Anna Layman ~ Harrison ~ Ancient Art and Ritual

"Movement, then, action, is, as it were, the goal and the end of thought. Perception finds its natural outlet and completion in doing. But here comes in a curious consideration important for our purpose. In animals, in so far as they act by "instinct," as we say, perception, knowing, isusually followed immediately and inevitably by doing, by such doing as is calculated to conserve the animal and his species; but in some of the higher animals, and especially in man, where the nervous system is more complex, perception is not instantly transformed into action; there is an interval for choice between several possible actions. Perception is pent up and becomes, helped by emotion, conscious _representation_. Now it is, psychologists tell us, just in this interval, this space between perception and reaction, this momentary halt, that all our mental life, our images, our ideas, our consciousness, and assuredly our religion and our art, is built up. If the cycle of knowing, feeling, acting, were instantly fulfilled, that is, if we were a mass of well-contrived instincts, we should hardly have _dromena_, and we should certainly never pass from _dromena_ to _drama_. Art and religion, though perhaps not wholly ritual, spring from the incomplete cycle, from unsatisfied desire, from perception and emotion that have somehow not found immediate outlet in practical action. When we come later to establish the dividing line between art and ritual we shall find this fact to be cardinal."
We discussed some of what Harrion said in class. We, as humans, have a choice when it comes to our actions. Although I'm not sure that we can say for sure if animals do not have a choice between perception and action. Through our consciousness, we are aware of how we percieve things. Through our perception we have emotion, and through our emotions we find action. This is where religion and art arise. There would be no religion and no art if we only acted on instincts, and had no choice. Through creating, we find the use of symbols. We can express ourselves in expressing the world we create.