It includes a virtual labyrinth walk you can take online, and instructions for drawing or constructing your own Cretan Classical or seven circuit labyrinth.
3. Using the instruction on this site, draw a seven-circuit labyrinth.Exercise 2: The Journey of OdysseusClassical Studies at Penn: “Map of Odysseus' Journey”
http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/homer/odymap.php
You can use this interactive map to follow the journey of Odysseus from Troy back to Ithaca. It includes brief descriptions of Odysseus’s adventures at each stop and in some cases images as well.
1. At the start of Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus is no longer in Troy. Where is he? What is the name of the island where Odysseus and his crew encounter the Cyclopes? Where do Odysseus and his crew stop shortly after leaving Troy?TopExercise 1: “Modern” Views of Greek Tragedy In his book The Birth of Tragedy, originally published in 1872, Friedrich Nietzsche praises Greek tragedy as an art form that resolves the conflict between two powerful cultural forces: The Apollonian and the Dionysian. Though Nietzsche himself called this work "an arrogant and extravagant book," this classicist and philosopher through his concise writing style does succeed in illuminating many aspects of this dramatic form.
William A. Johnson, University of Cincinnati: Nietzsche on Tragedy
http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/tragedy/nietzsche.html
“Greek Tragedy (an evolving web tool)”
http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/tragedy/
has a section on Nietzsche’s analysis of Greek Tragedy.
1. How is both the Apollonian and the Dionysian expressed in the Greek Tragedy, according to Nietzsche?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: “Friedrich Nietzsche”
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/#2
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Nietzsche lamented that in Western culture Dionysian, creative energy had been submerged and weakened and ultimately overshadowed by the Apollonian forces of logic and order.”
1. Do you think there has there been a resurgence of the Dionysian creative energy since The Birth of Tragedy was published at the end of the 19th century? Why or why not?Exercise 2: The Birth Of DemocracyHistory Guide: The Athenian Origins of Direct Democracy
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture6b.html
This history guide lecture explains how the Greek city-state developed and how it resulted in a system of democracy.
1. What were some of the forces that contributed to the emergence of in ancient Greece?BBC History: The Democratic Experiment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_03.shtml
This article from the BBC points out that while Western democracy claims descent from the democracy of ancient Greece, there are crucial differences between modern democracy and the one founded in Greece 2,500 years ago.
2. What was democracy like in 5th century Athens? How was it different from what we think of democracy today? Why did the Athenian experiment with democracy come to an end?Exercise 3: Venus de Milo, Classic or just Classy?The Venus de Milo was excavated in 1820 on the Cycladic island of Melos, and given to King Louis XVIII by the French Ambassador. Louis XVIII presented it to the Louvre, where it has been exhibited since 1821.
Smithsonian Magazine: “Base Deception”
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues03/oct03/presence.html
1. While the French claim that the Venus de Milo is from Greece’s classical period, this article from the Smithsonian Magazine suggests that the French were desperate for a great work from that epoch, and the Venus de Milo is really from the Hellenistic period. What do you think?TopExercise 1: Socrates and the DialecticSocrates's centrality to the history of Western philosophy has been assured by Plato, who himself is one of the major figures of Western philosophy. The challenge is in disentangling the historical Socrates from the amalgam of Socrates and Plato we find in Plato’s work.
Aspects of Education: Socrates versus Plato: The Origins and Development of Socratic Thinking
http://www.prs-ltsn.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/articles/socrates/socplat.html
This article provides a brief summary of Plato’s and Socrates’s primary philosophical ideas.
1. Name one way in which the philosophy of Plato differed from that of Socrates. Socrates compared himself to a “midwife,” according to this article. In what way was Socrates like a midwife?Exercise 2: Aristotelian LogicAristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a Greek scientist and philosopher who, along with Plato, is often considered to be one of the two most influential philosophers in the West. Aristotle's logic, especially his theory of the syllogism, has had an unparalleled influence on the history of Western thought. Ancient commentators grouped together several of Aristotle's treatises under the title Organon ("instrument") and regarded them as comprising his logical works. Virtually all of Aristotle’s works were lost for over 1,000 years except for Organon.
Planet Math: “Aristotelian Logic”
http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/AristotelianLogic.html
Planetmath has a brief introduction to the Aristotelian logic.
2. Write your own simple Aristotelian syllogism using the examples in these introductory articles as a guide.TopExercise 1: Principals Of RhetoricMarcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.–43 B.C.), the greatest Roman orator, was also a politician and a philosopher. Cicero was convinced that knowledge (philosophy) had to be combined with rhetorical persuasion if philosophy was to prevail. A great man would be the master of both, he believed. The great orator of his time, Cicero laid out principals of rhetoric, not unlike the principals formulated by the Greeks and Romans in architecture and the visual arts.
Rhetoric Resources: “Cicero”
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/rhetoric/figures/cicero.html
This article by Maria Rinaldi of the Georgia Institute of Technology concludes with Cicero's Seven Parts of Oratory.
Gettysburg Address
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/getty.html
1. Make a copy of the Gettysburg Address, and evaluate it according to Cicero’s principals of oratory. See if you can find all seven parts of the parts described by Cicero in Lincoln’s famous address.Exercise 2: Women of the Trojan WarVirgil was born in 70 B.C. and was still working on revisions to Aeneid when he died in 19 B.C. This great epic about the founding of Rome draws on numerous local legends. These tales told how refugees from fallen Troy had migrated to Italy, and became the founding ancestors of the Roman people. While Virgil’s epic is the most famous, numerous Roman writers, including Ovid, Horace, and Seneca, also wrote about the fall of Troy and its aftermath.
Mortal Women of the Trojan War: “The Women”
http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/women.html
This site offers a brief description of the women from the Trojan War. It offers a sampling of works from several leading Latin authors.
1. Which woman was the wanderer queen of Carthage? Who was the prophetess whose warning that a Trojan horse would bring down Troy went unheeded? Who was queen of the Amazons who led her army on the side of the Trojans in the war’s tenth year? Whose side was Helen on in the Trojan War?TopExercise 1: Linear TimeMircea Eliade, author of "The Sacred and the Profane" and other religious scholars believe that the Western world’s idea of time as linear rather cyclic originated with Judaism.
Joseph F Kelly: "The Basic Ideas of Mircea Eliade's ‘The Sacred and the Profane’"
http://www.jcu.edu/bible/101/Readings/EliadeSacredTime.htm
This article reviews Eliade's ideas about linear and sacred time.
Dr. Timothy J. Hoare: “Some Basic Concepts in Judaism.”
http://staff.jccc.net/thoare/juda.htm
This website provides an outline of the central tenets of Judaism, including its history and current practices.
Philologos: The Bible History, Old Testament
http://philologos.org/__eb-bhot/vol_I/contents.htm
A history timeline hyperlinked to more in depth articles offers a convenient way to review Old Testament history on this website.
1. After reading "Some Basic Concepts in Judaism" and reviewing the history of the ancient Hebrews at Philologos, what is it about the practices of Judaism and its historic origins that would inspire or contribute to the idea of linear time? How has Judaism and other Western religious traditions managed to incorporate some aspects of cyclical time into their belief systems as well?Teaching about Religion Worldview Education: "Time"
http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/CompareWorldviews/time.htm
This site reviews how various religious traditions and cultures view time.
