Sacred Spaces, Holy Hours

Reading: Strickland, pp2-11. (“Strickland” refers to one of the books on order at the BU Bookstore, The Annotated Mona Lisa, by Carol Strickland.)

Documentary to watch: Herzog, Cave of Forgotten Dreams: link.

Video to watch: “New Light at Newgrange,” published to YouTube by the Irish National Monuments Service.

Writing: Read HW guidelines linked here. Then respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

1. In the first 10 minutes of his documentary, Herzog focuses a lot on his process (i.e. what it was like to move about and film in the cramped cave), rather than on his subject, the cave paintings themselves. What purpose does this serve? In answering, point to a particular moment or (better) quote the film’s narration as evidence of your insight.
2. Several times Herzog’s documentary presents evidence that bears hibernated in this cave. In what way is this relevant to the human practice of decorating the cave with art? You’ll have to speculate to answer this question, but bolster your hypothesis by pointing to specific evidence from the film where evidence of early humans is juxtaposed with bear sign.
3. About an hour in, Herzog makes reference to the culture that produced the Venus of Willendorf. Name one key way in which that art differs from the Chauvet cave art—and speculate a bit about what this suggests about those two cultures’ differences. Try to ground your speculation in visual detail!

Further Reading: After attending lecture, if you want to learn more from the sources that informed my analysis, here are two key authors, Harari and Eliade, indexed by idea. Selections from both authors are available on Blackboard.

• The “Cognitive Revolution”: Harari pp1-12
• The “Agricultural Revolution”: Harari pp12-18.
• Shared fictions/imagined orders/myths as fundamental to human culture, inescapable “prison walls” that shape our thinking: Harari, pp18-30.
• Hierophany: Eliade.