Art and Human Values Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Art and Human Values - Essay Example This is portrayed in the different ways in which different cultures manage to mingle using art and how they manage to communicate or bring out messages and their feelings, as well as, beliefs using art (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh). According to the (Sayre, 3), different cultures understand and use the value of landscape differently and thus the differences in the way through which various cultures make use of landscape in the art can be used to bring out the differences between these cultures. If four different approaches to landscape are considered the differences between the American, Australian, Chinese and African cultures can be seen in the kind of art that these different cultures used to produce. These works of art not only present the differences in the times that they were produced but they also show the differences in lifestyles, and use of the available space in making the works of art. The Slovene Ethnographic Museum shows an example of the way different cultures use different works of art. It is endowed with various collections of Slovene art in a single museum where people can go and find out more about the Slovene culture, and the way they used to live back in the ancient days. This doe not only apply to the Slovene, but many other Museums in the world are specialized in presenting or show casing the art of different cultures. These museums of cultural identities were not established for any particular reason, but they bring out the true identity of different people and show the differences in different people, in the world. Some of the characteristics and traits of people that can be discovered from art includes their wisdom, knowledge, skills, creativity, values and their heritage (ASEMUS). From the regions of British Columbia, it is established that the Kwakiutl, a Native American Ethnic group, used to paint their masks for various occasions in their communities. They were, however, not the only

Islam Today Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam Today - Essay Example With the destruction and chaos that came with the end of the colonial rule after World War 2, much of the Islamic world became the victim of corrupt regimes, religious extremism, and foreign intervention. As Edward Said put it: â€Å"In part, of course, that is because the Middle East, the Arabs, and Islam have continued to fuel enormous change, struggle, controversy, and, as I write these lines, war†. The political instability so much a part of much of the Islamic world stems from the instable atmosphere of many of these countries (especially the Arab ones) and the fact that they are home to most of the world’s oil supply. The oil brings the interest of many Western governments to do things that, if the oil was not there, they would probably not do. To that of course must be added that most people have the negative image of Muslims as terrorists and extremists largely due to their negative depiction in the media. There is â€Å"a striking lack of clarity and an atmosphere of incomprehension that can only generate suspicion and fear† (Ramadan 2007, p. 23). This situation is not helped by the fact that so many scholars in the West believe that Muslims are by nature â€Å"radical† and that Islam in general is incompatible with the West and/or globalization. In order combat these images and the potential conflict there is a lot people in Muslim countries could do. First and foremost Muslim governments should attempt to have their voice heard more clearly and more often in Western media. It is clear that Muslims have an image problem in the world’s media. There should be an organized effort to reach out to people to show them that Islam has much more to it than radicals and terrorists.