The Past And The Shape Of Things Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Past And The Shape Of Things - Essay Example Today, the United States of America has developed its own peculiar cultural and social habits that make it what it is (Strenski 11). Over the past, the US has had many immigrants from varied countries that had different social and cultural backgrounds. For this reason, the US has become a culturally and racially diverse due to this massive migration in the past. However, due to the varied combination of people from many parts of the world, the future of the US has and will be determined by the past (Eliade & Ioan 47). The paper seeks to describe and give a comparison of how the past influences the future in today’s society and culture. In his theory of the sacred time, Eliade’s implies that the power of anything has its roots in its origin and that the power of the entire world relies on cosmogony. However, Eliade claims that for any religious man, two types of time exist. One of which is the sacred time and the other is the profane time. He further stipulates that the former is experienced in the religious festivals and the latter in the normal life. He further asserts that absolute truth concerning primordial time is represented by myths in the traditional societies. According to these myths, it was during this time that the first appearance of the Sacred was experienced in which the world’s structure was established. For Eliades, all myths give a description of primordial events that have made the natural world what it is currently (Schulman 204). Also, most traditional societies have a belief that origin is an essential component in determining the power of anything. Therefore, if origin equals p ower, then it becomes the first sign of a valid and significant thing. According to Eliades, the value and reality of anything lie solely on its initial appearance.