Free Essay

Ideas in History - Challenging Traditions with Public Art

In:

Submitted By atsocric
Words 1556
Pages 7
The essay will argue the link between indigenous art, and public art in the post-modern world within which we live. Using the site of Fiona Foley's public art sculpture Bibles and Bullets as a focal point, public art as aboriginal tradition, and public art as a postmodern concept will be analysed. Located in Redfern park, Redfern, the artist's sculpture stands on the ground of great historical context to indigenous people. The context of not only Redfern park, but also the suburb of Redfern holds significant meaning to Aboriginal Australians. In the 1920's indigenous Australians migrated from rural areas of NSW to Redfern. Since then, the Aboriginal communities of Redfern have faced numerous hardships (creative spirits 2014). Redfern Park was the site of Paul Keating's famous 'Redfern Park speech'. The site links both postmodernity and tradition in its meaning, purpose, and structure. The postmodernistic use of art as a way to disrupt movement and space challenges traditional artistic conventions.

Fiona Foley is an indigenous artist who was commissioned to work on numerous public art installations. Her art does not depict traditional indigenous scenes such as the dream time, but rather has meaning deeply rooted in the modern history of the invasion of indigenous land. Foley uses public art because once in the public domain, you can't look away.

Redfern, and Redfern park both hold significance relating to indigenous Australians. Redfern was the largest Aboriginal populated area in Sydney. In the 1920's Aboriginal people began to move from rural areas to Redfern in search of work at the Redfern Everleigh Street railway workshops. In the 1930's and early 1940's, whilst more native land was being stolen for agricultural development, and Aboriginal people were subjected to amplified social manufacturing which included the pressure from the state to assimilate, more and more numbers moved to cities. Throughout the time of the second World War and the following period jobs were numerous and the increase of wages saw many migrating from rural areas to the city. This was coupled with the gradual decline in agricultural jobs traditionally performed by Aboriginal workers and gave momentum to the urban migration. The migration was accelerated when "state governments disbanded the welfare boards, closed most reserves and relocated residents into social housing in cities and towns administered by mainstream bureaucracies." (Morgan 2012) The implication of a mass rushed migration and social and economic powers foreign to indigenous Australians caused irreparable fractures in families and damaging social consequences which are still evident today.

In 1992 prime minister Paul Keating delivered the now famous 'Redfern park speech'. The speech was a landmark event because Keating recognised the injustices committed against indigenous people by non-aboriginal people (Clark 2013). In the speech, Keating's main point is about recognition. Recognition of a history of dispossession of Aboriginal land by non-Aboriginal people, and recognition of countless crimes committed against Aboriginal people. Paul Keating's recognition of these events directly conflicted with a different account of history that has been propagated in school textbooks, and by the media (Macintyre & Clark 2003). The 1992 speech marks a progression in education about Aboriginal people and gives a voice to not only the indigenous Australians of Redfern, but nation-wide as well.

Indigenous rock art in Australia dates back to more than 39 000 years ago. There are thousands of locations of rock art, all with varying styles, techniques, and context. (Morwood 2002) Art was essential to everyday life to the Aboriginal people. The artworks, which primarily featured on rock walls and animal hides, have distinct features, even in wide-ranging regions. Art would frequently use motifs and symbols, with a prominence of tracks and circles. When these designs are used on any surface, for example on the skin of someone for ceremonial purposes, or on a didgeridoo, they elevate the meaning of the object to one with religious importance and substance. (Bilous 2011) Through to the modern day, the techniques utilized in indigenous traditional art are implicated today with connotations to the importance of Aboriginal spirituality and Aboriginality.

Traditional indigenous art is that which was essentially public. When art was applied to a rock surface, it was made viewable to any person to happen by that rock. Art was not held privately by any one individual. This differs from traditional western notions of art, and challenges a western perception of art with the indigenous concepts of impermanence. To live impermanent was imperative to the indigenous life. To the aboriginal people, no one could 'own' land. the land belongs to every single person and it must be respected. The concept of ownership was a foreign one to the traditional Aboriginal people. (Hudson 2012)

Contemporary indigenous Australian artists continue the tradition of their ancestors by using similar techniques, motifs, and symbols in their artworks. Artists now use acrylic on canvas, a permanence which traditionally had not been present. The spirituality of the dreaming is still captured within contemporary works (Morwood 2002). Fiona Foley creates a post-modern abstraction of art through her sculptures. Foley does not use any traditional indigenous methods of creating art, but rather uses her art as a vessel of critique of a modern society that still faces the history wars.

