NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Aniconic

Aniconism is the absence of any representations, in a restricted sense those of living or divine beings, and more generally, any type of human substitution. The word itself derives from Greek εικων 'image' with the negative prefix an- (Greek privative alpha) and the suffix -ism (Greek -ισμος). The privative a (also known as alpha privative or a privativum) is the prefix a- expressing negation (e. ... Ism can be Interstellar medium A suffix -ism. ...

This article is a general discussion of aniconism and introduces some less popularized areas where it appears. Aniconism in religion is presented in greater detail in separate articles (see below under "Manifestations: Religion").

Categorization

Aniconism is a particular case of representation (the absence of images) and taboo (the prohibition of images). The difference is that one expresses only the absence of images, while the other contains also an injunction conceived to regulate their absence. An avoidance and repugnance of representations is called iconophobia, its antonymic reaction being that of an iconodule. When unformalized predispositions or clearly stated legislations are put in practice and enforced, leading to the removal and destruction of representations, the aniconism becomes iconoclasm. Aniconism relates also to censorship, which takes place after a representation was already produced, but before, or shorthly after, it is made public, and also involves less violence than iconoclasm. In common usage, "aniconism" is used to designate the absence of paintings and statues, "taboo" characterizes behaviours, "censorship" is applied to written materials and "iconoclasm" to the destruction of paintings and statues. It is generally agreed that people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it; thus, through language and representations (Oxford English Dictionary, cited in Vukcevich 2002). ... A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) against words, objects, actions, discussions, or people that are considered undesirable by a group, culture, or society. ... Iconodules (or Iconophile) is someone who supports or is in favour of religious images, or icons, also known as Iconography, and is in opposition to an Iconoclast (someone against Iconography). ... Illustration of the Beeldenstorm during the Dutch reformation Iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. ... Censorship is the removal of information from the public, or the prevention of circulation of information, where it is desired or felt best by some controlling group or body that others are not allowed to access the information which is being censored. ...

Object

According to the occurrence considered, the object of aniconism extends to God only, to all deities and saint characters, to legendary and historical characters, to all humans, to animated beings and living beings, and finally to everything existing in the physical or supernatural world.

Some parts of the objects subjected to aniconism are more sensitive than others to representation. The eyes and the face are markers of identity for the species and the individual (the iris pattern is a powerful biometric identifier; portraits are the most common art subject; masks appear throughout cultures as means to protect one's privacy or take a new one; enocculation was supposed to remove the power, life and soul from depictions). The representation of genital parts are often avoided, usually on moral grounds, because they represent biological, social and symbolic power (suppressed through clothing of statues and paintings or digital blurring and ink blackening of photographs). An iris scan is one of the most currently used methods of biometric authentication. ...

The forms of representation concerned by aniconism are in a wide sense, as well as etymologically, not restricted to particular ones, thus encompassing visual, auditory, odorific, gustative and tactile representations (examples are the periods of opposition to figurative music in musical history and criticism and the social marginality of actors—mimes of body and language—in many pre-modern societies). However, it is more common to see the term aniconism applied to material occurrences, bi-dimensional (painting) and three-dimensional (statues), thus leaving out ideas, language or performance, which are also types of re-presentation, re-enactment or re-embodiment.

Impact

While seemingly a futile issue, aniconism has fueled many social unrests and cultural damage throughout history (Byzantine and Reformation iconoclasm) and continues to be an unobtrusive yet determinant factor across social areas, from religion and politics to science and arts. Illustration of the Beeldenstorm during the Dutch reformation Iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. ...

Yet its most dramatic impact is for the future. Genetic modification, cloning, artificial intelligence and robotics aim at reproducing the living body and consciousness. Already visible are the Byzantine arguments resurrected today about likeness, some arguing restraint and moratoria, some prophesizing an outphasing of humans by their own creations (Ray Kurzweil inter alia). Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM), and gene splicing (once in widespread use but now deprecated) are terms for the process of manipulating genes in an organism, usually outside of the organisms normal reproductive process. ... Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of something. ... Hondas humanoid robot AI redirects here. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with robot. ... Dr. Raymond Kurzweil (born February 12, 1948) is a pioneer in the fields of optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic musical keyboards. ...

