Time Order and ‘Speaking Out’: Traditional Farming and Beliefs in Europe and Indonesia and Sky Symmetry Considerations

Abstract

Ordering is indicated by what we perceive of the world, like for instance the behavior of water, as water appears always to flow downwards. Since we do not assume that water will flow otherwise when not perceived by us, ordering is assumed to be real. Time order specifically relates to sky movements. Correlation between sky movements and traditional practices for farming and religious beliefs can be traced back at least until the Neolithic. Examples from northwestern Europe and Indonesia are discussed. This correlation does not mean that sky movements and human practices are related in any other way apart from what persons choose voluntary. The use of one calendar as a guide for another is usually supposed to be a one way human initiative.

In this article I propose to explore the possibility of a two way correlation between persons and objects by introducing spiritual properties for both. Persons and objects can have a spiritual property in common. With a spiritual property is meant a property that ‘speaks out’ of a human person’s or object’s integral life and longing. For persons this is a more obvious concept than for objects. Considering objects of art, such as artistic drawings, makes this concept conceivable also for objects in general. ‘Speaking out’ is like crying: <au>, as a reaction to pain. It is quite involuntary and inevitable that it happens. What is personal is the choice, or maybe one might say: the education, of the expression <au>.

With the concept of ‘speaking out’ I connect with the theatre training work of Iris Warren and Kristin Linklater. At the same time, while objects and their properties belong to the domain of physics, I will use some basic symmetry concepts from physics. Correlation then takes the form of an interwoven fabric where cause and effect are entangled. Different subsistence practices will correlate with different symmetries, i.e. translational and rotational symmetries, of the sky universe, that can be recognized from artistic expressions like personal ornaments.