Neil MacGregor on living with gods
Neil MacGregor
A prime mover in this initiative is  Neil MacGregor   the institutionâs former director whose didactic skills as a lecturer and broadcaster have already redefined the role of great museums. It follows on from âA History of the World in 100 Objectsâ  his groundbreaking 20-week-long series of radio stories that went out in 2010. Now the BBC has started transmitting his reflections on religious culture in 30 new radio talks of 15 minutes each. The talks draw in part on âLiving with Godsâ  an exhibition at the British Museum that uses objects to portray the transcendent as it has been conceived throughout human history.
The oldest item  and the subject of  Mr MacGregor âs opening talk  is a mammoth-tusk sculpture called the Lion Man dating back to the Ice Age. Even among hunter-gatherers who were struggling to survive  it was worthwhile for someone to spend up to 400 hours fashioning an object that served nothing but a talismanic purpose  connecting people to invisible worlds. The newest object is a cross made by an Italian carpenter from bits of a ship that was carrying refugees when it foundered in the Mediterranean near Lampedusa (pictured). As part of his broadcast   Mr MacGregor  goes to the cave where the Lion Man was found and talks to a German scholar. With a remit to travel wherever he needs and speak to anyone who can help  his enquiries take him to  among other places  the Ganges river in India and the Stone Age tomb of Newgrange in Ireland.
Listeners are invited to follow his wanderings  to take jumps between cultures and historical eras and even to leap between the here-and-now and the transcendent. In the same few minutes   Mr MacGregor  describes a coat made from seal-gut by the Yupik people of Alaska and a figure of Osiris  an Egyptian deity that is connected with life  death and the underworld. The coat speaks of indigenous huntersâ sacramental relationship with their prey  the Osiris figure of the new life engendered by the Nile.
Jill Cook  who curated an important show at the British Museum in 2013 that explained how the Ice Age made the modern mind  is also the curator of this new exhibition. She shares  Mr MacGregor âs desire to present religion as a social phenomenon that has been present in every age of history  cementing and expressing social bonds  and also violently dividing people. By including exhibits related to the communist cult of atheism  she shows that attempts to squeeze religion out of society have sometimes dramatically misfired: anti-religion can easily become a cult.
 Mr MacGregor  is a social anthropologist on a vast plane  whereas Ms Cook leans more to the neuroscience of religion. By including sounds  such as softly heard bells and flutes  she draws attention to the aural stimuli that can arouse peopleâs spiritual antennae.
A prime mover in this initiative is   [TGT]    the institutionâs former director whose didactic skills as a lecturer and broadcaster have already redefined the role of great museums. It follows on from âA History of the World in 100 Objectsâ  his groundbreaking 20-week-long series of radio stories that went out in 2010. Now the BBC has started transmitting his reflections on religious culture in 30 new radio talks of 15 minutes each. The talks draw in part on âLiving with Godsâ  an exhibition at the British Museum that uses objects to portray the transcendent as it has been conceived throughout human history.
The oldest item  and the subject of  Mr MacGregor âs opening talk  is a mammoth-tusk sculpture called the Lion Man dating back to the Ice Age. Even among hunter-gatherers who were struggling to survive  it was worthwhile for someone to spend up to 400 hours fashioning an object that served nothing but a talismanic purpose  connecting people to invisible worlds. The newest object is a cross made by an Italian carpenter from bits of a ship that was carrying refugees when it foundered in the Mediterranean near Lampedusa (pictured). As part of his broadcast   Mr MacGregor  goes to the cave where the Lion Man was found and talks to a German scholar. With a remit to travel wherever he needs and speak to anyone who can help  his enquiries take him to  among other places  the Ganges river in India and the Stone Age tomb of Newgrange in Ireland.
Listeners are invited to follow his wanderings  to take jumps between cultures and historical eras and even to leap between the here-and-now and the transcendent. In the same few minutes   Mr MacGregor  describes a coat made from seal-gut by the Yupik people of Alaska and a figure of Osiris  an Egyptian deity that is connected with life  death and the underworld. The coat speaks of indigenous huntersâ sacramental relationship with their prey  the Osiris figure of the new life engendered by the Nile.
Jill Cook  who curated an important show at the British Museum in 2013 that explained how the Ice Age made the modern mind  is also the curator of this new exhibition. She shares  Mr MacGregor âs desire to present religion as a social phenomenon that has been present in every age of history  cementing and expressing social bonds  and also violently dividing people. By including exhibits related to the communist cult of atheism  she shows that attempts to squeeze religion out of society have sometimes dramatically misfired: anti-religion can easily become a cult.
 Mr MacGregor  is a social anthropologist on a vast plane  whereas Ms Cook leans more to the neuroscience of religion. By including sounds  such as softly heard bells and flutes  she draws attention to the aural stimuli that can arouse peopleâs spiritual antennae.