2. What are some of the cultural implications of a linear versus a cyclical view of time? Would a society that has a linear view tend to be more or less traditional?Exercise 2: Christianity and Classical AntiquityPlato founded his Academy in Athens, in about 387 BC. It survived until 529 when it was closed down by the Christian Emperor Justinian, who claimed it was a pagan establishment. Yet Christian theologians like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Augustine were early Christian exponents of a Platonic perspective.
History Guide, The Church Fathers: St. Jerome and St. Augustine
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture16b.html
The article from History Guide explains the relationship between the church and classical culture.
1. How did classical culture help invigorate and sustain the early church? Why was the establishment of a relationship between classical and Christian controversial?Philosophy Pages: Medieval Philosophy
http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/3b.htm
“Nearly all of the medieval thinkers—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—were pre-occupied with some version of the attempt to a synthesis of philosophy with religion,” according to this article on the Philosophy Pages website.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: St. Augustine
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine/
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy traces St. Augustine’s philosophical development, first as a Neo-Platonist and later as a Christian. The article seems to suggest that the most transforming event in Augustine’s thinking was his encounter with the writings of Plato, rather than the gospel of Christ.
2. In addition to Plato, what other philosophers from pre-Christian antiquity influenced the emerging Christian philosophy? What are some of the ideas of classical philosophers that made their way into Christian doctrine?TopExercise 1: The Arabic Language in Islamic Decorative ArtCalligraphy in the Arabic language is an important medium of artistic expression in the Islamic world. Through the aesthetic energy devoted to the copying of the Qu’ran, it was raised to the status of an art. Calligraphy spread to works other than the Qu'ran and it was regarded as highly, or perhaps even higher, than painting.
Salaam: Calligraphy
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/march02_index.php?l=4
This article explains some of the history and importance of calligraphy in the Islamic world, stating “It [calligraphy] plays a part more or less analogous to that of the icon in Christian art, for it represents the visible body of the Divine word”
1. Why did calligraphy develop as art form in the Islamic world? Which kind of script is considered most suitable for working on architectural surfaces?Sakkal Design
http://www.sakkal.com/instrctn/Instruction.html
This site on Arabic calligraphy includes a few simples lesson how to write in Square Kufi among other topics.
2. See if you can write your name or a simple English word in Square Kufi.Exercise 2: Exploring the Hagia SophiaThe Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) church was built in 532–37 by Emperor Justinian from designs of his imperial architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. As a result of earthquakes, the dome collapsed in 558, but it was rebuilt by 563. It served as a church for over 900 years and as a mosque for over four hundred, starting n 1453 when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople.
Now a museum, the Hagia Sophia culminates in a high central dome with a diameter of over 101 feet (31 meters) and a height of 160 feet (48.5 meters). The great dome was often interpreted by contemporary commentators as the dome of heaven itself.
AAST: Byzantine Architecture
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Engineering_Graphics/_EG2001/pedi_corporation/byzantine.html
This article from the Academy for Advancement of Science and Technology explains the design innovations that permitted the construction of the Hagia Sophia’s great dome.
1. What is a “pendentive”? How did the pendentive enable the builders of the Hagia Sophia construct the great dome?Ontario Architecture Glossary
http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/glossary.html
This architecture glossary includes both words and many pictures of the terms defined.
Enjoyturkey.com: “The Masterpiece – St. Sophia Museum”
http://www.enjoyturkey.com/info/sights/st_sophia.htm
Enjoyturkey.com offers an interesting and detailed account of the changes and challenges natural and man made that the Hagia Sophia has encountered over many centuries.
2. Find three or more terms, which can be found in the Ontario Architectural Glossary in the article on the St. Sophia Museum at Enjoyturkey.comExercise 3: Basilicas
An Introduction to the History of Christian Liturgy in the West
http://www.yale.edu/adhoc/research_resources/liturgy/f_basilica.html
This site gives a brief history of the early stages of Christian houses of worship. It includes several photographs of the earliest “basilicas.”
1. What was the function of a basilica prior to the conversion of the Emperor Constantine? What was the reason that Constantine did not convert pagan temples into Christian places of worship?TopExercise 1: Gregorian ChantsThe Gregorian Association (London, England)
http://www.beaufort.demon.co.uk/chant.htm#Latin
Quite a lot of information can be found about the history and evolution of Gregorian chanting within the Roman Catholic Church within a single sprawling page.
1. How were individual Gregorian chants preserved and passed down to succeeding generations? How did the methods change over time?Exercise 2: Gothic CathedralInternational World History Project: Gothic Art and Architecture
http://ragz-international.com/gothic_art.htm
The World History project is a great resource for the humanities online. This article by Professor Andrew Henry Robert Martindale: Professor of Visual Arts, University of East Anglia traces the development of architecture and describes its lasting influence and its importance in medieval cultures.
1. What are some of the basic differences between Gothic and Romanesque architecture? What is the origin of the term “Gothic” with respect to medieval architecture?TopExercise 1: The French TroubadoursFrench troubadours of Medieval Europe are often credited with inventing romantic love poetry and even of inventing romantic love itself. As C. S. Lewis points out, “Interest in love poetry was relatively new to the Middle Ages. In all of the surviving poetry of the ancients, we find few examples of love poetry.” Others credit Bedouin Arabs with writing the first love poems hundreds of years earlier and suggest these Arab works helped inspire the French Troubadours.
Study Guide for Medieval Love Songs
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/love-in-the-arts/medieval.html
According to this study guide, until the mid-12th Century, European literature rarely mentions love, and women seldom figure prominently. Within a couple of decades, however, passionate love stories replaced epic combat tales and women are exalted to almost god-like status.
1. How would French Troubadours have acquainted themselves with Arab poetry?History News Network: “Islam Invented Romantic Love”
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/3387.html
2. This article posted on the History News Network makes the case for Islam’s central role in fostering the idea of Romantic love in Europe. Do you find this essay convincing? Why or why not?Romance Study Guide: Focus on Courtly Love
http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/Troy/amourstudy.htm
This study guide suggests that the cult of the Virgin Mary followed a bit after the popular embrace of the idea of courtly love.
3. In what ways did the elevation of Mary as an important figure of worship within the Church contribute to and strengthen the idea of courtly love?Exercise 2: Modern Troubadours?“Layla” by Eric Clapton
http://www.lyricattack.com/e/ericclaptonlyrics/laylalyrics.html
“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince
http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/P/Prince/Nothing-Compares-2-U.html
Medieval Troubadour: Arnault Daniel: The Complete Works
http://www.cam.org/~malcova/troubadours/arnaut_daniel/
Medieval Troubadour: Jaufre Ruel: The Complete Works
http://www.cam.org/~malcova/troubadours/jaufre_rudel/
1. How do these somewhat contemporary and still “hit songs” by Eric Clapton and Prince compare in their sentiment to the Medieval troubadours Arnault Daniel, and Jaufre Ruel?TopExercise 1: The Legacy of SlaveryUNESCO: Slave Route Project
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5322=DO_TOPIC=201.html
The Slave Route Project aims to make universally known the subject of the Transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean. It also aims to emphasize, in an objective way, the consequences of the slave trade, especially the interactions between the peoples involved in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.
