The the social construction of reality, the aesthetic function, and the artistic work

Abstract

Early man needs to carve out a space where he can move with relative ease, settle down, and have a “living space”—that is, to create a world for himself; and to do this, the first thing he needs is a center to guide him amid everything that resists or threatens him. So man conceives of the gods as rulers of this dense and dark horizon, which little by little becomes familiar to him and yields to him; and these gods also allow him to erect a sacred center, which manifests to all a pact with them, with the gods or the protective deityand thanks to that “guarantee,” often unstable and always in a perpetual and precarious balance, he can orient himself and forge a path through the dark magma that surrounds him, resists him, and threatens him. The deity that emerges from this established pact is, in a certain sense, the guarantee that he can now truly continue in his task of constituting his world—and of constituting himself. Man, then, needs the gods, their protection, and, among them, one in particular or a specific divine force that dwells in a space around which man will erect his dwelling, his domain. Thus, man begins to mark and establish his presence in something that is not yet his world, but which is gradually becoming so; for this space is part of a larger one that he is expanding while, at the same time, expanding his dominion.