How to Examine Sacred Art Through the Emic and Etic

"When an intelligent man expresses a view which seems to us obviously absurd, we should not attempt to prove that it is somehow true, but we should try to understand how it ever came to seem true." -Betrand Russell

The best way to experience sacred art is to see art in its entirety, instead of examining it in small pieces. For example, a musical piece based on a psalm can be picked apart and taken on the value of its lyrics and composition. But, it should be taken in context to the religion that created and performs it, where it fits into the ritual worship, and how it makes the people in the religion feel. When we only look at sacred arts in parts, as when we only use an etic view, an I-It stance, or critical thinking, in our attempts to understand what other people hold sacred, we miss out on a large part of that sacred's context. Instead, we must balance the etic with the emic (the anthropologic concept of the outsider's and insider's view), the I-It relationship with the I-Thou relationship, and critical thinking with connective knowing.

The difference between what people believe and the more objective outsider's view of what is can be described by using the anthropological terms Emic and Etic. The emic is what the observed believe, and the etic is the more objective way that the anthropologist explains this belief. For example, in villages in South Tirol, Italy, the Catholic community has religious processionals. One such processional is that of Corpus Christi. The story behind it that in 1246 Juliane of Lutie had a vision of the body of Christ. In the processional the entire community parades the host through the fields and vineyards of the village. Statues of saints and decorative tree branches are also carried in the parade. To the people of the village, this processional carries the manifestation of the body of Christ (the holy communion bread) through their fields which he will bless. They participate in the processional as part of worship and praise of their Lord.

Eticly, we note that this processional happens to occur on the same date as an old Celtic parade, where idols and branches of sacred trees were carried. It could be intellectualized that the Corpus Christi processional is an integration and adaptation of that Celtic event into an aspect of Christianity. It could be determined that the processional is a way to strengthen community ties, as the entire community works on and participates in this procession. Also, the processional goes around the borders of the village, thus establishing territorial claims.

Yet, if we understand the etic and discount the emic beliefs of the religion, we are ignoring the emotions and ideas behind the sacred ritual or art which could be sent through the emic, and are therefore not able to understand all of their aspects. If we were to examine a sacred dance and simply pick apart the symbolism in the costuming and some of the movements, we are ignoring the totality of the atmosphere and feelings invoked by this dance. When you eticly analyze what others hold as sacred without taking account of the emic you are not trying to believe that their sacred is believable, which is the best way to understand the way other see the sacred.

Another way to explain this phenomena is by using the idea of the I and Thou relationship versus the I and It relationship. Philosopher Martin Buber describes the I-Thou as a relationship where "I (as an individual) attends to the needs of Thou (another person) and makes an effort to experience what the Thou experiences." This is also sometimes phrased as an I-You relationship, but they are essentially the same. The I-It relationship is when there is a loss of empathy, and the I sees the It only through their viewpoint. In this relationship there is also a loss of reciprocation. While Buber intended the I-Thou/I-It terms to explain the relationship between man and his god, it can also be used to explain the relationship between men and cultures.

For example, if a stranger were to apply an I-It relationship to an examination of Native American dance, they may see the dance the way that the early American colonists did. The colonists believed that the Native American dancing was a disorganized frenzy. The did not try to understand why the dancing was sacred to the Native Americans or empathize with their form of dancing. They simply saw and judged. The danger in this was shown at the massacre of Wounded Knee. The Native Americans danced a Ghost Dance in an attempt to gain back their loved ones who were killed by the whites. This was a very intense dance, where the participants would sometimes do the steps until they passed out from exhaustion. The American colonists took and I-It stance towards the dance, and became afraid of it. While there were other factors involved, this misunderstanding had a definite role in what eventually resulted in a horrible massacre of Native Americans on Wounded Knee.

If the colonists had balanced their I-It objective stance with an I-Thou type of understanding, they may not have been afraid of the Native American's ghost dance. This is not to say that disaster could have been averted, but it would have increased the colonist's understand of the dance that the Native Americans held sacred.

In her essay On Critical Thinking and Connective Knowing, Blythe Clinchy says that critical thinking is based on detachment, where the critical thinker tries to remain aloof and objective towards the subject. He says "There is nothing wrong with trying to reach critical thinking, but something goes wrong when we teach only critical thinking." When only critical thinking is applied to sacred art, the art itself is not taken at face value. The purely critical thinker will pick apart and dig into an artwork to find objective truths about the work. If you only used critical thinking to look at a Catholic Cathedral, you may only take note of the symbolism in the paintings and architecture, the types of lighting, and the floor patterns. You may intellectualize why the Cathedral is so large, passing judgments that it is to intimidate the peasants and inspire respect for the church.

Conversely, in connective knowing "You must suspend your disbelief, put your own views aside, try to see the logic in the idea." With connective knowing, you would try to see through the eyes of the Catholics, and view the Cathedral through them. You would attempt to understand how the faithful would feel gazing at the paintings, standing in the light, and simply being inside their house of god.

A balance between these types of thinking should be achieved to fully understand the sacred through sacred art. The etic, I-It relationships, and critical thinking are not wrong ways to examine the sacred, but they are not effective when used alone. A painting can be appreciated alone, but a more completely picture can be achieved when you take notice of its frame and the wall that its hung on. In the same way, these types of thinking can be used alone, but the emic, I-Thou relationship, and connective knowing are needed to believe that what others' hold as sacred is believable.