Choose artworks from two different cultures that were presented in this chapter and discuss how their art depicts the sacred realm. Discuss how the works represent and reflect on the human experience of life and death.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Aboriginal art is intimately connected with the religious beliefs known as Dreamtime, or the Dreaming. Dreamtime includes the distant past, when ancestral beings emerged from the Earth. Hopi and Zuni Indians make doll-size versions of kachina as educational playthings so that children may learn to identify and understand the numerous spirits. The dolls are believed to contain some of the power of the spirit they represent. In mimbres bowls, we see how the Mogollon culture perceived death. As grave goods the vessels often seem to have been ritually "killed," either by shattering or, as here, by being pierced with a hole. The act draws a parallel with the human body, which is a vessel for a soul. In death, the vessel is broken and the soul released.