The Dawn of Culture
I. What is “culture?”
A. Our text: “...a way of thinking and living established by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.”
B. The manipulation of one's environment.
1. To utilize its resources (socio-political, technological). e.g., tool/weapon-making.
2. To control its events (magico-religious). e.g., ritual, sacrifice.
C. Basic needs.
1. Food, sex (impulse and regeneration), safety/shelter.
2. Other?
II. “Prehistoric” Periods.
A. Paleolithic (ca. 35,000-10,000 BCE).
1. Nomadic, hunting, gathering (why nomadic?).
B. Neolithic (ca. 10,000-2,000 BCE).
1. Stationary, raising, planting (why stationary?).
C. The circle (seasons, lives, etc.).
D. BCE / CE and BC / AD.
III. Magic in Art and Ritual.
A. Sympathetic magic: power through imitation.
1. Masks and dance.
2. Contemporary examples.
B. Contagious magic: power through contact.
1. Miracle stories of Jesus (Mark 5.25-34 et al.)
2. Contemporary examples.
C. Psychic affinity: animals.
D. Animism: nature at large.
E. The earth as source/womb (“before the divorce of Mom and Dad”).
1. Earth as Mom.
2. Where did Dad go?
IV. Application to Some Examples.
A. The caves at Lascaux.
1. Why was it created? Sympathetic? Contagious? Both?
B. Venus/Woman of Willendorf.
1. Why was it created? Sympathetic? Contagious? Both?
C. Stonehenge.
1. Why was it created? Sympathetic? Contagious? Both?
2. Post and lintel construction.
V. The community vs. the Individual.
A. The group as the womb.
B. The inner circle (covens, priests, apostles, the ones with the PIN numbers).
C. Self consciousness: the tension of belonging vs. alienation.
D. The myth of the “return.”
E. The “hero:” what is he/she like?
Mesopotamian Cultures
I. The Fertile Crescent.
A. “The land between two rivers.”
B. Why is the river important?
C. Other civilizations for which river was central.
II. Sumeria, ca. 3500 - 2027 BCE.
A. Neolithic revolution: ca. 9000 BCE.
B. Metallurgy.
1. Copper: ca. 6000 BCE.
2. Blends amd alloys (e.g., copper + tin = bronze): ca. 3000 BCE.
C. Written language: cuneiform (L. cuneus, “wedge”).
1. Pictographs to wedges (faster, more convenient).
2. Most common evidence: business/commerce records.
D. Role of religion.
1. The gods “own” the kingdom/land.
2. King is intermediary (priestly class later).
3. Temple or ziggurat: a “mountain” of god.
4. Divine symbology: anthropomorphic.
E. Fine arts.
1. Sculpture, esp. fig 1.7 (“eyes!”).
2. Literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh.
F. Epic of Gilgamesh.
1. Earliest elements, ca. 2500 BCE; earliest coherent form as we know it today, ca. 7th c. BCE.
2. Compare to Genesis 6.9-9.17 in Hebrew scriptures (“Noah and the Ark”).
3. What does each story reflect about the human experience of the divine?
III. Babylon, ca. 1900 - 1550 BCE.
A. The Code of Hammurabi: 1792 BCE
1. United warring city states under one rule, one law.
2. The Stele of Hammurabi (sculpture): depicts Hammurabi as receiving law from sun god, Shamash.
3. Casuistic law: “If... then...”
4. Compare to Exodus 21.15-25 in Hebrew scriptures.
5. Apodictic law, e.g., the Hebrew Decalogue: “Thou shalt not...” (Exodus 20.1-17).
IV. Assyria, ca. 1550 - 612 BCE.
A. Noted primarily for its military exploits. The curse of a culture that runs on imperialism and colonialism is that it must assume that it is always on the brink of war.
1. Assyrian treatment of vanquished.
B. All artistic evidence is geared toward military might and political authority.
1. The hallmark of Assyrian sculptural style is the bas-relief.
2. Depictions include animals in movement, chronicles of military campaigns, and political figures. Sack of the City of Hamanu is an example of the “register system” of sculptural narrative.
C. First conqueror of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) in 722 BCE.
V. Neo-Babylon, ca. 604-562 BCE.
A. Conquered the Southern Kingdom of Israel (Judah) in 586 BCE.
1. The Hebrews were carried off into slavery and exile for approximately 50 years. The experi- ence of exile plays a mojor role in later Judaism, as the greatest threat to Judaic identity is that of assimilation.
B. Babylon was a huge cosmopolitan center-- for this reason, both Judaic and Christian literature/theology have traditionally used the name “Babylon” as a metaphorical reference to any decadent or immoral place or culture.
C. The Ziggurat of Marduk-- some biblical scholars tie this to the Hebrew story of “The Tower of Babel” (Bab-il, an early form of the name “Babylon;” the Hebrew verb balal means “to confuse”).
VI. Persia, ca. 539 - 330 BCE
A. When Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539, he allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586.
B. Religion: Zoroaster (Zarathustra) was a prophet who rejected the polytheism of earlier Mesopotamian cultures and instituted a kind of monotheistic dualism.
1. Dualism: the creative (or antagonistic) tension of opposites, e.g., between “good” and “evil.”
2. Ahura-Mazda: goodness, light of knowledge and creativity. (Compare to the “Logos”).
3. Ahriman: evil and darkness; a natural result of a belief in light and goodness?
4. The Persian legacy to late Judaism and Christianity: the “Satan.”