The postmodern line of questioning is what can be defined as art? Postmodern is that which has evolved out of the modern. Modernism which adheres to rigid definitions, is opposed to postmodern art which is highly subjective (Grabes 2008 pp.50). The meaning can be a critique. Foley's work can be said to be avant-garde, a branch of post-modernism. Her work ultimately being opposed to a political and social point of view. Her work also is opposed to mainstream culture. Raymond Williams analyses the avant-garde in relation to post modernity in Marxism and Literature. It's argued that the movement of the avant-garde to that of a postmodernist perspective is mostly part to the "loosening of the base-as-determinant model." (Williams 1977) Williams explains that there is no simple duality between new and old. Williams prefers a relationship that encompasses the avante-garde, economic, social, and cultural shifts that occur through a continuing intervention as opposed to a lump sum of events.

Postmodernity offers a critique of traditional use of space. This is demonstrated in Foley's sculpture, which is in the middle of a park, and integrated into a children's playground. The beauty of the abstraction of disrupting space is that the intended meaning and subtext of the artist's work can be made either more obvious, or more hidden. The artist effectively re-structures the path of the outsider or the viewer. This re-shaping of space intervenes in the public's line of sight. An effective installation has a cultural significance with an intended impact that the public can interact with. Foley's sculpture is integrated into a children's play area. The innocence of the children is juxtaposed heavily with the subtext of Foley's installation. "Public art is a way of disrupting the pleasure of the patriarchal visual field." (Miles 2005)

Public art as a postmodern idea. The public art by Foley is multi-purposed and multi-faceted. It not only serves as a public piece of art, but also critiques the history wars that have been taking place throughout the 20th century, and serves as an integrated section of a children's play area. This idea of a multi-purposed structure being labelled as art is a postmodern idea (Winchock 2010). The spatialization of public art disrupts the seemingly public space. When a sculpture can disrupt the movement of the individual, it evokes a response. This postmodern construction is effective in its delivery of subtext. The location of Redfern Park provides context to Foley's work. The context of the location has meaning to traditional indigenous values. Traditional purposes of western public art, and indigenous art relate these ideas together. The practices of both traditional and postmodern conventions are utilized in Fiona Foley's installation.

Reference list

Clark, T. 2013 'Paul Keating's Redfern Park Speech and its rhetorical legacy' < http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-213/feature-tom-clarke/> Page last visited 07/05/2014

Grabes, H. 2008 'Making Strange : Beauty, Sublimity, and the (Post) Modern Third Aesthetic?' Postmodern Studies, Volume 42, Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam

Hudson, S. 2012 'Mabo and the concept of ownership' < http://www.cis.org.au/publications/ideasthecentre/article/4112-mabo-and-the-concept-of-ownership> Page last visited 07/05/2014

Klages, M 'Postmodernism' Page last visited 07/05/2014

Macintyre, S. & Clark, A. 2003 'The History Wars' Melbourne University Press, Melbourne

Miles, M 2005, "Art, Space and the City" Routledge

Morwood, M. J. 2002, 'Visions from the past the archaeology of Australian Aboriginal art' Allen & Unwin, NSW

Morgan, G. 2012 ' Urban transitions—Aboriginal men, education and work in Redfern Waterloo.' Postcolonial studies. Vol. 15 Issue 2 . p267-281. Sydney

Nimmo, A. 2000 'Art in a public place: "Edge of the Trees" by Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence' < http://lahznimmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Art-in-a-Public-Place.pdf> Page last visited 07/05/2014

Summerhayes, H. 'Fiona Foley; putting her heart in public art' Page last visited 07/05/2014