1. August 23, 2004 marked the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. What is the historical significance of August 23rd that it was chosen to be the date of this international day of commemoration?Anti-Slavery International, Breaking the Silence: Learning About the Transatlantic Slave Trade
http://www.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence/slave_routes/index.shtml
Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839, is the world's oldest international human rights organization and the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against slavery and related abuses. This section of the website explores some of the people and places that stand as living testimony to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the struggle for its end.
2. Who were the buyers and who were the sellers involved in the slave trade? What circumstances fueled the slave trade? What is the legacy of the slave trade?Exercise 2: African ArtBayly Art Museum: African Art: Aesthetics And Meaning
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ray.aa/African.html
The objects selected for this electronic exhibition catalog were chosen both to exemplify African aesthetic and moral principles and to display some of the finest pieces in the Bayly's large collection. Most of the pieces in the exhibit come from West African societies and there are lengthy written descriptions of each work.
1. Why are human beings so frequently depicted as subjects in African Art? What is the significance of luminosity in the aesthetic of African art?Africa: The Art of a Continent
http://www.artnetweb.com/guggenheim/africa/africamap.html
This online exhibition from the Guggenheim museum includes a clickable map of various regions of Africa. For each region there is a description of its artistic traditions and photographs of a sampling of exemplary works.
2. Which region of Africa includes impressive stone ruins, which were incorrectly attributed to outsiders on the assumption that Africans were incapable of producing such imposing architecture?TopExercise 1: The Griots of AfricaCora Agatucci, Mali Empire & Griot Traditions
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/coursepackpast/maligriot.htm
In Mali the Griots are oral artists and specialists of the spoken and sung word and in a force called nyama.
1. What is nyama?Dr. Jürgen Streeck, Historical Sources of Rap:
The African-American “Oral Tradition”
http://www.utexas.edu/coc/cms/faculty/streeck/hiphop/Ancestor_genres.pdf
This article concerning the roots of hip-hop music in the United States includes an in-depth exploration of the role of the Griot in West Africa culture.
2. It is generally acknowledged that the origins of rap and hip-hop culture can be found in the Griot tradition of West Africa by way of Jamaica. Rap performers are even sometimes referred to as “Urban Griots.” What are some of the similarities and differences between West African Griots and American rap artists?Exercise 2: Myths in African CulturesRoberta Mazzucco: “African Myths and What They Teach”
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/2/98.02.03.x.html
This site is an excellent and extensive introduction to African myths. It begins with an interesting review of Joseph Campbell’s ideas on the role of myth in maintaining the cohesion and very survival of a society. Mazzucco retells several African myths and explains their importance in the cultures from where they originated.
1. What are some common themes in African myths? What is a “trickster myth?”TopExercise 1: Women as Subjects in African ArtThough African art, when first seen in the United States, was displayed in "curiosity cabinets" in natural history museums, the African aesthetic would come to have a strong and lasting influence on Western art in the beginning in the early 20th century.
Jayne F. Matricardi, Roles of Women in African Art
http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~bcr/studentwork/matricardi/exhibit.html
This online presentation examines the roles of women depicted in African art, as well as the role and status of women in traditional African societies.
1. How does the depiction of women in traditional West African art compare with any Western art movement you are familiar with, contemporary, ancient, or in between? What is the function of a traditional statue called an Akua'ba?Exercise 2: African MasksLooking at African Art and Culture
http://gallery.sjsu.edu/exhibits/african/africaexhibit/AfricanArtandCulture.html
This virtual exhibit was created by students in an introductory course on the art and culture of Sub-Saharan Africa at San Jose State University. The exhibit relies heavily on two cultural regions -Nigeria, especially the Yoruba and Igbo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Masks serve important functions in African society. They are not created for display as art objects as they are when transplanted and decontextualized in Western collections.
1. What are some of the functions of masks in the African societies of Mali?TopExercise 1: Janana YogaYoga Journal estimates that 15 million U.S. residents practiced yoga every year. The popularity of yoga not only reflects the American interest in fitness; many people look to yoga as a path to healing and to relieve stress. But what people in the West generally consider “yoga,” forms of physical exercise and control of the body properly known as Hatha yoga, is not generally thought of as a spiritual exercise. Yoga is a 5,000-year-old discipline from India. It takes a variety of forms, nearly all of which represent a spiritual approach to understanding the divine world. “Jnana” means knowledge, and this yoga is the path to understanding ultimate reality through knowledge.
YogaAdvaita.org:” Jnana Yoga”
http://www.yogaadvaita.org/text/jnana.shtml
This is a rather detailed account of what Jnana Yoga is, what its aims are, and how someone goes about practicing it.
Exploring Religions: “Hinduism: Living the Religious Life”
http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/religionet/er/hinduism/HRLIFE.HTM
This article offers a more general introduction to Hinduism and Yoga and includes some basic information about “Jnana Yoga.”
1. What are some of the goals and concerns of spiritual yoga that are different from that of the traditions of Western faiths? Do you think there are some spiritual aspects of Indian religion that are consistent with, or might even strengthen, the spiritual journey of someone committed to a tradition Western faith? Why or why not?Siddhartha Still Works by Robert Mossman
http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/Siddhartha.htm
German author Herman Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel The Glass Bead Game, yet Siddhartha, about a spiritual pilgrim living 2,500 years ago at the time of the Buddha in India, remains his most popular work. This essay by a high school Asian Studies teacher describes how Siddhartha can be used to teach students about Eastern religions. In addition, Mossman suggest that “Beyond the obvious lessons about the nature of Hinduism and Buddhism, Siddhartha can assist students as an early step on a journey toward wisdom.”
2. What is it about Eastern religious doctrines and practices that turn them into Eastern philosophies or sources of secular wisdom when they are interpreted and sometimes enthusiastically embraced by Westerners?Exercise 2: Images of BuddhaIf you are from a Western tradition and find yourself more comfortable with artistically rendered images of the Buddha compared with other examples of the vast and varied religious iconography of India there might be a simple explanation. The familiar and now traditional image of Buddha was strongly influenced by an artistic movement know as Gandhara Art. The Gandhara region had long been a crossroads of trade and cultural influences. Alexander the Great's expedition into India in 330-325 B.C. was influential on the introduction of Hellenism into the region. The art and sculpture of the region that has come to be known as Gandhara combines Hellenistic or Greco-Roman artistic techniques and modeling with Indian Buddhist iconography, creating an East/West hybrid.
Evolution of the Buddha Image
http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/lordbuddha
This article from Exotic India describes how the appearance of the Buddha changed over centuries. There are numerous photos showing images of the Buddha from different regions and artistic traditions.
1. What are some of the ways the Mathura images of the Buddha differ from that of the Gandhara? What are some elements of the Gandhara Buddhas that demonstrate Greek influence?TopExercise 1: The Legacy Of The Silk RoadSilk was only one of many commodities that was transported and exchanged on “The Silk Road.”
In addition to silk, China exported ceramics, lacquer, cinnamon and rhubarb. The West brought gold, coral, amber, asbestos and glass. The Silk Road also served an important role in the exchange of knowledge and ideas both into and out of China.