Distribution

Aniconism is a gradual phenomenon, having appeared at various degrees in many cultures across the world and within the same culture during its history. It is usually restricted to specific circumstances of space (figurative images are absent from mosques, but not outside their walls), time (synagogues are not painted, but the oldest preserved one was (3rd c. CE, Dura Europos, Syria)), object (in Africa the High God has no statue or painting, but lesser deities do) or modality. The intensity of aniconism is characterized by periodicity (e.g. the alternance of iconoclast and image overloaded periods in Christianity). Image File history File links the Dura-Europos (Syria) wall paintings and artifacts. ... Image File history File links the Dura-Europos (Syria) wall paintings and artifacts. ... The Book of Esther is a book of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and of the Old Testament. ... The Synagogue in Dura Europos This Synagogue was discovered in 1932 at Dura-Europos, now in modern Syria. ... The Synagogue in Dura Europos This Synagogue was discovered in 1932 at Dura-Europos, now in modern Syria. ...

Causes

Cognitive

The fundamental cause of aniconism is embedded in the problematic nature of representation itself. There is an unavoidable need to represent the world since this is how our cognition works, but what is the validity of a representation not perceptible to our biological senses of something outside their reach or immaterial (God, time, ultraviolet)? Furthermore, how to present a general model by a specific occurrence (everybody knows what a human looks like, but everyone will draw it in a different way). Because these are inherent and not transitory problems, they generate a perpetual search for solutions, making of aniconism a continuously fluctuating phenomenon.^[1] UV redirects here. ...

Religious

Although aniconism is better known in connection to Abrahamic religions, basic patterns are shared between various religious beliefs. In monotheism aniconism was shaped by specific theological considerations and their historical contexts. It emerged as a corollary of seeing God's position as the ultimate power holder, and the need to defend this unique status against competing external and internal forces, such as pagan idols and critical humans. Idolatry is a threat to uniqueness, and one way that prophets and missionaries chose to fight it was through the prohibition of material representations. The same solution also worked against the pretension of humans to have the same power of creation as God (hence their banishment from the Heavens, the destruction of Babel, and the Second Commandment in the biblical texts, or the myth of Golem in Jewish litterature). map showing the prevalence of Abrahamic (purple) and Dharmic (yellow) religions in each country. ... In theology, monotheism (Greek Î¼ÏŒÎ½Î¿Ï‚(monos) = single and Î¸ÎµÏŒÏ‚(theos) = God) is the belief in the existence of one deity or God, or in the oneness of God. ... Heavens is an independent rock band featuring Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio and Josiah Steinbrick of Thieves Like Us and Flowers Of Doom. ... For other uses, see Babel (disambiguation). ... For instances of Golem in popular culture, see Golem in popular culture. ...

Economical

The production of representations involves an expenditure of valuable human and material resources for ends that do not yield benefits critical for the survival of communities and individuals (paintings and statues). Especially in moments of crisis, representations come to be considered as threatening luxuries, that take away resources from where they are needed. Economic reasons are a culturally non-specific factor that has contributed to many instances of aniconism.

Manifestations

Although aniconism is usually related to religion, it is manifest in many cultures and areas of life. A selection is presented below.

Arts

Religious art and art with religious references make a substantial part of humanity's artistic production. As such, religious aniconism—discussed below—is in fact much about art. While not usually classified as aniconism, it occurs frequently in profane art, as a quantitative characteristic of amount of details present in objects. Extremes range for example between the 18th c. Rococo and the 20th c. Minimalist art; or between (so to speak "zen") Finnish design and Hippie luxuriance. The term itself appears to have been coined by Oleg Grabar, in the "Postscriptum" to his The Formation of Islamic Art^[2]. North side of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo - carriage courtyard: all the stucco details sparkled with gold until 1773, when Catherine II had gilding replaced with olive drab paint. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features and core self expression. ... This article is about the religion Zen. ... Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (February 3, 1898 â€” May 11, 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer, sometimes called the Father of Modernism in the Nordic countries. ... Singer at contemporary Russian Rainbow gathering Hippie, usually spelled hippy in the United Kingdom, refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that began in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. ...

