Needs of Human Soul - Essay Example

According to William A. Haviland, “culture consists of the ideas, values, and perceptions of the world that inform and are reflected in peoples behavior”1. Such abstract ideas, values, and perceptions can be expressed by means of variety of arts. Arts create a kind of second reality for a person - a world of the vital experiences expressed by special image-symbolical means. Familiarizing with this world, self-expression, and self-knowledge in it make one of the major needs of a human soul. Art produces its values due to art activity, art development of reality. The aim of art resolve itself into cognition of aesthetic, into an author’s artistic interpretation of a phenomena of the world around. In artistic thinking cognitive and evaluative activity are not divided but used in unity. Such thinking works by means of system of figurative means and creates a derivative (secondary) reality - aesthetic estimations. As a matter of fact art enriches culture with cultural wealth through art manufacture, through creation of subjective ideas about the world, through system of images, which symbolize senses and ideals of a certain time, of a certain epoch. That is why cultural heritage expressed in variety of verbal, musical, and visual arts is very important. As an example we may refer to the verbal art. For instance, “the works of Dickens are a reflection of the new emphasis placed on the individual right to freedom and the importance of individual lives.  The political and philosophical writings of the 1700s were being applied in the 1800s to everyday life at the most fundamental level”2.  The role of art in development of culture is rather contradictory. It is both constructive and destructive. It can bring up in spirit of lofty ideals and on the contrary. As a whole art, owing to subjectivization, is capable to support an openness of system of values, an openness of search and a choice of orientation in culture, that finally brings up spiritual independence of a person. For culture it is the important potential and the factor of its development. Now let us consider magic and religion and try to understand how does religion differ from magic? According to Joseph Needham, “the maxim that fear first made gods in the universe is certainly not true in the light of anthropology3”. Both the magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: everyday crisis, wreck of some plans, death or dedication in sacraments of the tribe, unfortunate love or not satisfied hatred. Both magic and religion show ways out from such situations and vital deadlocks when the reality does not allow a person to find the other way except reference to faith, some rituals, or the sphere of supernatural. In religion this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, divine intent, supernatural patrons. In magic it is filled with primitive belief in power of a magic spell. Both the magic and religion are directly based on mythological tradition, on an atmosphere of wonderful expectation of disclosing of their wonder-working power. Both the magic and religion are surrounded by system of taboos and ceremonies. The most certain and evident distinction is that in sacral sphere magic acts as certain practical art serving for performance of actions, each of which is means of achievement of a definite purpose; the religion operates as system of such actions, which performance in itself is some purpose. We shall try to track this distinction on deeper level. Practical art of magic possesses certain techniques of execution and applied in strict borders. Magical spells, ritual and personal abilities of an executor form a constant trinity. The religion in all variety of its aspects and purposes has no such simple techniques. Its unity is not reduced to system of formal actions, not even to universality of its idea content, it more likely consists in its function and in valuable idea of faith and ritual. The beliefs peculiar to magic, according to its practical orientation are extremely simple. It always the belief in power of a person to reach the desirable purpose by means of sorcery and ritual. At the same time in religion we observe significant complexity and variety of the supernatural world as object of belief: the pantheon of spirits and demons, salutary power of totem, spirit-keepers of a kin and a tribe, pictures of the future afterlife - all this and many other things creates the second, supernatural reality for a primitive person. The religious mythology also is more complex and various, in a greater degree creative. Usually religious myths are concentrated around various doctrines and develop their idea in cosmogonic and heroic narrations, in descriptions of acts of gods and demigods. The magic mythology, as a rule, acts in the form of infinitely repeating stories about supernatural. Magic as special art of achievement of specific goals, in one of its forms once is comes into a cultural life of a person and then is directly transferred from generation to generation. From the very beginning it is the art, which few experts master, and we may say that a profession of sorcerer and magician is one of the first professions in history of mankind. Sir James George Frazer in his book “The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion” states that “the public profession of magic affected the constitution of savage society, it tended to place the control of affairs in the hands of the ablest man: it shifted the balance of power from the many to the one: it substituted a monarchy for a democracy, or rather for an oligarchy of old men; for in general the savage community is ruled, not by the whole body of adult males, but by a council of elders”4. The religion in its most initial forms acts as common cause of primitive people, each of which take active and equal part in it. Each member of a tribe passes through a ceremony of initiation and than initiate others. Each member of a tribe grieves and sobs when his/her relative dies, participates in burial and reveres memory of dead people. When his/her time comes, the member of a tribe will be in the same way mourned and remembered. Each person has a spirit, and after death everyone becomes a spirit. There is one more distinction between magic and religion. It is a game of black and white in magic, whereas the religion at the primitive stages is not too much interested in contrast between good and evil, salutary and harmful powers5. But again practical character of magic directed on certain and results should be taken into consideration, whereas the primitive religion is turned to fatal, inevitable events both supernatural powers and creatures, and consequently does not concern the problems connected with human influence on world around. Read More