Winchock, D. 2010 'Post-modern public art' Sobriquet Magazine vol. 16 no. 5 Page last visited 07/05/2014

Unknown. 2014 'Redfern ' Creative Spirits Page last visited 07/05/2014

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Judy Chicago Gender

...detail how feminist art challenged the existing conventions and expectations of art practice (practice) The feminist art movement began in the 1960’s as a result of various factors that based around the central premise of supporting women’s empowerment and equality and aims to equalise women in society. Feminist art practice challenged the conventions and boundaries established by previous art movements like Renaissance and Modernism, these were periods in art which were strongly male driven and male dominated. Feminism challenged this standard to various extents, as in many ways women in the art world were not entirely respected and their practice could not produce ‘fine art’. Instead females artists were only associated...

Words: 786 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

New Strategy - Ica

...strategy-ICA It was essential to define the main features of our interest in the master which represents specialisation of individual capabilities and acquisition and development of new strategies to be implemented in any initiative related to creation of added value to a specific territory. This Master was designed in order to create a network of Euro Mediterranean cooperation represented by experts of different nationalities and entrepreneurial, scientific, cultural and artistic specialization. Moreover it was essential to develop strategies of evaluation and promotion of systems of production whose high quality derives from cooperation and integration of processes between systems of enterprise, culture and art, artistic world and local community, competences and traditions and values represented in the territory by cultural, historical and ambient heritage. At the very beginning of the master we were introduced with the theme of industrial districts and their importance. But we went further because we wanted to create cultural interventions for greater social, cultural and artistic satisfaction. In this sense Sansepolcro represents a natural ambient for such interventions being the part of the southern Tuscany which has rich cultural heritage but not completely evaluated and promoted. The provinces of Siena, Arezzo and Grosseto represent the territory of such interventions. Systems of interaction in a specific region are of vital importance and new management of small and...

Words: 5527 - Pages: 23

Free Essay

Ethics

...“Academic Freedom: It’s Concept, Its History, Its Successes, and Its Failures.” “Without Freedom of Thought There Can be No Such Thing as Wisdom and No Such Thing as Public Liberty Without Freedom of Speech.” by Benjamin Franklin. The discussions that are done globally on Academic Freedom engulf controversy clashing into nature of humans such as morals, values, virtues, tradition and principles. This made the concept of academic freedom to be translucent which can be defined and understand but cannot follow. In the nerve of cracking the taboos all around, academic freedom itself became a taboo. No one can stop a people to think but the freedom of speech of those particular people who have higher information which is never brought before and is substantial, is violated. Well, the other side of this coin being academic freedom hurt the sentiments of other people following by out of control act which leads to chaos and might also include this to be potential danger politically and economically. Other put it as a violation of turning public into weapons in the search of higher knowledge and pursues it in a negative way. All of this end up in suppressing the people who are capable of letting the world to learn a new fact or to break the taboo of the society by enlightenment and the tool these days used to do this is by politically suppressing the people challenging them their daily life or by power, influence, terror, restriction and ones need to show the other about their own supremacy...

Words: 2310 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Women and the Inequalities of the Art World

...Log My Personal Interest Project topic was chosen with my micro world in mind, due to my interest in art as well as being a Visual Art student. Through studying gender roles during my Visual Art course and exploring social exclusion in Society and Culture, it compelled me to want to learn more about the representation of women within the art world. As a socially aware individual with an interest in art, I felt the need to explore these inequalities to see if they still exist and how this may impact on other young artists. The research methods that I chose were interview, statistical analysis and content analysis, which would provide me qualitative results, as well as quantitative by being able to collect data and statistics. Originally, I planned on conducting a focus group discussion, however as my project progressed, I decided on content analysis as it allowed me to observe a variety of sources and immerse myself in the art world. By choosing an interview I was able to gain insightful knowledge from four females who were either art curators or historians and one male who is an art historian. This gave me qualitative results as I was able to receive in-depth answers from numerous people and allowed and exploration of my cross-cultural by interviewing both genders and gaining their perspectives on this. However, there were some limitations such as by completing my interviews through e-mail, I was not able to ask any follow up questions for answers to be further elaborated...