The Silk Road and Arab Sea Routes
http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch1en/conc1en/silkroad.html
This article includes a helpful map of the Silk and a brief review of the Silk Road’s History.
IDP Map Search
http://idp.bl.uk/mapsearch
The four main cultures of the world met in the Silk Road outpost of Dunhuang in Xinjiang, China. The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is working to preserve heritage of Dunhuang and Silk Road artifacts. The IDP website includes a detailed map of the Silk Road.
Dr. Oliver Wild, The Silk Road
http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html
This article is a very in-depth exploration of The Silk Road covering its importance as a vehicle of foreign trade, its political and cultural implications, and its lasting influence on World Civilizations.
1. What was the significance of the “Silk Road” in Chinese history and in World history? Give some examples of how the Silk Road served as an important vehicle of cultural transmission.Exercise 2: Japanese Tea CeremonyTeaHyakka
http://www.teahyakka.com/E.html
The TeaHyakka website strives to introduce Japanese culture through the use of the Japanese tea ceremony. It includes articles and information about the Japanese tea ceremony with sections on its history, the tearoom, and information about traditional fabrics and pottery.
An Anthropological Perspective on the Japanese Tea Ceremony Herbert Plutschow
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/anthropoetics/ap0501/tea.htm
This article offers a historical account of the Japanese tea ceremony with a strong emphasis on the tea ceremony as a universal expression of ritual.
Terebus: The Tea House
http://www.terebess.hu/tea/teakunyho.html
This article from a Hungarian importer of Far Eastern good provides an in-depth look at the design principals involved in the construction of a Japanese Tea House.
1. Describe some of the design principals used in the construction of a Japanese Tea House and their significance in the Japanese tea ceremony.2. What are some of the purposes of the Japanese Tea Ceremony both currently and historically?3. How does the Japanese tea ceremony compare with secular rituals in Western culture?TopExercise 1: Neoplatonism and the RenaissanceThe Neoplatonism of the Renaissance was not a school or even a cohesive movement. There was an academy founded by Marsilio Ficino and Cosimo de'Medici, it had only the slimmest of institutional support as a distinct discipline. Only a few philosophers from that era can be classified as "Neoplatonists." Renaissance Neoplatonism is more important for its diffusion into a variety of philosophies and cultural activities, such as literature, painting, and music.
“The Influence of Neoplatonism on Michelangelo” by Dr. Deborah Vess
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/micel.htm
This article suggests that the humanism of the Renaissance in general and Michaelangelo in particular was not a rejection of Christianity. Neoplatonism enjoyed resurgence in popularity during the Renaissance and was not thought of as being in opposition to Christianity. In fact, it provided a framework for reconciling secularism with Christianity, according to Vess.
1. Give some examples of how Michelangelo’s Neoplatonism is expressed in his work. According to this article, Da Vinci believed that "the most praiseworthy painting [was that] which has the most conformity with the object imitated." How do we know from Michelangelo’s work that this was his view?TopExercise 1: Artistic Innovations in the RenaissanceThere were several innovations in the world of art during the Florentine Renaissance, with linear perspective probably being the most noteworthy.
Perspective is the geometrical technique in drawing that creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface, such as a painter’s canvas. Historians generally credit the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi with the invention of linear perspective. Leon Battista Alberti wrote a treatise on perspective, called 'On Painting’ in 1436. Masaccio’s, Trinity, fresco, c. 1428, was one of the first and most famous works that incorporated the new perspective technique. Painted on the wall of a church, viewers felt as if they were looking into another room.
Alberti's Perspective Construction
http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/whatsnew/column/alberti-0102/alberti1.html
This article from American Mathematical Society explains the basic geometry behind linear perspective.
1. Draw a simple illustration using one-point perspective.Robert Urton, Innovations and Artists of the Italian Renaissance
http://www.eyeconart.net/history/Renaissance/early_ren.htm
This essay explores many of the technical innovations that came about in the art of painting during the Renaissance.
2. Urton’s essay says that the term “Renaissance” translates into English as “rebirth.” Why was the Renaissance a “rebirth”? When and where was the original “birth” from which the Renaissance claims its descent? What were some of the other artistic innovations that came about during the Renaissance?Exercise 2: The MediciOriginally a family of peasants from the Mugello valley north of Florence, the Medicis became one of Europe's most powerful dynasties. Through banking and commerce, the family acquired great wealth in the 13th century, as well as political influence. The Medicis ruled Florence and Tuscany from 1434 to 1737. The family members were patrons of the arts, as well as governors of a dynamic city-state. The dynasty’s dominant figures were Cosimo the Elder, who was a patron to Brunelleschi, Donatello and Ghiberti, and his grandson Lorenzo (the Magnificent), who supported Michelangelo and Botticelli. Lorenzo's son, Giuliano, who became Pope Leo X, was a patron to Raphael.
Robin Y. Greenly, Lorenzo de' Medici and Florence in the 15th century
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/f98/robing.htm
This article is a student web project for a course in Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance at Vanderbilt. It describes Lorenzo’s leading role and impact on the music Renaissance Florence.
1. What was Lorenzo’s motivations in his strong patronage of music and musicians? In what way was his patronage of music significant for the city of Florence?TopExercise 1: Da Vinci and MachiavelliThe genius of Da Vinci defies categorization yet it is not often that he is grouped alongside the political philosopher Niccoló Machiavelli. Yet the two were not strangers to each other, they may have even been friends.
Roger D. Masters, “Fortune is a River…”
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmasters/fourtune/
Masters has posted the first chapter of his book online, which explores the relationship between the author of The Prince, Machiavelli, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo and Machiavelli worked together between 1503 and 1506 on projects that influenced the thought and fate of both men, most famously on a failed attempt to divert the Arno River.
1. How was Da Vinci able to benefit from his relationship with Machiavelli? How did Machiavelli benefit? How can the collaboration between these two great but very different geniuses help us gain a broader understanding of the world in which they lived?TopExercise 1: Shakespeare, Montaigne and the New WorldThough no English colony had been sustained in Shakespeare's lifetime, encounters with the New World were having an effect on the Old World of Europe. While the English colony in Jamestown,Virginia had ended in disaster, the Spanish and Portuguese were enjoying greater success. News of these expeditions were a popular topic and the source of many tales and legends.
Michel de Montaigne, one of the most influential writers and intellectuals of the Renaissance, in his essay “Of Cannibals” used Europe’s encounters with these more “primitive societies” to assert that "really it is those that we have changed artificially [Europeans] and led astray from the common order that we should rather call wild."
It is widely accepted that Shakespeare had read Montaigne’s essays and dramatically presented some of the ideas in “Of Cannibals” in his play The Tempest.
Michel de Montaigne: On Cannibals (1580)
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/montaigne.html
This copy of Montaigne’s essay includes a summary of the ideas presented as well as some information about Montaigne and his intellectual legacy by way of introduction.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest: Act II, Scene I
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/tempest/tempest.2.1.html
About halfway through Act I Scene II, Gonzalo describes the ideal commonwealth he would establish on the island if he could. It is in this part of The Tempest that most directly draws its inspiration from Montaigne’s essay “On Cannibals.”
