Page 220 - Kavur, Boris. Devet esejev o (skoraj) človeški podobi. Založba Univerze na Primorskem, Koper 2014.
P. 220
devet esejev o (skoraj) človeški podobi
and the inevitable fights with ferocious beasts. If the first depictions were re-
producing the knowledge and hypotheses about the appearance of nature and
natural processes, the second group reproduced social relations and gender
roles of the late 19th century.
At the same time their primitivism was determined by several attributes
– early archaeological excavations discovered numerous animal bones on sites
which were welcomed by scientists as information about the animals in the
past as well as about the hunting prey of ancient earthlings. Consequently re-
constructions of prehistoric life started to include beside tools, which were a
reflection of human rationality demonstrating the progress, also large quanti-
ties of bones – garbage demonstrating the low cultural capacities and a gener-
al lack of hygiene. With other words the idea of garbage, constantly remind-
ing the beholder of the primitivism of the depicted, implicated an existence of
an ideal structure, considered being civilization.
Such images and relations depicted marked the reconstructions from
early stages of discoveries. With the enforcement of evolutionism the depict-
ed ancestors became a diametric opposition to Adam – their image contra-
dicted the creation in which God formed man according to his own image.
Ancestral images presented creatures created by principles of evolution func-
tioning without the divine mercy. They were not our ancestors lacking the
welfare of civilization and just waiting to become modern but diabolic crea-
tures, similar to brutish apes.
Just because of the connection of the concept of physical beauty and cul-
tural as well as moral superiority, the modern European physical appearance
was set as a biological norm. All deviations became first subjects of display
and at the century’s end objects of research. It meant that the standard of
beauty or adequateness was determined by the judgment of the society declar-
ing who deviated from enforced norms. And since the ideal reflected the
needs of the society every deviation was stigmatized as social oponence – as
an element threatening the social structure. Untidy or incorrect appearance
would designate a person with a mind not able to control passions, a person
who changed the ascribed courage for anxiousness, person for which hones-
ty was unknown and where lust was uncontrolled (Mosse 1996, 59).
In the second half of the 19th century French and British scientist created
with the consensus about the old age of human ancestors an autonomous fi-
eld of knowledge which soon gained its place in national academic instituti-
ons and museums and which soon started to publically discuss its results and
publish its own publications. But we should not forget that the field was fu-
sed from numerous different unities developed in various national and in-
220
and the inevitable fights with ferocious beasts. If the first depictions were re-
producing the knowledge and hypotheses about the appearance of nature and
natural processes, the second group reproduced social relations and gender
roles of the late 19th century.
At the same time their primitivism was determined by several attributes
– early archaeological excavations discovered numerous animal bones on sites
which were welcomed by scientists as information about the animals in the
past as well as about the hunting prey of ancient earthlings. Consequently re-
constructions of prehistoric life started to include beside tools, which were a
reflection of human rationality demonstrating the progress, also large quanti-
ties of bones – garbage demonstrating the low cultural capacities and a gener-
al lack of hygiene. With other words the idea of garbage, constantly remind-
ing the beholder of the primitivism of the depicted, implicated an existence of
an ideal structure, considered being civilization.
Such images and relations depicted marked the reconstructions from
early stages of discoveries. With the enforcement of evolutionism the depict-
ed ancestors became a diametric opposition to Adam – their image contra-
dicted the creation in which God formed man according to his own image.
Ancestral images presented creatures created by principles of evolution func-
tioning without the divine mercy. They were not our ancestors lacking the
welfare of civilization and just waiting to become modern but diabolic crea-
tures, similar to brutish apes.
Just because of the connection of the concept of physical beauty and cul-
tural as well as moral superiority, the modern European physical appearance
was set as a biological norm. All deviations became first subjects of display
and at the century’s end objects of research. It meant that the standard of
beauty or adequateness was determined by the judgment of the society declar-
ing who deviated from enforced norms. And since the ideal reflected the
needs of the society every deviation was stigmatized as social oponence – as
an element threatening the social structure. Untidy or incorrect appearance
would designate a person with a mind not able to control passions, a person
who changed the ascribed courage for anxiousness, person for which hones-
ty was unknown and where lust was uncontrolled (Mosse 1996, 59).
In the second half of the 19th century French and British scientist created
with the consensus about the old age of human ancestors an autonomous fi-
eld of knowledge which soon gained its place in national academic instituti-
ons and museums and which soon started to publically discuss its results and
publish its own publications. But we should not forget that the field was fu-
sed from numerous different unities developed in various national and in-
220
