Personal
Experience and Artistic Expression
Lisa
Barfield-McCarty
ENG317:
International Voices
July 30, 2011
Experience and Expression
A person’s experiences throughout life are
at the heart of how they choose to express themselves to others and how they
perceive the artistic expressions of others. There are many avenues of creative
display that one may take on their journey of self realization and expression. Cultural
and personal ideas may be represented through a number of various forms that
may in some cases provide additional information about the background and
identity of the presenter. When we think of artistic expression, thoughts of
canvas painting or sculpting formations from rock or clay or even writing
poetry are often the most apparent forms to pass through the mind. But even
expressive tendencies of a so-called smaller scale are to be included when we
consider how the personality, after having been molded by cultural influences
and personal experience, may choose to affect areas such as style of dress (Schildkrout 2001) or the types of
objects a person collects. Recognizing these sort of everyday choices as part
of our expression of self, as related to culture and experience, can help to
identify and understand similar choices in other people.
A child’s first experiences are shaped
through interpersonal contact with parents and other family or community
members which introduces them to language and perceived rules about acceptable social
behaviors. These rules are heavily drawn from the group culture of the
community providing care and instruction for the child. Much of the child’s
psychological development will rest on the religious and political cultures
that influence the child’s environment while growing up. They will learn the
norms and expectations that their society holds for them through these
influences as well as through their personal experiences with parents, other
authority figures, siblings, and peers. But
even the simplest of influences may have a significant effect on personality
development, such as the name a child is given or even whether or not they have
siblings. Of course, not all personality traits are formed through external
connections. Some parts of a person’s personality are hereditary and have a
biological component. (O'Neil 2006)
One of the more interesting recent essays
shared in this International Voices course that is of particular value to the
topic of this paper is entitled “What’s in a Name?” by Otto Friedrich. In this
essay Friedrich observes how in some cultures people are inclined to introduce
and refer to themselves with their last name first and often without ever
mentioning first names. He equates this custom with the dehumanization of a
people that occurs within some societies. (Friedrich 1986) This is not a blatantly false
assumption as it is a recognizable truth that most people could agree on that a
person’s first name is a more intimate and personable way to reference them
whereas last names are more about connections to particular groups and are
closely related to other identifiers such as social security numbers. Although,
it can also simply denote some show of respect or be a sign of professional
courtesy.
Friedrich also makes small mention of the
mystical power that seems to be associated with the names that are given as
well as the naming process itself. (Friedrich 1986) In this, he may simply be referring to
a divine attribute that is associated with the power of creation; as we create
new life, bring it into the world, and then provide it with a name and hence an
identity. The essay does seem to head in such a direction with talk of parental
power in the naming process and the effects it may ultimately have on the
development of a child’s personality. It could however also be equated to the
view that names, and indeed all words, have a metaphysical quality to them. Many
people believe that since the universe as we understand it to be through
Quantum Physics is made up of varying degrees of pure energy vibrations, that
even our words (and hence, our names) have a distinct universal energy
vibration pattern which has the power to affect change on the environment and
within a person.
Dr. Maseru Emoto in his book “The Hidden
Messages in Water” claims to have proven a link between the vibrational power
of words and the effect they may have on us and the environment. This was done
through a series of water experiments in which frozen water from various
sources was microscopically examined and recorded, then exposed to different
types of music and speech patterns, then once again examined and recorded. He
claims that these experiments produced amazing results that indicate
significant transformations in either the negative or positive direction, depending
on the messages and sounds the water samples were exposed to. (Emoto 2004) While some people
criticize Dr. Emoto’s experiments as not following proper scientific protocols,
many people feel that his findings resonate positively with proven theories
that would support such evidence being a high likelihood. And though some
people claim to have conducted similar experiments with no such end findings,
there has yet to be any similar experiment that had the same quality of equipment
used in Dr. Emoto’s experiment which one would think may provide a big
difference in the quality of data collected. In any case, this experiment is in
alignment with what many scientists and spiritualists have believed to be true
for quite some time – that words have definite power and this is most likely
connected to their sound or energetic vibrations.
Friedrich spends a good portion of his
essay talking about how slight changes in a person’s name can make people view
them differently, such as using a middle name or only initials in conjunction
with the last name. He also talks about the naming of a child being an
assertion of parental power, suggesting that it is the first in a lifelong
sequence of similar assertions. (Friedrich 1986) Some people may disagree that this has
anything at all to do with the naming of a child. For instance, the numbers of
baby naming books available that include meanings of names alongside
suggestions for what pronunciations and spellings should be bestowed upon a boy
or a girl, suggests that parents put much more thought into the naming process
than simply a fondness for a name. And, many names are handed down through
generations – sometimes out of a sense of family pride. Many times a parent may
choose a name because they feel it will bestow particular positive qualities
upon the child. Whereas there may still be some parents who will not put any
thought into the naming process, deciding only based upon the agreed assumption
that every person needs a name by which to be identified throughout life.
When children are first born, they are
unable to choose a name for themselves so parents provide them with one. In
some tribal societies, children are not named by their parents at all but by
elders of the tribe. And, as is the case with the Cherokee tradition, after the
child has reached a suitable age to have displayed particular interests and
achievements they will often change their name to be more in alignment with
their true being. (Mails 1992)
They have a naming ceremony any time the name of a person is given or changed.
These sort of naming traditions are not representative of the sort of dehumanization
suggestions being touted by Friedrich in his article. While such intentions may
be present in some societies (he makes specific note of Russia), they are not
present in all cultures.
One thing that Friedrich mentions briefly
that brings to mind thoughts about finding oneself and expressing our true
nature was the common name changing display seen so often in teenagers. This
makes sense as the teenage years represent a transition into adulthood which
carries with it a need to understand oneself and express that understanding to
the world. However, it does not necessarily represent any form of rebellion, as
Friedrich suggests. It may simply be a desire to feel more in alignment with
certain energies that one resonates with on an emotional and spiritual level.
The thought in some societies that people must keep the name they are given at
birth throughout their lives regardless of feeling, may in fact be a remnant of
authoritarian control. And in that respect, Friedrich may be right to connect
the naming of children to domination and the child’s resistance to it
(rebellion) when they seek to change it later on.
The influence culture has on the naming of
a child is also present in many other areas of a person’s life growing up. How
a person decides to wear their hair or whether or not they use body
modification techniques at different points in their life (Schildkrout 2001) or even the types of food they eat can
be linked back to cultural influences. Artistic expression may therefore be
limited to, in many cases, what is known and available to a person within their
environment at any given point in time. Even with detailed artistic endeavors
such as painting on canvas or sculpting statues, the inclination to express
oneself through such mediums may present itself only if the person had
previously been introduced to that particular skill or those particular
materials used. So, as we explore what makes a person express their unique self
in the way that they do, we must look at both what creates personality and what
our society or culture lends to us by way of knowledge and materials.
References
Emoto, Masaru. The Hidden Messages in Water.
Hillsboro: Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., 2004.
Friedrich, Otto.
"What's in a Name?" Time Magazine. 1986.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962091,00.html (accessed
July 26, 2011).
Mails, Thomas E.
The Cherokee People. Tulsa: Council Oak Books, 1992.
O'Neil, Dennis.
"Personality Development." Behavioral Sciences Department,
Palomar College. 2006. http://anthro.palomar.edu/social/soc_3.htm
(accessed July 29, 2011).
Schildkrout,
Enid. "Body Art as Visual Language." Anthro Notes, , 2001:
1-8.
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