1. After reading the second half of Act II Scene I where Gonzalo declares ”I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things;…,” do you think that Shakespeare agrees with the sentiments of Montaigne expressed in his essay “On Cannibals”? Why or why not?Exercise 2: The Printing Press Leaves Its Mark
Print is credited with revolutionizing European culture in a number of ways. To name one example, it had a profound effect on the use and development of language. Print helped formalize languages and local vernaculars, which lead to the demise of Latin. It also led to the standardization of language and spelling.Lester Faigley, Print and Cultural Change
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~faigley/work/material_literacy/print.html
This essay offers a brief biography of Johann Gutenberg, who played a leading role in the development of the printing press in the 15th century. It also describes the impact of this invention on the Northern Renaissance, including religion, culture and science, as well as its lasting significance in world civilization.
1. What impact did the printing press have on the scientific and religious communities of the Northern Renaissance and beyond? In what way did Gutenerg’s invention of the printing press help foster the Reformation?TopExercise 1: The Copernican RevolutionThe Galileo Project, The Copernican System
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/copernican_system.html
The Galileo Project is a hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time.
Galileo and The Inquisition
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Bio/narrative_7.html
This section of the Galileo Project discusses Galileo’s encounter with a Roman Catholic institution of the Counterreformation, The Inquisition.
1. What was Galileo’s role in legitimizing the heliocentric theory of Copernicus within the world scientific community? Who placed Galileo under house arrest and for what reason?Exercise 2: The Camera Obscura The “Camera Obscura” was a precursor to the camera, and it is believed that in the 17th and 18th centuries, many artists were aided by the use of this device, including Jan Vermeer.
Grand Illusions: “Vermeer's Camera”
http://www.grand-illusions.com/vermeer/vermeer1.htm
This article goes so far as to suggest that Vermeer’s paintings were, in fact, “photographs.”
David G. Stork, “Frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) about claims by David Hockney and Charles Falco on the purported use of optical devices by early Renaissance painters.”
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~stork/FAQs.html
This article looks at the more sweeping charges of contemporary artist David Hockney concerning the use of optical devices. Stork believes that the use of optical devices was not as prevalent as Hockney and others contend.
1. Do you think that Vermeer and other “Masters” of the 16th and 17th centuries relied on optical devices to achieve near photographic clarity in their paintings? Do you believe that the use of these devices was cheating? Would the use of such devices diminish your esteem of a work of art or the artist who created it?TopDon Quixote is the protagonist in what is widely recognized as the world's first modern novel. Written by Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote is the first recognizable Baroque figure in literature. In 1954, Jorge Luis Borges wrote: "I would define the baroque as that style that deliberately exhausts (or tries to exhaust) its own possibilities, and that borders on self-caricature. This would certainly apply to Don Quixote except that the self-caricature seems deliberately comical.
Exercise 1: Don QuixoteDon Quixote de la Mancha, Tour 1
http://quixote.mse.jhu.edu/tour1.html
This digital exhibit of translations and illustrations of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's novel Don Quixote de la Mancha includes a tour through his life and work.
1. What are the principal themes of the first part of Don Quixote? How does the second part of the novel differ from the first? What was William Hogarth’s involvement with Don Quixote?Exercise 2: Mannerism Gives Way to BaroqueBy the late 16th century, there were several attempts reinvigorate works of art with more naturalism and emotion. These ideas helped drive the development of the Baroque style, which predominated in the 17th century. The single most significant and influential artist of the Italian Baroque era, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, originally worked in the Late Mannerist tradition but rejected the contrived tendencies of this style for Baroque early in his long and illustrious career.
DolceVita: “Bernini at Galleria Borghese
http://www.dolcevita.com/events/bernini/bernini.htm
This article in DolceVita includes photos and description of three of Bernini’s most famous sculptures.
2. Using the descriptions in the Artcyclopedia (links below) as a guide, classify each of the three sculptures in the DolceVita article (above) as either Mannerist or Baroque and give the reasons to support your decision.Artcyclopedia: Artists by Movement: Mannerism
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/mannerism.html
Artcyclopedia: Artists by Movement: The Baroque Era
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/baroque.html
TopExercise 1: The Travels of Johann Sebastian Bach'sCompared with other major composers, Johann Sebastian Bach's life and career were confined to a tiny geographic area. Born and raised in Thuringia, he never went farther north than Hamburg and Lübeck, or farther south than Carlsbad. His east-west range of travel went from Dresden westward to Kassel.
Baroque Music Defined
http://www.baroquemusic.org/bardefn.html
This is one of several excellent articles on this website, which includes brief biographies of Handel and Bach as well as Scarlatti, Vivalidi, Purcell and others.
1. In his entire life, Bach never traveled more than 60 miles from his place of birth. How was it that Bach was able to flourish during such a changing and dynamic musical era despite his geographic limitations?TopExercise 1: The Dancing Master, Louis XIVThe French Monarch Louis XIV made music and dance more than simply a recreational and social affair of court, it was an institutional force that was unique to his reign.
Blakeney Manor: “The Social Etiquette and Politics of Dance”
http://www.blakeneymanor.com/essay.html
This essay on the Blakeny Manor website describes the history and significance of dance in the French court of Louis XIV.
1. Describe how Louis XIV formalized dance into an important cultural institution in France. Explain how Louis XIV used dance to maintain and strengthen his royal authority as absolute monarch.Exercise 2: Romantic Love Regains MomentumThe idea that had captured the imagination of France in the 12th century had lost ground over the centuries, but interest would be renewed in the 17th century with the help of a popular new literary genre.
Study Guide for Madame de Lafayette: The Princess de Clèves (1678)
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/love-in-the-arts/lafayette.html
2. How did attitudes about romantic love change during the 17th century? What was Madame de Lafayette’s role in furthering this change? What is the importance of “The Princess de Clèves” in the early evolution of modern literature?TopExercise 1: The PhilosophesThe European Enlightenment, The Philosophes
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/PHIL.HTM
This chapter of a learning module on the European Enlightenment describes the role of the philosophes, a “heterogeneous mix of people who pursued a variety of intellectual interests: scientific, mechanical, literary, philosophical,” during the Enlightenment.
1. What were the basic philosophical ideas of the French philosophes? How did “Diderot’s Encyclopedia” serve as a “manifesto” of the philosophes? Exercise 2: Women of the European EnlightenmentThe status of women was unequivocally subordinated to that of men, by even the most “enlightened” members of the Enlightenment. Yet many managed to participate and play an influential role, especially in the area of women’s rights.
Barry Burke: “Mary Wollstonecraft On Education”
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/wollstonecraft.htm
This article offers a brief biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and her groundbreaking feminist work, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” There is a link at the end of the article to an online version of Wollstonecraft’s book in its entirety.
Richard Hooker, “Women During The European Enlightenment”
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/WOMEN.HTM
This article describes the role and status of women during the European Enlightenment and concludes with a brief description of the involvement of women as active participants in the Enlightenment.
