UPX Material
University of Phoenix Material
Week 1 Overview
Why Study the Humanities?
As students in various degree programs, what does the study of humanities hold for you? Are you really expected to care about any of this? What possible use could it be to you as you move through the various phases of your life and progress in your career?
The Creative Impulse defines the humanities as “those aspects of culture that look into the human spirit” (Sporre). Study of the humanities traditionally includes the arts, literature, philosophy and history, and within history, the advent of technology and early scientific thought. These subjects contribute to our understanding of what it means to think, to feel, to be motivated to take action and to be human. That still sounds a little distant, doesn’t it? It’s not clear at all what any of this has to do with life as we experience it today.
Consider this suggestion; that learning about these people with the strange names who lived in strange places so long ago, will open your eyes to the world around you in ways you never imagined. It will prompt you to think in new ways and to see connections between things you never knew were connected. If a genius is someone who sees connections between things that others do not, it will spark the genius within you.
Some would argue that studying the Humanities in today’s cutthroat job market is a luxury we cannot afford to provide to students. The argument follows the lines of practicality and immediate application. Education should prepare students in technology and hands-on business practice. This is the only way they can hope to be competitive. Students who have spent too much time in the Arts or Humanities are destined to join the ranks of the unemployed after graduation.
Even though this argument seems logical on the surface, it is seriously flawed. Human beings must be able to live life fully, to think and to feel. They should be able to take joy in music, art, literature and history. They should learn to exercise reason and judgment and to understand what it takes to be a good family member, citizen, employer or employee. These things are not taught in technical classes.
The Ancients
How does the study of Humanities answer these questions? The answers are found in the Caves of Lascaux whose paintings defy understanding yet cause us to wonder at religious beliefs in an era when survival was a daily battle. They are found in the stone structures at Stonehenge, which have been the source of speculation through the ages. They are found in cuneiform writing on clay tablets of the Sumerians, the origins of a code of law from Hammurabi, and the words of Homer as we see Achilles lose everything he holds dear but gain compassion. They are found in the burial rites of ancient Egyptians, decorating the mummy with jewelry so that he looks attractive in the next life. The ingenuity of these ancient peoples who created things that cannot be reproduced with today’s technology continues to marvel even the most technologically savvy.
What connects us to the cave painters of Lascaux? Is it the need in each of us to tell our own unique stories? Did those ancient cave painters dream that thousands of years in the future we would be wondering about their lives? Probably not, but they did know that some future generations would read their story and they took pains to tell it in the bold style of primitive art known to them at the time. In doing so they projected life and energy and a sense of culture and self.
Move forward to the time of early Egyptians who begin to write their stories in form of picture “alphabet,” on a writing material called papyrus. Consider the time required to create the papyrus and to write upon it. How does that compare to your ability to communicate via the computer and e-mail today?
The Egyptians held firm beliefs in the afterlife and made great preparations for the trip to the other side. Almost 3000 years B.C.E., they were embalming, constructing the equivalent of a casket called a sarcophagus. They buried their dead in elaborate tombs, depending on position in society, and created masks for the dead to make sure that the loved one presented the best appearance for the next life which was deemed more important than the present one.
The discovery of the Tomb of the Emperor Tutankhamen, in 1922, revealed much of the extent of sophistication of this culture that has fascinated us for centuries. The one tomb yielded chariots, statuary, furniture, jewelry, utensils and implements, in addition to the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen himself.
Advancements in modern technology have made a dramatic difference in the analysis of finds like this. CAT scanners can examine a mummy without disturbing the fragile corpse. DNA reveals how people were related and what diseases they might have had. CAD programs can even piece together the remains of ancient buildings to give us a realistic look at the original structure.
The work or archaeologists is never-ending as are the stories of ancient humanity their work reveals. Recently some of the earliest writing in the world has been found at Abydos. The ancient city of Memphis is slowly being excavated while discoveries are continually being made in the Valley of the Kings. In some cases, archaeologists make a decision to leave certain finds unexcavated because they know that technology is improving so quickly that in a few years, even more knowledge may be gleaned form a particular excavation.
As you begin your studies, consider these ancient mysteries, look around you and see how thought and creativity and expression from the distant past influences life today. Look for those wondrous threads that connect individuals, cultures, nations and that connect us still to those ancient times. The threads are the fiber of humanity; the things that make us different from other creatures, different from one another, but more importantly, the things that make us the same.
Timeline of Scientific and Technological Advances of The Ancients
This list is meant to help put historical events in the context of human development. Many dates are approximate.
13000-11000 B.C.E. – Estimated arrival of humans in America (probably aided by clothing and fire, if they came via Alaska).
10000 B.C.E. – Approximate end of last ice age.
3000 B.C.E. – Beginning of the Bronze Age, named for the first useful metal alloy.
2700–2300 B.C.E. – Pyramids built in Egypt.
o First large states and cultures thrive in the river valleys of the Nile, Euphrates and Indus.
o Egyptians invent hieroglyph writing, use papyrus (crude paper).
o Euphrates cultures write on wet clay (afterwards dried), using marks from the end of a dowel.
1400 B.C.E. (approx) – Iron first produced by Hittites in what is now Turkey.
1200 B.C.E. (approx) – Trojan War. "Iliad" and "Odyssey" probably written in the century that followed.
Continuing Study of The Ancients
Various circumstances preserved ancient materials to modern times, affording us a glimpse into the ancient past that would otherwise be lost to us. The topics below are available for further inquiry in virtual museums.
Even though the original cave at Lascaux, France, discovered in 1940, has been closed to all but a few expert archaeologists, a reproduction has been created nearby. Visit culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/ to learn more about this amazing find and what archaeologists have learned about the culture of the cave painters.
The British Museum houses one of the most important collections of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt. It covers every part of Egyptian culture from Predynastic times to the Coptic Christian Period and is especially renowned for its collection of mummies. Tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs contained everything they were thought to need for the journey into the next life. The tombs were sealed for centuries, keeping the ravaging effects of time away from the treasures that were buried there. Visit the British Museum website, , to examine some of the finest pieces of ancient Egyptian art and artifacts known to exist.
Egyptologists are still excavating at places like Sager. Advances in technology including CAT scans, DNA testing and CADCAM allow scientists to learn more than ever about their finds. Go to the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities web site, .eg/, to find details of ongoing digs, museums, and other information on discoveries from ancient Egypt.
References
Sporre, D.J. (2002). The creative impulse: An introduction to the arts (6th ed.) Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall.
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