I've been thinking about what we discussed in class about seeing human faces in objects around us. When Professor Graban asked if this was the case for every culture around the world, I thought, No. Then I thought... Wait. Yes. Then, what does that mean about culture? And are there more similarities between cultures than we thought, thanks to the bonds of humanity?
I feel like McCloud was trying to say that our minds are wired to see ourselves in everything we see. But I'm not sure we're born this way; our culture leads us to do this. That seems to conflict with my earlier statement, but it seems to me that all cultures would do the same. All cultures have the same ideas about a human face, after all. Two eyes. A nose. A mouth. There is no culture or race on this planet that sees a face as anything other than two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. So then, would it be so far a stretch as to say that every culture on the planet has fallen into the same pattern?
That being said, I wonder if the simplest forms of faces in other cultures differ. In America, for example, I know that the simplest form of a smiley face is a circle, two dots, and a line. A head, two eyes, and a mouth. Actually, throw out the circle. I often see just two eyes and a mouth. Perhaps there are cultures in which a smiley face is a nose and a mouth, or perhaps ears and two eyes. Or what about cheeks? Eyebrows? Teeth? My first thought is to say that, no, all cultures must draw the same smiley faces since I have only seen eyes and mouth smiley faces. However, I have not been everywhere, nor have I seen everything.
Even if we discard the face as a projection of humanity, we can project ourselves onto almost anything. A building, for example: its style, color, shape and size all reflect its design by a person, its usefulness to the people who inhabit it every day and its continuing history in the place it is located. Or, take something simple, like a blade of grass. It is as nonhuman a concept as one could ask for, yet it is easy to project ourselves onto it. A blade of grass is much like a person: it needs sunlight, nourishment and oxygen to survive, is averse to excessive heat or cold, suffers under physical pressure and it grows, multiplies and dies in droves. Very human characteristics, but also very natural and lifelike characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea that humans see our faces in almost any symmetrical and most non symmetrical forms speaks to mans inherent narcissism. we constantly give human traits to both inanimate objects and to animals. I believe that it is because we really deep (or not so deep) down think that we are the highest and greatest. So it is not that these things actually have our features or our traits it is that we as humans think that we hold the patent on all that we think we are.
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