Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Fall 2015 | Paper 2

Due Saturday, October 10th, 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Length: 6–8 pages (1500–2000 words)

The topics for paper two ask you to think comparatively about some of the texts/objects we have encountered so far this semester. In writing this essay, it is important that you be specific about the points of comparison. You do not need to fully describe each text/object about which you write. Instead, think carefully and critically about each text/object and include in your essays only those details that are integral to your comparative analysis. Build from analysis of each text/object to construct your argument.

  1. Exodus and the Code of Hammurabi both contain a set of social directives and a list of punishments for those who break them. Both texts also ground the authority for these social mandates in the divine, while at the same time, in some respect, they credit a human leader. How does the three-way relation between laws, divine "backer" of the laws, and human leader differ between these texts, and how does that difference manifest itself in the laws themselves?

  2. Compare the characterization of divine creation in the Leiden Hymns (particularly XL, XC, C and CC) and Genesis. Do these texts exhibit the same understanding of creation? Does creation depend upon forms of representation (speaking, naming, forging a figure, etc.), or might creation also depend upon something that cannot be represented?

  3. Compare Sinuhe's flight from Egypt with Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden in Genesis 2 and 3. In both stories there are explanations for leaving the homeland or being forced to leave paradise, but the explanations (both within and between these texts) vary in terms of attributions of fault. How do the actions leading up to departure and the consequences of that departure shape characters and imply limits for human agency?

  4. In our weeks on Egypt, we encountered several objects that harness the power of imagery to present a certain view of the relationship between the divine and humans. What is the view of this relationship as projected in Egyptian art? To answer this question, choose one Egyptian text and compare it to one of the following Egyptian objects:

    http://cdm-workspace.reed.edu/gallery/3995
    http://cdm-workspace.reed.edu/gallery/3994

    How do the formal qualities of the object augment, modify or work against the ideas presented in the text? [Each of the links above will take you to an image gallery with multiple views of the same object. You are to write about the object, using the multiple images to see it in detail and in the round as much as possible. Each image is of high enough resolution that you can zoom in to study particular details.]