Thursday, February 6, 2003

Skipping back past the Virtual Pots posts of the last 3 days, and to Of boxes post ... What physical elements attribute specialness to the items within? Let's take a look at some similar boxes and get some historical / cultural context.... What is an example of a box that contains something special, or in a religious sense, sacred? What first comes to my mind is a reliquary. A reliquary is a containor used to keep or display sacred relics. Another name for reliquary is feretory. (artlex:) Reliquaries come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. A relic is literally something that is left behind. It can be something of mere sentimental value or an object of veneration. (dictionary.com.) Sacred is something related to a religious object. (dictionary.com.) So where as relic may be any old thing; sacred narrows it down to the religious. This may be an important thing to note, as the specialness of a sacred relic may be of a different type or degree than an ordinary / profane object? Religion deals with the supernatural. A religion's attribution of specialness on an object may be giving it a meaning that points to something outside our existence. Thus, a reliquary is a box meant to hold something that has a supernatural attribute. It is meant to hold something very special. 10:16:50 PM