Consciousness
This is the mental, cognitive, emotional and behavioral beliefs we construct from our awareness of and the meaning of our encounters with each other and the world we inhabit.
Gestalt, is the sum total of experiences and emotions shaping our opinions
AKA:
the meaning we derive from mental and physical experiences.
Consciousness includes: language, songs, stories, myths, rituals, taboos, faith, art, music, drama, craft, dance, learning, institutions, organized religion, social groups, practices, and rituals that give depth and coherence to human cultural traditions and social behavior.
Meaning is associated with the coherence and depth that each person and group attributes to their experiences so that a thread of continuity persists, despite what may seem like disconnected encounters and confusing situations.
The means by which a society secures its subsistence enters the consciousness of individuals and articulate social members in a variety of practical and symbolic ways. But an important feature of consciousness, or the awareness of what actions mean, are the cults that surround or encapsulate certain techniques that assure sufficient food, clothing and shelter for any society.
An example of techniques associated with growing, harvesting and producing rice, or olives, corn, or wine reveal the close association of technology and cult practices. We call these activities agriculture, though the association of each with a deity in pre commercial and pre industrial times should not be ignored.
Here for example is a statue of Artemis the deity of the wildlife, hunting and fertility. She was associated with the moon in Asia Minor (Ionia) and in this representation from Ephesus she is central to the cult surrounding fertility, child rearing and the mysteries of women's child bearing capacity, child rearing and chastity. She was a patron of the midwives or women who assisted in the birth of children. Thus the skills, crafts and rituals associated with wildlife, birth and hunting would have emerged together in a cult wherein the transcendent meaning was associated with the use of instruments and implements in the practice of sacred rituals to assure fertility and healthy deliveries of babies.
Consciousness and cult are thus entwined in the dramatic arts, the role of Dionysus in fermentation of grapes, the rice Goddess in Balinese tradition, or the cult of Athena and the labor intensive processing of olives into edible fruit or oil for light, cleansing, lubrication, or cooking.
culture | culture hearths | cultural landscape
Metaphors
| Bias | Real versus Ideal | Concepts | View of natural events | Nature's Values | Reality