Words: 5041 - Pages: 21

Free Essay

Policy

...to the public. Calendar of Events (For more information please contact Jennifer Kattman at jkattman@sierracollege.edu.) MONDAY, OCTOBER 13 9:30-10:50am in the Fireside Room: “Brief History of Protest Music” by Professor Jason Roberts In this presentation, Professor Jason Roberts will look at protest music from the early 1960s to the present with such artists as Joan Baez, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy, and Rage Against the Machine. 11am-12:20pm in the Fireside Room: “The New Native Intellectualism: Social Media, Social Justice and Native American Studies” by Cutcha Risling Baldy Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) is an instructor and PhD candidate in Native American Studies. Her research is interdisciplinary (feminist and literary theory, politics and California Indian theory and methodology). Author of “Why We Gather: traditional gathering in native Northwest California and the future of bio-cultural sovereignty” and numerous related publications. Her dissertation (translated) is “To Grow Old in a Good Way” is about the revitalization of the Hupa Women’s Coming of Age Ceremony. Ms. Risling Baldy founded the Native Women’s Collective. 12:30-1:50pm in the Fireside Room: “Louder than Words” by Billy X Jennings Join Billy X Jennings, the founder of “It’s About Time,” an organization and archive dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Black Panther Party and editor of a newsletter by the same name, as he presents the “Louder Than Words” art exhibit...

Words: 1898 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Office Art Memo

...Office Art Memo Rodolfo J. Nodal Prof. R. Henry HUM112 11/11/13 Abstract The following essay will identify three examples of each, 19th century Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and seeks to explain how these works fall into the two distinct styles. I we will explain to my boss, who has assigned me the task of managing the art budget and selecting six works to be displayed at the new corporate office, the historical significance of each piece, a description of each piece; with images were possible, and it’s probable placement in a corporate office setting. I will also offer my thoughts as to how each piece is likely to be consistent with our corporate image. I will analyze some possible symbolisms and characteristics of each painting we deem to be appropriate with our company image and business model within the Travel Retail Industry. TO: Mr. Joseph G. Shill Chief Financial Officer Global Travel Group, LLC FROM: R.J. Nodal Corp. Office Art Budget & Art Selections - 2013 Dear Mr. Shill, Thank you for entrusting me with the selection and management of the artwork for our new corporate office. I have narrowed my focus to the late 19th century French Masters of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist era. These works are arguably some of the most recognizable in the world and the Impressionist art movement is considered to be the father of most modern art. The works chosen are In line with our corporate image and company...

Words: 2326 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Art Surevy

...Anne D’Alleva The Fundamentals of Art History Third Edition Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco upper saddle River Amsterdam cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico city sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo chapter 1 introducing art history Art is long, life is short. Prouerb attributed to Hippocrates (c. 4 6 0 -3 5 7 bce) This chapter will introduce you to art history as an academic discipline. It distinguishes the aims and methods o f art history from related disciplines like anthropology and aesthetics. It also attempts to answer two questions that are more complicated than they appear at first glance: What is art? and What is history? what do art historians do? The object of art history Art historians do art. But we don’t make it, we study it. We try to understand what artists are expressing in their work, and what viewers perceive in it. We try to understand why some­ thing was made at the time it was made, how it reflected the world it was made in, and how it affected that world. We talk about individual artists and their goals and intentions, but also about patrons (the people who commission artworks), viewers, and the kinds o f institutions, places, and social groups in which art is made and circulates—whether that’s an art school, temple, or government agency. What is “art”? “Art” is one o f those words that people use all the time but that...

Words: 4204 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism

...during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. It was shared by independent groups in New York, Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. * The movement was a protest against the barbarism of the War; works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason. * Dadaism primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, theatre, and graphic design. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchistic in nature. According to its proponents, Dada was not art; it was anti-art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored them. If art is to have at least an implicit or latent message, Dada strives to have no meaning. Interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely on the viewer. If art is to appeal to sensibilities, Dada offends. Perhaps it is then ironic that Dada is an influential movement in Modern art. Dada became a commentary on art and the world, thus becoming art itself.” * The Dadaists channelled their revulsion at World War I into an indictment of the nationalist and materialist values that had brought it about. They were united not by a common style but by a rejection of conventions in art and thought, seeking through their unorthodox techniques, performances and provocations to shock society into self-awareness. The name Dada itself was typical of the movement’s anti-rationalism. Various...