Politics

While politics heavily rely on the representation of governors and pretendants as an instrument of power (the presidents on US banknotes and the stylized portrait of Che Guevara are examples where the power comes from the image of dead persons), there is a very short—yet essential to the political process—moment of aniconism. It is the lapse between the removal of the symbols of an outgoing power and their replacement with those of the incumbent. For example, part of the French Revolution was also the smashing of royal statues, as so often repeated during social unrests. The covering of the head of a Saddam Hussein statue with first the US, then the Iraqi flag during the 2003 invasion of Iraq ^[3], is a special example where the politically offending is hidden from sight before being destroyed. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the fall of Romania's Ceauşescu in 1989 produced (apparently independent) examples of political symbol based on the void — the Hungarian^[4] and Romanian revolutionary flags, where the Communist coat of arms are cut out. There are also reclusive leaders that base their power on the absence of their image, like the Taliban Mullah Omar of which only few images are know. Various Federal Reserve Notes Notes are missing serial number imprints. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14[1], 1928 â€“ October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... i heart kate young The French Revolution was a period of major political and social change in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to... Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: [1]; April 28, 1937[2] â€“ December 30, 2006[3]), was the President of Iraq from July 16, 1979, until April 9, 2003. ... Combatants Coalition Forces: United States United Kingdom South Korea Australia Poland Romania others. ... Combatants Soviet Union; ÃVH (Hungarian State Security Police) Ad hoc local Hungarian militias Commanders Ivan Konev Various independent militia leaders Strength 150,000 troops, 6,000 tanks Unknown number of militia and soldiers Casualties 722 killed, 1,251 wounded[1] 2,500 killed 13,000 wounded[2] The Hungarian Revolution... Nicolae CeauÅŸescu (IPA , in English, normally (and erroneously) ) (January 26, 1918 - December 25, 1989) was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until shortly before his execution. ... The national flag of Romania is a vertical tricolor of blue, yellow and red. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Mullah Mohammed Omar (Pashto: Ù…Ù„Ø§ Ù…ØÙ…Ø¯ Ø¹Ù…Ø±) (born c. ...

Religion

Note: A number of modern scholars, working on various cultures, have gathered material showing that in some cases the idea of aniconism in religion is an intellectual construction, suiting specific intents and historical contexts, rather than a fact of the tangible reality (Huntington for Buddhism, Clément for Islam and Bland for Judaism — references in the appropriate follow-up links). For the followers of the BahÃ¡Ã Faith, the photographs and depictions of the BÃ¡b and BahÃ¡ullÃ¡h, who are considered Manifestations of God, are considered very precious. ... An aniconic representation of Maras assault on the Buddha, 2nd century CE, Amaravati, India. ... // Byzantine iconoclasm Main article: Iconoclasm#Byzantine iconoclasm There were two periods of iconoclasm, or icon-destruction, in the Byzantine Empire, in the mid eighth and early ninth centuries. ... // The Quran, the Islamic holy book, does not explicitly prohibit the depiction of human figures; it merely condemns idolatry (ex. ... // The Tanakh A number of verses in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) refer to prohibitions against the creation of various forms of images, invariably linked directly with idolatry. ...

Science and technology

For most of its history, science and technology was essentially aniconic. (Even for such critical activities as architecture, there are few if any master-plans for structures like the pyramids, the gothic cathedrals or urbanism, not to mention the less complex private houses. Cartography, important for the civil administration and the military, was before modern societies either inexistent because relying on the mental memory of guides, or schematic, recording only significant landmarks.)