1. How did the European Enlightenment contribute to the nascent women’s movement? What was the contribution of women to the Enlightenment?TopExercise 1: The Rhetoric of RevolutionThe American Revolution was an example of organized popular action compared with the Revolutions of Russia and France. Yet it was not without its fiery rhetoric and emotional appeals. The revolutionary idiom of the American cause owed something to the works of the Jean Jacque Rousseau as well as its own traditions and history.
World Civilizations: The European Enlightenment: Jean Jacques Rousseau
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/ROUSSEAU.HTM
This article explores the central role played by Jean Jacques Rousseau in the European Enlightenment. It also suggests that “all modern liberation discourse at some level or another owes its origin to The Social Contract and Rousseau's earlier treatise, The Discourse on Inequality.”
The [U.S.] Constitution Society website includes Rousseau’s Social Contract as well as Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence:
The Social Contract Or Principles Of Political Right by Jean Jacques Rousseau
http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm
Declaration of Independence.
http://www.constitution.org/usdeclar.htm
1. What are some of the ways that the U.S. Declaration of Independence seems to have been influenced by Rousseau’s Social Contract? In what sense is the Declaration of Independence a legal document?Terry Matthews: The Great Awakening
http://www.wfu.edu:/~matthetl/perspectives/four.html
Matthews suggests that prior to the “Great Awakening” that “up and down the Eastern Seaboard, the landscape was littered with the dry tinder of the unchurched.”
Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1776-1800/paine/CM/sensexx.htm
Before writing “Common Sense” Paine had quit the Quaker church he was raised in. He described himself as a deist, while his detractors accused him of being an atheist. Yet this important revolutionary work is laden with Biblical and religious references.
2. What aspects of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” suggest an understanding of both the political ideas of Rousseau and the Enlightenment in Europe and with the “Great Awakening” in the 13 American Colonies?Henry Mayer, The Political Legacy Of Patrick Henry
http://www.redhill.org/history_essay.html
This article from the Patrick Henry national Memorial website portrays Henry as one of the country’s first great populists with “the great public gift of articulating, in an age of deference, what the silenced majority thought and felt.”
3. What was Patrick Henry’s involvement with the “Great Awakening” and how did those experiences help shape his political career?TopExercise 1: Mozart’s Librettist, Lorenzo Da PonteConsidered one of the world’s greatest librettists, Lorenzo Da Ponte brought his deep knowledge of classical and Italian literature in the crafting of his libretti. Da Ponte led a varied and interesting life, worthy of an opera all its own. He is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave in the borough of Queens, NY.
Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s Librettist
http://pzweifel.com/music/lorenzo_da_ponte.htm
This article offers a brief biography of Da Ponte, and includes a description of his collaboration with Mozart.
1. How did the status of a librettist compare with that of a composer? What is a court poet?TopExercise 1: Romanticism and NatureJeffrey Swann and Jack Logan, Ph.D., Classical Music and Romantic Music - Part One
http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M151/Romantic_Music1.html
The beginning of this article focuses mostly on music but discusses Romanticism in more general terms as well. There is a detailed explanation of attitudes about nature in the tradition of Romanticism toward the end of the article.
Paul Brians: Romanticism
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html
An online lecture, it offers a brief history of Romanticism and discusses several aspects of the Romantic movement: individualism, emotion, nature, exoticism and others.
1. How does the Romantic movement’s attitude toward nature compare with the view of nature in the 17th century? What was considered by the Romantics a force antagonistic to that of nature? How did the Romantic movement’s interest in folklore contribute to the emergence of Nationalism?Exercise 2: The Romanticism Of BeethovenBBC, A-Z Composers, Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ‘Choral’ (1823–4)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/aboutmusic/beethoven_symph9.shtml
This feature story discusses the history and significance of Beethoven’s most famous work.
1. How have the interpretations of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony changed over time? How has this Symphony been used for political ends?Exercise 3: Byronic HeroesThe Byronic hero, with his ambition, aspiration, aggressive individualism, and "Promethean spark," was alive and flourishing in the latter half of the 20th century.
Romanticism & Contemporary Culture
http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/contemporary/stein/stein.html
This article looks at the Byronic Hero as a cultural archetype and looks at some well-known characters from popular culture like The Crow, Star Trek, and the work of Ann Rice, author of The Vampire Chronicles.
Characteristics of the Byronic Hero
http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/CHARACTE.htm
1. Briefly describe someone whom you believe fits the mold of a Byronic hero in contemporary popular culture.TopExercise 1: Capitalism Under FireThe birth pangs of the Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanization made painfully manifest the squalor and hardship of the poor, despite the general improvements for many and the fantastic wealth of a few. Many influential thinkers believed that capitalism, whatever its other merits, failed to fairly and equitably distribute the fruits of the industrial revolution’s bounty.
Thorstein Veblen, “The Barbarian Status of Women”(1899)
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=VebBarb.sgm=images/modeng=/texts/english/modeng/parsed=public=1=div1
This article on the origins of women’s status in society was published at about the same time as Veblen’s central work, "The Theory of The Leisure Class" - a scathing indictment of capitalism written decades after the works of Marx and Engels. In that work Veblen coined the term, “conspicuous consumption.” The book quickly earned him a reputation and is still considered a relevant work over a hundred years later.
Veblen was born and raised in Wisconsin and Minnesota and spoke English his entire life with a Norwegian accent. Yet Veblen is an American and his works are not translations. They are also written in a popular vernacular compared with Marx and Engels. Even this anthropological article, “The Barbarian Status of Women” expresses much of the underlying skepticism and opposition to the emerging society of corporate capitalism as well as the subjugated status of women.
1. How do societies with strongly patriarchal marriage institutions compare with those that have some lingering traces of a maternal system of relationship?Exercise 2: From Emancipation Toward EqualityBiography of Frederick Douglass: Part 5 Life After the 13th Amendment
http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part5.html
Frederick Douglass continued his energetic leadership on behalf of African rights long after the 13th Amendment was passed outlawing slavery. This article describes many facets of his activism and struggle up until his death at age 77, thirty years after the end of slavery.
1. How did Frederick Douglass respond when William Lloyd Garrison suggested that the Anti-Slavery Society should disband at the end of the Civil War? What was the Freedman’s Bureau and why did Douglass refuse a position heading it up? Do you think Douglass did the right thing when he compromised his support for women’s suffrage to help secure the vote for African American men? Why or why not?TopExercise 1: Japanese Influence in the Work of MonetWith the treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, a period of over 200 years of Japanese isolation ended. In the years following, huge numbers of Japanese artifacts and handicraft articles flowed to Europe, mainly to France and the Netherlands. The Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 included a Japanese exhibit displaying Japanese art objects to an astounded public.
All things Japanese were suddenly stylish and fashionable. Shops selling Japanese woodblock prints, kimonos, fans and antiquities popped up all over Paris. Claude Monet as well as other leading artists of the era were also amazed and impressed by Japanese techniques in the visual arts.
Monet & Japan
http://www.nga.gov.au/MonetJapan/Default.cfm?Mnu=1=1
Every painting by Claude Monet from this exhibition can be compared with the Japanese prints displayed within each theme or across the whole exhibition.
You can select “Compare Works” from the top menu bar by selecting subject matter, composition or design. Then you can view both Monet paintings and Japanese prints that have elements in common.