Words: 3548 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Depresion in Children

...Speeches Sweaty palms, perspiration running down your face, dry mouth; these are all the signs of someone who is nervous about giving a speech. When thinking about speaking sometimes it brings fear. It is important to remember that public speaking is a part of everyday life. You may not have a large audience, but you do have an audience and you must convey what you are trying to get across to them. Public speaking is another form of conversation. There is as rich history in public speaking. As early as ancient Greece speeches were required as part of the education. Plato said that Rhetoric is the art of winning the soul by discourse. Aristotle identified the basic elements of good speech and persuasion as ethos, logos, and pathos. The ethos (credibility, believability) of the speaker was important; the logos (logic) behind any conclusions drawn by the speaker during the course of the speech needed to be valid and clear; and the pathos (emotional appeals) were important in making human connections between the speaker and the listener. In the Bible there are many examples of this process. “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor is spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (Thompson King James Version Bible, Psalm 139:1-10)This familiar...

Words: 1965 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Pop Culture

...and Dana Takagi 1. Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies, by José David Saldívar 2. The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture, by Neil Foley 3. Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities around Puget Sound, by Alexandra Harmon 4. Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War, edited by George Mariscal 5. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home: West Indian Brooklyn and American Indian Minneapolis, by Rachel Buff 6. Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East,1945–2000, by Melani McAlister 7. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown, by Nayan Shah 8. Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934–1990, by Lon Kurashige 9. American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture, by Shelley Streeby 10. Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, by David R. Roediger 11. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico, by Laura Briggs 12. meXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands, by Rosa Linda Fregoso 13. Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, by Eric Avila 14. Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, by Tiya Miles 15. Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation, by Herman S. Gray Cultural Moves African Americans and the Politics of Representation ...

Words: 98852 - Pages: 396

Free Essay

Design History

...regressive effects. The current environmental crisis is, as Arturo Escobar argues, ‘a crisis of modernity, to the extent that modernity has failed to enable sustainable worlds.’[1] Design is implicated here for its contribution to environmental degradation, as is design history for accounts that validate designers’ development of concepts, processes and products that impose the unsustainable on societies. The latter is pronounced in Australian design history. When modernity and its cultural manifestations are understood as European inventions, admitting limited scope for cultural exchange, claiming historical significance for Australian design inevitably involves the uncritical application of imported principles.[2] The halting attempts to write Australian design history are mostly bound up in proselytizing for the values and benefits of the modern and eulogising designers’ efforts to force change in the face of conservative cultural establishments and indifferent publics. Even the most recent treatments continue to be engulfed by discussions of derivativeness, marginality and uniqueness.[3] Elsewhere, however, the culture of ‘peripheral’ localities is seen to disrupt fundamental suppositions about the modern, challenging the totality and uniformity generally ascribed to it. A key text here is...

Words: 6224 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Amrican Literature, Modernism

...“Modernism” term, modernism is a literary and cultural international movement which flourished in the first decades of the 20th century. It was an intellectual movement and a change that defined itself as the latest thing. During Modernism it seemed like religion and culture fell apart. In modernism people tried to reject tradition and tried new things. This period was marked by large technological advances such as invention of new building material, cars, speed and locomotion. Although modernism brought up innovative and experimental changes, this time period witnessed the First World War and the Great Depression. Those events led people to feel a sense of loss and uncertainty. When it comes to literature, experimentation with the form was another defining characteristic of modernism is not a term that can be described in single term. It may be applied both to the content and to the form of a work, or to either in isolation. It reflects a sense of cultural crisis which was both, exciting and scary. Modernism opened up a whole new pallet of human possibilities at the same time as putting into question any previously accepted means of grounding and evaluating new ideas. “Modernism is marked by experimentation, particularly manipulation of form, and by the realization that knowledge is not absolute.” (Ciaffaroni, 2009). While New York City is in the middle of a heat wave, the residents of one building beat the heat by sitting on the building’s stoop and catching up on gossip.  Emma...

