Analysis Of The Human Cultural Identity Essay

, Research Paper

Analysis of the Human Cultural Identity

This paper is intended to contain the analysis of the human cultural

identity, as seen in the following five historical cultural periods:

Enlightenment Culture; Greco-Roman Culture; Judeo-Christian Culture;

Renaissance-Reformation Culture; and Industrialization-Modernism Culture. It

also embodies examples of each era that are clearly stated, and how they relate

to the cultural period.

The cultural identity of the Enlightenment can be described as emphasizing

the possibilities of human reason. This idea can be illustrated with such

examples as Thomas Jefferson, Denis Diderot, and Protestantism. Thomas

Jefferson was considered among one of the most brilliant American exponents of

the Enlightenment culture. He had the time and the resources to educate himself

in many topics including history, literature, law, architecture, science, and

philosophy. He had the motivation and the connections to apply Enlightenment

political philosophy to nation-building. Denis Diderot was a French

encyclopedist and philosopher, who also composed plays, novels, essays, and art.

He greatly influenced other Enlightenment thinkers with his translations of

Encyclopedie ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers,

usually known as Encyclopedie. He used this translation as a powerful

propaganda weapon against Ecclesiastical authority, and the semifeudal social

reforms of the time. Protestantism is a good example also. It is one of the

three major divisions of Christianity. It displays the release of traditional

religion and the movement to worldly learning and the rise of protests against

the controlled way of expressing one’s self. It allows the human himself to

reason out the way that he thinks, instead of an authority telling him how to do

so therefore, extending his mind.

The Industrialism-Modernism culture is a culture that represents social,

economical, and scientific advancement, as well as self-doubt, uncertainty, and

alienation. These traits can be characterized with such examples as Werner

Heisenberg, Epicureanism, and Eli Whitney. Werner Heisenberg was a German

physicist known especially for his development in quantum mechanics and his

principle of indeterminacy, or theory of uncertainty. This theory explained how

it is impossible to know specifically the position and momentum of a particle,

an electron for example, with accuracy. This demonstrates the distinctive

uncertainty of the culture. It created a strong trend of mysticism among

scientists who perceive it as a violation to cause and effect laws.

Epicureanism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Greek philosopher

Epicuris. His views coincide with those of Heisenberg in the way that they

display the incertitude of how it is impossible to know exactly what things will

do or go. In example, he suggested that even atoms are free to move around

spontaneously, without order. Any invention or its inventor would fit nicely

into this cultural topic. Eli Whitney, for instance, and the cotton gin. This

invention was one of the most important, it created a very substantial movement

in history. Whitney used scientific knowledge to produce a machine that

produced economic progress along with the advancement of less manual labor, and

more production for sales.

The Greco-Roman culture is one of a male dominant society, and conflicting

obedience views. The idea was that men were controlled by reason, and women

were controlled by passion, and that if women were not controlled by the

practical reasoning men, that disastrous consequences would occur. The male

prevalence in this civilization was evident in all perspectives of life

including the arts that were created during this time period. For instance, the

women were portrayed as clothed, mysterious, and deviant looking and the men as

nude, perfected, and authoritative. This philosophical belief, was taken to the

absolute extreme. Men were in a sense, afraid, of the disastrous situations

that women might create if given the chance to do so. Hellenism and Hebraism

are other Greek philosophies that deal with the ideas of how to think and act.

Hellenism is the stressing to ?see things as they really are?, ? right

thinking, reasoning for oneself, and Hebraism is the stressing of ?conduct and

obedience?, ?right acting?, and obeying God’s commandments. These two

conflicting views were struggled with by every individual.

The Judeo-Christian culture is one of holy relics, gothic and Romanesque

styles, and architectural advances. The holy relics were used to establish a

higher status among churches. Such tokens as John the Baptist’s head could be

found in the cathedrals across the civilizations. Another way to achieve status

for a church was to build the tallest facility that was possible. The idea was

that the bigger the church, the better. This led to styles such as Gothic and

Romanesque. The best example of the gothic form is Chartres. The cathedral

used advances like the pointed arch and ribbed vault. The Romanesque form was

characterized by flying buttresses and stained glass. The flying buttresses not

only enabled the churches to be built higher, but also gave them a majestic look.

The Renaissance-Reformation culture is that of a revolution of changes in

western civilization. Humanism, the revival of classical learning and

speculative inquiry beginning in the fifteenth century in Italy during the early

Renaissance, disabled the monopolies of the church’s learning, and spread the

ability to gain knowledge. The invention of the printing press with moveable

type, enabled the supply of books circulating to expand, leading to increased

ideas throughout Europe. The Reformation took many forms in society, but all of

them mainly deal with the idea that knowledge is power, and power was obtained

easier because of the creation of the printing blocks, therefore, enabling

people to change society because they were more educated.

In conclusion, the preceding information illustrates the cultural periods

of Enlightenment; Greco-Roman; Judeo-Christian; Renaissance-Reformation; and

Industrialization-Modernism. Each have examples clearly stated, and explain how

they relate to the period.