Walls Of Jericho Research Articles

On the Signification of Walls in Verbal and Visual Art

Walls-think of the great walls of history: The Chinese Wall, the Wailing Wall, the Berlin Wall, the Walls of Jericho and the wall on which the handwriting appeared to Belshazzar. Think of Zechariah's wall of fire and of the waters of the Red Sea which 'were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left'. Remember the walls of literature: Sartre's wall of execution, Shakespeare's 'sweet and lovely wall', and the wall raised in front of your (and the unfortunate Fortunato's) eyes in Poe's poem 'Cask of Amontillado'. And think of the expressions: up against the wall, to go over the wall, wall-to-wall; think of wallflowers, of walls of silence and of separation, of stonewalling and of Stonewall Jackson, of invisible walls and of the hole-in-the-wall. An exhaustive list of famous walls, religious and other, would, of course, be impossible to compile. Walls have inspired cinema makers, science fiction writers, poets, playwrights, painters and muralists. In one of the literary sources in Ref. 2 (F. Dostoyevsky) the protagonist's adversaries try to convince him about the immutability of the laws of nature: 'A wall, you see, is a wall ... and so on, and so on.' But is it? It is my thesis that, in addition to their versatile physical functions, walls possess an immense measure of signification and that these two realms-the concrete and the symbolicinteract with each other. Take first the multiple significance of walls for the visual arts, in whose history walls have a place of distinction not merely because pictures are hung on them. Since prehistorical times, unadorned walls have attracted adornment, giving rise to such different modes and media of artistic expression as cave drawings, frescoes, murals and street art, as well as reliefs, tapestry, wall hangings and posters [3]. The motivation behind these expressions has a wide range, from the homeopathic magic presumably practised by the Cro-Magnon artists of the Altamira caves in Spain, through the religious murals of the Neolithic culture in Catal Hiuyiik in Anatolia, to the secular, decorative tapestries of the Gothic era and to the political murals and posters of the present age. Next consider architecture, where walls may be said to define the art itself, for architecture is the art of bounding, the provision of multiple volumes that are separated from one another and from their surroundings by walls [4]. And yet the function of walls in architecture has drastically changed throughout the ages: the Romanesque tradition of heavy, structurally indispensable walls has gradually given way to the decorative facades of the Gothic period with their buttress-supported vaults.

Social science and literature

While the barriers that have separated the various scholarly disciplines in social science have fallen less readily than the walls of Jericho, they have, nonetheless, been giving way to the probing and analysis of scholars in various fields. In fact the time has arrived, when one may readily admit to having embraced the interdisciplinary approach without apology and with a firm belief that the extension of the frontiers of knowledge demand it. The importance of psychology, economics, history, politics, and sociology to one another is readily conceded. In support of this, a voluminous bibliography could be cited of works which would extend from the nineteenth century trailblazers of modem social science to the investigations of innumerable teams of scholars who are currently engaged in joint research projects from Harvard University to the University of California. We need mention only a few names such as Talcott Parsons, Erich Fromm, Harold Lasswell, T. W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, and C. Wright Mills, from among the many who have pointed to the importance of reciprocal relations among the social sciences.1 Furthermore, the signal importance of the social sciences to the fields of medicine, law, and religion is now well recognized. However, the interdisciplinary interest lends itself and offers promise at still another level and dimension. Despite the reservations and resistance of some, it may be argued that the importance of the humanities and arts to social science should not be ignored. Artists and dramatists along with poets, novelists, essayists, and others have concerned themselves with human behavior, institutions, values, socio-political problems and the like.

Walls of Jericho

Walls of Jericho

Reviews

Reviews

Desegregation in the Public Schools of Mississippi

Supreme Court decision of May 17, 19545, found the Mississippi Legislature in an extra session called by the governor of the state. This body had been in session for some time, working strenuously to devise a system of taxation whereby salaries and facilities for Negro and white schools could be equalized and kept separate. While the legislative mills were grinding slowly, the Supreme Court of the nation made its momentous decision against segregated public schools. effect of the epochal decision upon the Mississippi Legislature and the entire state was indescribable. walls of Jericho had come tumbling down suddenly and the resounding crash reached the ears of everybody everywhere. A period of painful silence followed for a time, only to be broken by the clarion voice of Mississippi's senior senator at Washington: We will not obey nor abide by the decision of the statement seemed a signal for the local papers to begin releasing pent-up energy on the Supreme Court's far-reaching edict, and at the same time, display pardonable pride in the fact that a few senators and some of the populace requested copies of the speech that defied the decision handed down by the high Court. Jackson Daily News, running true to form, termed the Court's decision purely political and then proceeded to picture dire consequences resulting from mixing the races in public schools. Its vision of the flow of blood as an inevitable sequence of integration in schools was repeated in a speech before a session of the Editors and Publishers Convention and the charge of foreseen carnage would be properly placed on the marble steps of the Supreme Court building in the nation's capital. Disapproval of the Court's findings were. widespread over the state of Mississippi, a thing generally expected. However, a different note was sounded by the Delta Democrat Times. In the issue of that paper dated May 18, 1954, editor Hodding Carter of Greenville, Mississippi, writing under the caption, The Court's Decision, had this to say in the first paragraph: The Supreme Court's decision that segregated schools are unconstitutional was to be expected by almost everyone who has followed the historical struggle between defenders and opponents of racially separated school systems. More significant than surprising, too, was the unanimous nature of the decision. Justices who made it are men from every section of the nation, men of various social backgrounds and beliefs and political outlook. That they should be so united in this case can be interpreted only as meaning that they were completely convinced that morality and democratic tradition were on their

Know-How, Our Maginot Line

IN 1934, a famous Frenchman, with knowledge of tactical operations of all the French armies, is said to have stated: . . the impenetrable fortifications now under construction will be our lasting security . . . the fortifications of the Maginot Line will make up for any deficiency in numbers which we may have to face in an enemy. (Pertinax, Grave Diggers of France, Doubleday, Doran, 1944.) The Maginot Line, whose construction was started in 1929, was one of the most remarkable fortresses ever built. It ranks with the Walls of Jericho and the Great Wall of China in its position in history. The line was 125 miles long and consisted of a variety of fortifications, pill boxes, and so forth, connected by an elaborate system of elevators, underground corridors, and other systems of communication. It cost approximately $500 million and could not be replaced now for more than double that amount. ...

The Walls of Jericho

The Walls of Jericho