1. Explain and give some examples of how Monet employed the techniques of Japanese art in his work.Exercise 2: Edgar Allen Poe, Huge In France?Charles Baudelaire is among the greatest French poets of all time and one of the founders of modern poetry. Edgar Allen Poe is most known in the United States as the inventor of the detective novel. Yet Baudelaire as well as other French poets like Rimbaud and other French writers such as Jules Verne regarded Poe as a major influence.
Pegaso: Edgar Allen Poe
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/eapoe.htm
This Finnish site in English provides a fairly in-depth biography of Poe and information on Poe’s influence on French writers despite the lack of respect he garnered in his own country during his lifetime or in subsequent decades.
Keith Parkins, Edgar Allen Poe
http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/poe.htm
Poe had a strong influence on British, and other European writers as well as the French according to this brief biography.
Amy Jo Roy Poe and Baudelaire: A Vast Ocean Apart
http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/poeperplex/baudp.htm
This article explores the strange relationship between Poe and Baudelaire and his influence on the French Master of Modern Poetry.
1. What was Poe’s influence on European and especially French Literature? What are some possible reasons that Poe’s influence was greater in Europe than in the United States?TopExercise 1: Darwin and the Mutation of A TheoryThe theory of evolution did not originate with Darwin although he did popularize it and carried out original research in support of the idea. Darwin used the term “natural selection” to describe the dynamics of evolution. Darwin’s research showed how populations within a species, that become reproductively isolated from each other, adapt to different environmental challenges and eventually become a separate and distinct species.
Another term frequently associated with Darwin and Darwinism is the phrase "survival of the fittest." This term, however, was first used by the British philosopher Herbert Spencer, not Darwin. Spencer’s used the term as part of a central tenet of what became known as “Social Darwinism” - a catchy methaphor, but scientifically speaking, completely unrelated to the work and theories of Charles Darwin.
Dr. Matt McConeghy, When Good Ideas Go Bad
http://mmcconeghy.com/students/supsocialdarwinism.html
This article gives an excellent explanation of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and explores the cultural fallout that ensued. McConeghy describes the outcry from the religious communities as well as the misuse of Darwin’s theory in the guise of “Social Darwinism.”
1. How was Darwin’s biological theory misapplied to rationalize and justify the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism, as well as institutional racism and colonialism through theories of “Social Darwinism?”Exercise 2: The Great War and Great LiteratureHistorically, the writers of great literature are predominately from one class of society while those who fight the wars are drawn from quite another. The First World War (and the Second) were different in that regard, with enormous consequences for Western literature and society.
Prose & Poetry - Literary Ambulance Drivers
http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/ambulance.htm
This article details the incredible number of literary lights who served as ambulance drivers in Europe during World War I.
Richard Galli, Ernest Hemingway's War Poetry
http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/hemingway.htm
“Ernest Hemingway was barely 18 when he became an active participant in World War I. Unable to pass the exam for the US Army, he volunteered to drive ambulances for the International Red Cross with his pal Ted Brumback [who had already served in France as an ambulance driver.]” In addition to describing Hemingway’s experience as an ambulance driver, Galli’s article includes some of Hemingway’s “war poetry.
1. What were some of the circumstances that drove so many future literary legends into ambulance driving duty during World War I? How did these personal encounters with the horrors of war influence the direction of Western literature?TopExercise 1: The Bauhaus SchoolBauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 as a state-sponsored school of art, architecture, and design. Architect Walter Gropius organized the school’s curriculum on the principle that the crafts should be united with the arts on an equal footing. The school sought to raise the quality of everyday life through the production of buildings, design objects, and art works according to an aesthetic of modernity and universality. Lyonel Feininger, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Oskar Schlemmer were among the first “masters” or teachers at the school. The school lost its state funding in 1932 but managed to stay open. On April 11 1933, the Berlin police, acting on the orders of the new Nazi government closed the Bauhaus. The Nazi's Degenerate Art "Entartete Kunst" exhibition in 1937 featured works by several former Bauhaus teachers. In 1937 the “New Bauhaus” opened in Chicago under the direction of photographer Moholy-Nagy. The Bauhaus had a lasting impact on art education and in architecture. The New Bauhaus school lives on as the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Chris Snider, Bauhaus philosophy Manifesto, legacy, influence
http://chrissnider.com/academic/bauhaus/pages/philosophy.html
This article explains some of the philosophy of the Bauhaus as formulated by one of its founders, the architect Walter Gropius. It concludes with a brief description of the Bauhaus school from A Primer of Visual Literacy by Donis A. Dondis (1973), which lists a dozen or so characteristics (“techniques”) of Bauhaus design.
InterArt Israel, Bauhaus Architecture in Tel Aviv
http://www.interart.co.il/bauhaus/index.html
The Bauhaus school coincided with a time of intense urban development in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel. European-trained architects designed dozens of buildings in the Bauhaus or “International” style, many of which remain standing today. This website has photographs of twenty Bauhaus structures taken during the 1930’s when they were newly built.
Extra Ordinary Everyday the Bauhaus At the Busch Reisinger
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sites/eoed/index.html
Harvard’s Busch Reisinger Museum has created an online presentation on the Bauhaus. The objects represent a cross section of the Busch-Reisinger collection: lamp, chair, house, stage, and automobile designs.
George Eastman House László Moholy-Nagy
http://www.geh.org/fm/amico99/htmlsrc2/moholy-intro.html
László Moholy-Nagy was an influential Bauhaus Photographer who left Germany in 1937 and helped found the “New Bauhaus” school in the United States. The George Eastman has posted 78 Moholoy-Nagy photographs from the vast photography holdings of the George Eastman House.
1. Select one or more of the objects, designs, buildings or works, from the InterArt Israel, Bush Reisinger Museum, or George Eastman House Museum websites and explain how its design philosophy of Bauhaus as explained in the articles by Chris Snider or Yael Zisling.Exercise 2: Isadora Duncan, The Mother of Modern DanceSusan Gillis, “The Early Moderns: Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)”
http://www.pitt.edu/~gillis/dance/isadora.html
A brief biography of Isadora Duncan, it is part of a web tutorial called “The Early Moderns.”
Jessica Maltz, Women and Dance in the Twentieth Century: Isadora Duncan
http://jamaica.u.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/ws200/grp6id.htm
This review of Isadora Duncan’s life looks at Duncan’s achievements from a broader social context. It depicts Duncan as a feminist and liberator, who sought to free women and dance from the narrow strictures of her era.
1. Why is Isadora Duncan considered a feminist? How did dance as a performance art change as a result of Duncan’s influence? What are some of the innovations Duncan brought to modern dance.TopExercise 1: The Harlem RenaissanceThe 1920’s were a time of unprecedented creative activity for African-American culture in the arts. The Harlem Renaissance was initially a literary movement whose purpose combined with a strong social agenda against racism. In those efforts, the Harlem Renaissance, which was originally called the “New Negro” movement explored and celebrated the uniqueness of African-Americans culture and achievement.
Jeanne Pasero: The Harlem Renaissance
http://www.jeannepasero.com/harlem.html
Jeanne Pasero has created an excellent introductory summary to the Harlem Renaissance. The text is laden with names, places and publications that are linked to other quality resources.