Words: 6245 - Pages: 25

Premium Essay

Communication Theory as a Field

...two principles: the constitutive model of communication as a metamodel and theory as metadiscursive practice. The essay argues that all communication theories are mutually relevant when addressed to a practical lifeworld in which “communication” is already a richly meaningful term. Each tradition of communication theory derives from and appeals rhetorically to certain commonplace beliefs about communication while challenging other beliefs. The complementarities and tensions among traditions generate a theoretical metadiscourse that intersects with and potentially informs the ongoing practical metadiscourse in society. In a tentative scheme of the field, rhetorical, semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, sociopsychological, sociocultural, and critical traditions of communication theory are distinguished by characteristic ways of defining communication and problems of communication, metadiscursive vocabularies, and metadiscursive commonplaces that they appeal to and challenge. Topoi for argumentation across traditions are suggested and implications for theoretical work and disciplinary practice in the field are considered. Communication theory is enormously rich in the range of ideas that fall within its nominal scope, and new theoretical work on communication has recently been flourishing.’ Nevertheless, despite the ancient roots and growing profusion of theories about communication, I argue that communication theory as an identifiable field of study does not yet ...

Words: 19908 - Pages: 80

Premium Essay

Xyz-Drama Based Article

...Drama in schools second edition Like theatre, drama in schools can unlock the use of imagination, intellect, empathy and courage. Through it, ideas, responses and feelings can be expressed and communicated. It carries the potential to challenge, to question and to bring about change. Jude Kelly (theatre director and founder of Metal) Contents Foreword 2 1 Introduction 4 2 Why drama in schools? 6 3 Recognising good drama 9 3.1 What does good drama look like at the Foundation Stage? 9 3.2 What does good drama look like at Key Stages 1 and 2? 12 3.3 What does good drama look like at Key Stage 3? 18 3.4 What does good drama look like at Key Stage 4? 22 3.5 What does good drama look like at post-16? 24 3.6 What does good drama look like in special schools? 26 3.7 What does a good drama enrichment programme look like? 27 4 Structuring drama in schools 32 4.1 Level descriptions for drama 33 5 Policy, facilities, resources 41 5.1 Useful points for schools managers and subject leaders to consider 41 5.2 What does a good school policy for drama look like? 42 5.3 What do good facilities and resources in drama look like? 44 6 Conclusion 46 Appendix 1 Drama and the early learning goals within 48 the Foundation Stage Appendix 2 The National Curriculum for England – English 50 Appendix 3 Drama within the Primary Strategy...

Words: 20071 - Pages: 81

Free Essay

On the Nature of Religion

...Mohd 1  Mohd Ali  Professor Asbille  On the Nature of Religion  Throughout history it can clearly be seen that religion has played an important role in  people’s lives. It is the one thing that is consistent across every culture. From Scandinavia to  Japan, and from Ireland to Argentina, religion has played a role in the development of these  societies. It does not matter what language the people speak or what they wear. Religion seems  to bridge the gap without problem, rapidly spreading from one place to another in a matter of  centuries, despite there being a cultural and language barrier.   What makes religion so incredibly effective? Why is it that the concept has existed for  literally as long as humanity has existed? What is the relationship between religion and culture?  Are they two distinct entities, or are they two different manifestations of the same phenomenon?  In order to answer these questions, first, a mutual platform must be developed and agreed  upon, which will serve as the basis for development and proposal of arguments. First and  foremost, this paper is a rational inquiry about the nature of religion, and as such this paper will  establish arguments and analyze religion through the lens of rationality and science. This is not a  paper about causality. The arguments developed here are built on the foundations of  Objectivism, scientific realism, empirical analysis and strict adherence to logic. Furthermore,  religion has to be rigorously defined...

Words: 3457 - Pages: 14