Tanner Smith

Humanities-1100
Dr. Moffett
Cultural activity #3
1. Tanner Smith, 12/07/15, International Peace Gardens
2. There were a few exhibits, the majority of the exhibits were dedicated to certain countries. A lot
of these monuments were created and dedicated by groups of people. For example, there was a
sculpture of a woman at the entrance, and it didnt have a specific creator, but it had who had
dedicated it, this sculpture was donated by Past Presidents Council, Salt Lake council of Women
and UK Utah.
3. I believe that the objective of the exhibit was to kind of show what a lot of the different art is in
different areas of the world. The exhibit I want to focus on for this question is the first sculpture
in the park, right as you walk in. The sculpture is of a woman who is standing up and she looks
proud. I think this sculpture is showing how women can be powerful too, and that men arent the
only ones who deserve to have power, control, or confidence.
4. This whole garden had a lot of different sculptures and memorials which I thought were very
cool. One of the coolest ones that I saw, or at least one that stuck with me, was in the Greece
Garden. In the Greece garden there were 7 pillars, which represent the Seven Sages. Each of
these sages is a stage of manhood, the seven stages go in order as, Moderation Is The Best
Thing. You Should Not Desire The Impossible, Love Prudence, You Should Know Which
Opportunities To Choose, Be Far Sighted With Everything, and Know Thyself. This just
shows the standards and path to being a man in ancient Greece back in the day. This sculpture
was really cool to me, these Seven stages were what a lot of the men would use to guide them
through everyday life, as well as when Greece first introduced the Olympics to the world.
Although only one man from Greece won a medal, it was still a good path to follow.
5. The exhibit of the Seven Sages originated in Greece, but I believe that the Seven Sages are good
guidelines that people all around the world can, and should follow. The first Sage (Moderation Is

The Best Thing), is something that we can all live by graciously. If we dont use things, or do
things in moderation of any sort it can cause addiction issues, or problems. For example if you
use all your energy quickly in a game or sport, then youre not going to make it to the end, if you
use your energy in moderation, you can perform better throughout the whole game, and bring
your team a victory. All of the sages can be applied to everyday life, and not just in Greece. The
way it affected the piece was just in the way that the seven sages were seven pillars, and pillars
have been well known in Greece for a long time.
6. These seven pillars represented the countrys historical usage of pillars. Pillars were well known
in Greece for being strong a sturdy, a structure so strong they could hold up whole entire
buildings. These Seven Sages were represented as strong moral steps, and values in life, if you
could follow these Seven Sages, then you would become a strong man. In Ancient Greece when
these Seven Sages were first proposed, it was around a time when men had to prove their
manhood, and being a man meant to be strong, and to be wise. These Seven Sages were
essentially steps to becoming a great and powerful man. It is very interesting to me how the
definition of manhood changes depending on what kind of culture you grew up in, or what
kind of culture you know. I dont believe that the Greek definition of being a man would be
the same if these Seven Sages had not been introduced.
7. I believe that the point of view from the creators of these Seven Sages was to prove to everybody
how to be a man. The men who created these must of been superior to the common man,
especially since these Seven Sages have been around since between 620 - 550 B.C. theres not a
lot of peasants that can come up with a thought or concept that is going to be around for
thousands of years, and have people consistently follow. When people see how great these men
are, they want to do whatever it takes to be as great as them, so when they come up with
guidelines or concepts to follow, youre most likely going to follow them.

8. I believe that there could be many factors which influenced this sculpture. Not only do I believe
that it was to show how to be a strong man, but how to not be a weak man. If you follow all of
the Seven Sages you will become a man. However, if you do the opposite of all of the Seven
Sages, then you will become a weak, disgruntled, selfish man. Since during ancient greece they
participated in olympic games, this was a sort of motivation thing as well. In order to succeed in
these games, and not die you must follow all Seven of these Sages, and if you do not, then there
is a much bigger change that you will lose, or even be killed. In the ancient olympic games men
who were considered great could be killed, and men that were considered not great, could
prevail.
9. The social issues that the specific Greek exhibit address is manhood, the Seven Sages are strictly
the steps of being a man, and how to become a true man. At the International Peace Gardens
there were a lot of exhibits that addressed a lot of social issues. At the Russian garden, there was
an exhibit which was pretty cool to me. The exhibit was a statue of two young children which
were playing together, and all they were playing with was strings, now I dont know all of the
history about Russia, but from this I am just gonna assume that the children dont have a lot of
other toys to play with, so they use strings. To me this just means that you need to be grateful for
what you do have, and not what you dont. There are people everywhere in the world that have
next to nothing, and they can still find a way to enjoy their life.
10. I think a philosophical issue is war. I believe that one of the main purposes for the International
Peace Gardens is to emphasize peace. In almost every garden at the park there was some kind of
monument that was dedicated to some kind of person from that country, generally the person it
was dedicated to initiated some kind of peace, or new well being for their home country. At the
park there is an exhibit which has a bunch of poles all going around in circle, each pole
represents a different country, and on the pole there was a quote, the quote was May peace

prevail on earth. I think that this just shows that it doesnt matter what country youre from, that
there should be peace, and that we should all strive for peace. There was a statue of Gandhi, and
as we all know, he fought his battles with peace, and under his statue there was a quote from
Einstein, which said Generations to come, it may be will scarce believe that such a one as ever
in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. This quote just emphasizes how great this man was,
and the reason he was so great is because he emphasized peace among everyone.
11. I dont necessarily think that visiting these Peace Gardens gave me any specific answers to any
questions I had, but it did open my eyes to the rest of the world. For the most part every country
and person wants to have peace on earth, and a lot of these monuments and memorials expressed
that, as well as explained some of the hard times people in a specific country went through. It
also showed me how different every place is, and how other countries have influenced a lot of
the other different countries around the world.
12. I think this whole exhibit related very well. In class we have talked about a number of different
countries and what they believed, and this sort of just reiterated those lectures. The exhibits
showed how some people in different countries think and feel. It was cool to me to see how the
lectures and how the actual exhibits related to each other. Last thing, is that I would definitely
recommend this to anyone and everyone, not in the winter though. I went in the summer and
there are a bunch of different plants and flowers from each of the countries, and its really a
beautiful place. In the winter it is really cold, and a lot of the plants are dead.