The success of scientific visualization as a valuable method, research field, academic department and multi-million dollar industry is fairly recent, despite its long and sometimes illustrious history (the Sumerian maps of the sky, Leonardo da Vinci's drawings). Some fields like Mathematics continue to be almost devoid of representations other than formulas and writing, and staunchly adverse to them (Benoît Mandelbrot, who popularized the theory of fractals through the use of computer graphics to an extent rarely attained by a mathematical theory, was scoffed by his fellow scientists for daring to use imagery to think about intellectual concepts. Note also the role played by the famous Einstein-tongue portrait for the popularity of the theory of relativity.) Non-visual thinking is a feature of many scientific traditions, but certainly not the only solution: in geometry for example, it is possible not only to visualize as figures the objects studied, but by using ingenious drawings, the process of demonstration itself. ^[5] For many fields the abandonment of a purely aniconic science has represented a revolution in the way problems are thought and solved, and how science is presented to the public, the policy makers and the investors (the use of artists by NASA to paint the worlds the agency’s scientists want to study). Sumer (or Å umer, Sumerian ki-en-gir[1], Egyptian Sanhar[2]) was one of the early civilizations of the Ancient Near East, located in the southern part of Mesopotamia (southeastern Iraq) from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in... The Mona Lisa Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 â€“ May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. ... Dr. BenoÃ®t B. Mandelbrot, Ph. ... A fractal is a geometric object which can be divided into parts, each of which is similar to the original object. ... Einstein redirects here. ... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States Government, responsible for that nations public space program. ...

The scientists' issue with representations is the potential for data falsehood of something "re-presented", that is having subsisted a transformation. Depending on the field, the problem is variously apprehended. In contrast with mathematicians, whose iconophobia is of an almost religious nature, physicist are confronted with material dilemmas on how to represent such elusive phenomena like quantum mechanics or the string theory. In the medical world images can be mistrust, avoided or suppressed, depending on whether they are sources of errors in treatments (the size of a head tumor depends on the color map and the image contrast ^[6]) or on privacy and ethical issues (not all parents wish to visualize the unborn during echography screenings; forensic photography of corpses is not easily released to the public). There is also a material substratum to scientific aniconism: the difficulty of producing images (capture, processing, distribution; aspects of technology, finance and intellectual proprety rights).

Medias

How much the appearance of medias (and more generally the exterior of all sorts of manufactured products) are devoid of images is a question of both subjective trends and willfully manipulation of citizens (the difference between the blank detail of Google and the overloaded CNN website is superficially a difference in function and structurally a difference between a society made of individuals who ask questions and one of establishments that provide affirmative sentences.) Google, Inc. ... The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ...

Various cultures

In Africa aniconism varies from culture to culture from elaborate masks and statues of humans and animals to their total absence. A common feature, however, across the continent is that the "High God" is not given material shape. On the Germanic tribes, the Roman historian Tacitus writes the following: "They don't consider it mighty enough for the Heavens to depict Gods on walls or to display them in some human shape." ^[7]. His observation is not general to all German people as documentary evidence suggests (see Ardre image stones). Makonde carving c. ... Thor, Germanic thunder god. ... Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (c. ... The largest of the Ardre image stones The Ardre image stones are a collection of ten 8th century rune and image stones. ...

Notes

^ Jack Goody, Representations and Contradictions: Ambivalence Towards Images, Theatre, Fiction, Relics and Sexuality (London: Blackwell Publishers, 1997): 68, ISBN 0-631-20526-8.
^ Oleg Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (New Haven (CT): Yale University Press, 1987): 209.
^ "U.S. military, not Iraqis, behind toppling of statue", The Honolulu Advertiser., 2004-07-05.
^ Heller, Andor (1957). No More Comrades. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, pp. 9-84. ASIN B0007DOQP0.
^ Various examples from the 16th and 19th c. Europe and 3rd c. China in Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning Information, (Cheshire (CT): Graphics Press, 1990): 16, 84-7, ISBN 0-9613921-1-8.
^ Joseph Dumit, Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity (In-formation) (Yale (CT): Princeton University Press, 2003), ISBN 0-691-11398-X.
^ (German)/(Latin) Publius Cornelius Tacitus, "9. Götterverehrung", Germania (De origine et situ Germanorum liber), Reclam, Stuttgart, 2000, ISBN 3-15-009391-0.

2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... This article is about the historian Tacitus. ...

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