1. What were some of the contributing factors that led to the cultural firmament of the Harlem Renaissance? How is the Harlem Renaissance different from other cultural movements in Western societies?“Dreams” a poem by Langston Hughes
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C04070176
“For A Poet” a poem by Countee Cullen
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/cullen.html#poet
2. Both of these poems of the Harlem Renaissance speak about “dreams” and yet they seem to have opposite meanings. In what sense do both express facets of the African American experience? Which of these poems seems more distinctly African American to you? Why?Exercise 2: Modernist Writers and JapanAlthough Ezra Pound is best known for his interest in the literature of the Far East, most of the Modernist writers from the United States were inspired and influenced by the arts and letters of China and Japan. The Eastern influence is clear and unmistakable in the works of William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, E. E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, Gertrude Stein, and Eugene O'Neill and others.
Petals on a Wet Black Bough: American Modernist Writers and the Orient
http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/orient/intro.htm
A Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Exhibition Yale University included an online companion guide. The online exhibition examines the effects of Western encounters with Japan and China on American artists beginning in the 19th century. It includes not only literary figures but also some visual artists (Whistler). The title of the exhibit is from an Ezra Pound Haiku, and the exhibit icon is a 1923 bronze by Jo Davidson of Gertrude Stein as Buddha.
1. What are some examples of Eastern influence on Modernist literature? Why did the Eastern literary decades occur after the opening of China and Japan to the West, while the impact on the visual arts was almost immediate?TopExercise 1: Primo Levi and the Literature of the HolocaustPrimo Levi was something of a 20th-century Renaissance man. He was Italian from a liberal Jewish family. Levi grew up in the city of Turin, nearer to the border of France and Switzerland than to Florence, and closer to the border of Austria than to Rome. He was both middle class and the grandson of a baroness. He was a scientist (a chemist), a student of the humanities, and a writer with a gift for describing the natural world. He was a member of the fascist resistance in Italy, which led to his capture and imprisonment at Auschwitz. Of the 650 Italian Jews in his "shipment," Levi was one of the 20 who left the camps alive. His experiences in the death camp serve as the subject of his greatest literary efforts, “If This Is A Man,” and “Survival In Auschwitz.”
Ari Frankel: “Primo Levi
http://www.inch.com/~ari/levi2.html
The librettist Ari Frankel considers the life and work of Primo Levi a strong influence and inspiration. His website has an interview of Primo Levi during his return to Auschwitz almost forty years after his imprisonment there in 1944. A kind of photo essay accompanies the interview, which covers 18 web pages.
Boston Review Primo Levi's Last Moments
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR24.3/gambetta.html
In some sense Levi is more than a literary giant, he is also a kind of hero, a real life protagonist who personally triumphed over one of the most terrible and overwhelming circumstances in human history. This article explores the circumstances of Levi’s death and suggests that it may have been an accident and not suicide.
1. What is the significance of the seven-digit number that appears on the grave marker beneath Primo Levi’s name, shown on the last page of this interview?2. Levi committed suicide in 1987. Do you consider Levi a Holocaust survivor or one of its victims? Why?Exercise 2: Camus’ Sisyphus, The Absurd HeroSisyphus was a king of Corinth with a lively but disreputable reputation. According to legend, he cheated death on more than one occasion. In Chapter 11 of the Odyssey, Odysseus encounters Sisyphus in Underworld where he was condemned to roll a huge rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down again for him to start over for all eternity.
Albert Camus (Nov 7, 1913- January 4, 1960) found in the myth Sysiphus an example of his “Absurd Hero.” In a similar manner, Lord Byron and the Romantics had found their hero in Greek mythology in the legend of Prometheus, who as punishment for giving the gift of fire, was doomed to have his immortal liver eaten by an eagle each day.
Bob Lane, “The Absurd Hero”
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/abshero.htm
This essay by Bob Lane examines the idea of the “Absurd Hero” in Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus and other works. It reviews the basic tenets of Camus’ absurdist outlook, and possibilities of adaptation and change for the human condition.
1. Read Camus’ essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” and Byron’s “Prometheus” (links below). What are some of the similarities between Byron’s hero and that of Camus? What are some of the differences? According to Camus, “The absurd is not in man nor in the world, but in their presence together...it is the only bond uniting them.” What are some of the reasons why Camus views man’s relationship to the world as absurd?The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/msysip.htm
Prometheus, Lord Byron
http://www.elysiumgates.com/mt_olympus/histprometheus.html
“Historical Prometheus” looks at the legend of Prometheus in the ancient and modern world. The end of the page concludes with “Prometheus” by Lord Byron.
TopExercise 1: PostmodernismPostmodernism is a philosophical outlook resulting from the general collapse in confidence of the universal rational principles of the Enlightenment. It rejects any one worldview or explanation of reality as well as the reality of objective truth. Postmodernism affirms the value and autonomy of the local and the particular. Postmodern culture expresses itself through forms of artistic creation, combines styles of past movements, and allows the viewer to assert his or her own interpretation as an important part of the work.
Mary Klages, Postmodernism
http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html
“Postmodernism is a complicated term,” according to Klages, which is something everyone can agree on. This essay sheds some light on the subject by first explaining modernism and then comparing the modernism with postmodernism.
Adam Blatner M.D, Creative Mythmaking
http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/creatmythmk.htm
Rather than a way of looking at human condition, Dr. Blatner considers postmodernism as an integral part of the current human condition. In this lecture, Dr. Blatner suggests that individuals create their own myths to supplement or in lieu of the dominant cultural myths of society. A link near the top of the lecture goes to a fairly succinct definition of postmodernism as well.
David Gauntlett, “Gender Trouble”
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-butl.htm
This page gives an introduction to Judith Butler and the arguments put forward in her 1990 book Gender Trouble. Butler takes the postmodern view that dividing the human race in two: men and women is a social construct that provides more limitations than opportunities for women.
Martin Irvine, Postmodernity vs. the Postmodern vs. Postmodernism
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html
The bottom of this web page has a helpful chart that compares Postmodernism with Modernism, which began in the 18th century and is considered the still dominant ethos of Western civilization.
1. In what ways can a postmodern perspective empower the individual? Are there dangers and downsides to the postmodern path of empowerment?2. Explain how some of the efforts published on the web sites below do or do not express a postmodern viewpoint.The Modern Word: Imaginary Book Reviews
http://www.themodernword.com/contests/contest001.html
Jorge Luis Borges famously wrote: "The composition of vast books is a laborious and impoverishing extravagance. To go on for five hundred pages developing an idea whose perfect oral exposition is possible in a few minutes! A better course of procedure is to pretend that these books already exist, and then to offer a resume, a commentary . . . More reasonable, more inept, more indolent, I have preferred to write notes upon imaginary books." In this spirit, The Modern Word sponsored a "Borgesian Book review" contest and posted several of the more than 80 submitted.
Spam Poetry
http://www.sperare.com/spam_poetry/blogger.html
Kristin Thomas, a blogger whose spam poetry was profiled on the BBC website, writes poems using only the subject lines of junk email she receives everyday.
Taking Photographs Without A Camera
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/without/concept.htm
This website requests found photographs some of which are posted on the web as an online exhibit.
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