HUM 105 - Sacred Places and Objects

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.
2

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.
3

• 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.
4

• They are the repositories of national or ethnic identity or
the site of supernatural revelation or visitation.
5

• Sacred places serve to teach and remind us of who we
are and how we ought to behave in our day-to-day lives.
6

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).
7

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, Guánica or Cerro Maravilla-Villalba.
8

• 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.
9

• 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.
10

Andrew Gulliford nine categories of sacred places.
1. Sites associated with emergence and migration
tales.
Jerusalem
11

tales.
Jerusalem 12

tales.
Jerusalem 13

2. Sites of trails and pilgrimage routes.
Camino de Santiago, Spain
14

Camino de Santiago, Spain
15
© JC Gil Ballano

Santiago de Compostela, Spain
16

3. Places essential to cultural survival.
Old San Juan, PR
17

3. Places essential to cultural survival.
Old San Juan, PR (1509) 18

4. Altars.
St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
19

4. Altars.
St. Peter’s Basillica, Rome 20

5. Vision quest sites.
Bodhi Tree, Buddhism
21

5. Vision quest sites.

6. Ceremonial dance sites.
Tibes, natives ceremonial center
23

6. Ceremonial dance sites.
Tibes, natives ceremonial center (Ponce, PR) 24

7. Ancestral ruins.
Parthenon, Greece
25

7. Ancestral ruins.
Parthenon, Greece 26

8. Pétroglyphes and pictographs.
Altarima cave paintings (Spain)
27

8. Petroglyphs and pictographs.
Altamira cave paintings (Spain) 28

9. Burial or massacre sites.
Auschwitz, Austria
29

9. Burial or massacre sites.
Auschwitz, Austria 30

• 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
31

plot):
2. Places where the higher powers have appeared in the
lives of human beings.
32

plot):
3. Places where the higher powers have willfully revealed
themselves to human being
33

plot):
4. New sacred places that emphasize the present
interactions between the human and the spiritual
realms.
34

Leonard and McClure synthesis of sacred places
categories:
• Sites of Longing and Fear
• Places of historical/metaphorical meaning
• Places of human agency
35

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 Leon’s fountain of eternal youth.
36

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.
37

Places of historical/metaphorical meaning
Caguana, natives ceremonial center (Utuado PR) 38

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.
39

Memorial Monument. Capitolio, PR. 40

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.
41

• 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.
42

• 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).
43

• 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.
44

• In this story we move from perfection and harmony to
imperfection, struggle, and disharmony.
45

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.
46

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.
47

Sacred objects and symbols
48

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.
49

Sacred objects
• Controversy often surrounds removal of a sacred object
from a sacred place, such as artifacts removed for
research, preservation, or public display.
50

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.
51

Sacred objects
• Often mythological beings carry objects, also called
attributes and talismans.
• May be animals, weapons, or tools that symbolize
components of their character
52

Sacred objects
• Sometimes these objects have supernatural powers, such
as invisibility.
• Sometimes these objects are sacred, sometimes merely
symbolic.
53

Judaism: Star of David
Adopted in the Middle
Ages by Jewish, the
Magen David meant
God as protector of
David.
54

Christianism: Cross
After Constantine
converted
to Christianity, he
abolished crucifixion
as a death penalty
and promoted, as
symbols of the
Christian faith. 55

Islamism: Crescent
Closely associated with
the Ottoman Empire
(14th C.), its successor
states, and the world of
Islām in general.
56

Hinduism: Om
A sacred syllable that
is considered to be
the greatest of all the
mantras, or sacred
formulas.
57

Taoism: Yin-Yang
In Eastern thought, the
two complementary
forces that make up all
aspects and
phenomena of life.
Reference: www.britannica.com
58

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
59

References:
•Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth &
knowing: An introduction to world mythology.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
•Rosenberg, D. (2006). World mythology: An
anthology of great myths and epics (3rd ed.).
Chicago, IL: McGraw Hill.
60

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