Spiritual-Naturalistic Societies in Symmetry

The ancient civilizations of the Americas, the Fertile Crescent, and Asia were diverse yet strikingly similar. All of these civilizations were religious people, all of these civilizations believed the world operated in a balance of good and bad, and all of these early people left beautiful artifacts for future generations to discover. Each of these aspects of the cultures make them unique yet connected, it is also fascinating that people all over the world had very similar practices at about the same times in history. The people were first and foremost impressed with the spiritual, supernatural, the unseen world.

In the early development of human cultures there were many differences but also many common factors that all the people seemed to share. One of the most predominant of those factors was religion. Nearly every ancient civilization archaeologists have discovered have left several mediums of artistic expression behind to mesmerize the people of the future. In the Americas mud-brick villages and burial mounds have been found in the north and step-pyramids in the south. In Mesopotamia there have been all manner of artifacts discovered from pottery to scripture. In ancient Asia similar findings of writings, paintings, and statuettes have been discovered. The differences in these cultures however small lend to the uniqueness of each civilization. For the American people it was their manner of belief: that the earth itself was the god(dess) and that the native people were born out of the night. For the diverse peoples of the Fertile Crescent they had polytheistic societies where nearly every aspect of life had a deity to represent it. In Asia the main focus on religion began with Buddhism and slowly progressed into Confucianism. Understanding the contrasts in cultures lends to understanding the areas the peoples compared, this is also seen in the balance each of these far separated civilizations believed existed naturally.

The art is what was left behind explain to the future generations what life was like those hundreds or thousands of years ago. In the text, when learning about ancient Egypt we read an excerpt of Akhenaten's Hymn to the Sun (Sayre 76-77). This piece of writing exemplifies the Egyptian belief of balance of power. In Mesopotamia we learned of the Royal Standard of Ur where the front of the piece signifies war and the back signifies peace. (Sayre 44). This is another example of the spiritualistic beliefs of the people reflecting the culture of the time, after war comes peace. In Neolithic America the Zuni left behind dolls and pottery, some pieces the Buffalo Kachina for example, also shows us the delicate balance of the culture. While the people hunted the buffalo, they also made the buffalo a God to bring the herds into climates they might not normally graze (Sayre 25). From India we saw the Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the dance (Sayre 121). In this piece the God is inside a circle, in most ancient cultures a circle represents the cycle of life, the balance of life and death. This balance was also sought in the culture's laws. The basic law was attributed to the Four Noble Truths. Each of these cultures shows us their belief in the world having a natural balance by the artwork or literature they left behind.

There are too many examples of the ancient artifacts to mention them all, however there are a few pieces that really stand out in memory of what we learned bout in the text. From Egypt there is a sculpture of a scribe that is unique and remarkable (Sayre 86). To see the sculptures of the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharos; we see perfect beings in perfect form. Seeing this scribe, we get a better idea of what an average person likely looked like, and I find that more impressive than the Pharo's perfect abs. In Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi was incredibly telling (Sayre 48). Many of those laws are adapted by future cultures and some version of those same laws are at least to some extent used today. The Native Americans in North America built adobe houses that were designed in such a way that they would be cooler than the outside during the day and warmer at night; a similar design is used today by people who build their homes in the desert. China could rival the Egyptians for after-death glam. The tomb of the Lady Fu Hao contained in very ancient times all of her servants in life to continue serving her in death (Sayre 111), and Emperor Shihuangdi later stone representations of an entire army to protect and serve him in the afterlife (Sayre 116-117). Finally in Indian culture retains much of its heritage from the emperor Ashoka, who decided on the battlefield that peace was the only true power, and wanted to make peace with all things. He promoted vegetarianism and banned hunting for sport, he even build hospitals for animals and humans alike (Sayre 121). This Indian tradition of finding peace with animals is distinctive of the country even today . The beautiful artwork, writings, and traditions the people left behind tell us without a doubt that art was an important aspect of ancient spiritualistic life.

The ancient cultures of the world developed in similar ways yet were each unique and distinctive. We learned about the importance of religion to the ancient peoples of the world. The balance of life and death, nature and technology, and right and wrong have been challenges as long as there have been people, nowhere is this challenge more pronounced than in the artwork of the ancient societies of the world. The art itself is a marvel, some culture's art was lost in time. The art that has remained gives us a vivid look at the world as it was and we have to see, these people were not all that different from the people we are today.

Works Cited

Sayre, Henry M. The Humanities Culture, Continuity, and Change. Ed. Sarah Touborg. Vol. Book 1. upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. 2 vols.