SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

WORLD MYTHOLOGY HUM/105 Prof. Francisco Pesante

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Objectives 1. Explain the significance of sacred places in mythology. 2. Explain the functions of sacred objects in mythology. 3. Identify places and objects that may be considered sacred in contemporary culture.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

What the relevance of sacred places in mythology?

In the Sacred Places, the mythic breaks through into our present world, embodying the very kinds of boundary crossing that are so central to all mythological thinking.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

What the relevance of sacred places in mythology?

They are actual places where we can stand and hear the echoes of longago battles or imaginary places shaped by the requirements of mythic vision.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

What the relevance of sacred places in mythology?

They are the repositories of national or ethnic identity or the site of supernatural revelation or visitation.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

What the relevance of sacred places in mythology?

Sacred places serve to teach and remind us of who we are and how we ought to behave in our day-to-day lives.

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What does the 25th of July means in Puerto Rican culture?

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (1952).

U.S. troops landing in Puerto Rico (1898).

The murder of two young Puerto Rican separatist in Cerro Maravilla (1978).

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What does the 25th of July historical events have in common? They all have a national identity reference. They all have a geographical reference:

Either San Juan, Gunica or Cerro Maravilla-Villalba.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

The abstract meaning becomes real, becomes accessible, becomes visible, becomes imaginable because it is connected with a real place that we can see and with real events that we can remember.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford, in his analysis of Native American sites, argues there are nine categories of sacred places. They describe sites closely tied to the historical events, spiritual practices, and identity-reinforcing activities.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places. 1. Sites associated with emergence and migration tales.

Jerusalem

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places. 2. Sites of trails and pilgrimage routes.

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places. 3. Places essential to cultural survival.

Old San Juan, PR (1509)

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.

4. Altars.

Grito de Lares (1868), PR

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.

5. Vision quest sites.

SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.

6. Ceremonial dance sites.

Tibes, natives ceremonial center (Ponce, PR)

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.

7. Ancestral ruins.

Parthenon, Greece

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places. 8. Petroglyphs and pictographs.

Altarima cave paintings (Spain)

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.

9. Burial or massacre sites.

Auschwitz, Austria

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Vine Deloria categorize myth about sacred places in the scale of agency (main role in the development of the plot): 1. Sacred by human agency

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Vine Deloria categorize myth about sacred places in the scale of agency (main role in the development of the plot): 2. Places where the higher powers have appeared in the lives of human beings.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Vine Deloria categorize myth about sacred places in the scale of agency (main role in the development of the plot): 3. Places where the higher powers have willfully revealed themselves to human being

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Vine Deloria categorize myth about sacred places in the scale of agency (main role in the development of the plot): 4. New sacred places that emphasize the present interactions between the human and the spiritual realms.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Leonard and McClure synthesis of sacred places categories: Sites of Longing and Fear Places of historical/metaphorical meaning

Places of human agency

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Sites of Longing and Fear

They dramatize our fears of and resistance to the inevitable facts. Aging, Weakness, Disease, and Death. Ex. Juan Ponce de Leons fountain of eternal youth.
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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of historical/metaphorical meaning

An existing site that somehow embodies imaginary or abstract or mythological meanings that are still important to us and to our sense of belonging to a culture.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of historical/metaphorical meaning

Caguana, natives ceremonial center (Utuado PR)

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Places of human agency

Locations that continues to be sacred today, mainly by the symbolic meaning to the faith and reality that our cultural surroundings authorize for us would cause.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of human agency

Memorial Monument. Capitolio, PR.

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Places of human agency

Which sacred places are more valuable? Those considered entirely mythic or those in the real world?
Even when empirical proof or faith based, they should be understood as a continuum, not subject to a hierarchy of values.

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Places of human agency

In the Eden story, humans were placed in a perfect setting by a beneficent God, but they rejected lives of perfect ease and became estranged from the Higher Power through an act of disobedience.

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Places of human agency

The human race then lives in an ill world, marked by disharmony, broken relationships, suffering, and death, all because of the actions of the primal pair (and the snake, of course).

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of human agency

We have, especially in the Christian era, a promise of future healing, a return to harmony and perfect existence, but we must struggle through childbirth, ceaseless labor, and a constant state of emptiness, yearning for lost fullness in the here and now because of those first human decisions.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of human agency

In this story we move from perfection and harmony to imperfection, struggle, and disharmony.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Places of human agency

Which sacred places are more valuable? Those considered entirely mythic or those in the real world?
Whatever the answer, culture had a great weight in our response. Those cultural values ultimately become our own sense of what is real and right and normal.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Metaphoric places

Some important metaphoric places in myth are

1. sacred waters; 2. sacred landforms such as mountains, canyons, and caves; 3. myths of sacred trees, gardens, or forests; and 4. myths of blessed isles or magic realms.
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Sacred objects and symbols

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Sacred objects Sacred objects are items that are traced to a sacred place. Sacred objects are items that are present in a sacred place. Sacred objects are usually relics or symbols that are universally recognized as sacred.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Sacred objects

Controversy often surrounds removal of a sacred object from a sacred place, such as artifacts removed for research, preservation, or public display.

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Sacred objects

Human conceptualization of the object may change when the object is placed in a different context, such as in a museum or on auction.

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Sacred objects

Often mythological beings carry objects, also called attributes and talismans.
May be animals, weapons, or tools that symbolize components of their character

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Sacred objects

Sometimes these objects have supernatural powers, such as invisibility.

Sometimes these objects are sacred, sometimes merely symbolic.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Judaism: Star of David Adopted in the Middle Ages by Jewish, the Magen David meant God as protector of David.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Christianism: Cross After Constantine converted to Christianity, he abolished crucifixion as a death penalty and promoted, as symbols of the Christian faith.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Closely associated with the Ottoman Empire (14th C.), its successor states, and the world of Islm in general.

Islamism: Crescent

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Hinduism: Om
A sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulas.

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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

Taoism: Yin-Yang
In Eastern thought, the two complementary forces that make up all aspects and phenomena of life.

Reference: www.britannica.com
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Sacred objects

Many sacred objects are universal across cultures.

Circle: wheel of life, celestial bodies, and eternity Spiral: growth, discovery, evolution, and connectivity Equal-armed cross: four seasons, four directions, and four limbs Hand: protection, good luck, and healing Apple: forbidden fruit or sexual seduction
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SACRED PLACES AND OBJECTS

References:
Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth &
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

knowing: An introduction to world mythology.

Rosenberg, D. (2006). World mythology: An anthology of great myths and epics (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: McGraw Hill.
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