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1 results

  • Chapter 9 - Luminosity and Loudness

  • from Part III - Iconic Dimensions and Magnitudes: The Conformation System of Authority Ranking
  • Alan Page Fiske, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book:
    Representing Relationships
    Published online:
    21 November 2025
    Print publication:
    11 December 2025, pp 186-214

  • Summary

    Since at least Sumer and ancient Egypt, people have conformed supreme rank using surfaces perfected to reflect sunlight. In both the Old World and the New, people developed technologies of mining and metallurgy in order to fabricate the shiniest possible surfaces on rulers, their palaces, their temples, and statues of divinities. Glimmering shells and beetle elytra were widely used for personal wear. Olmec, Mayan, and some Asia elites wore highly polished mirrors and shiny clothing and accoutrements. Artists depicted rulers and gods with a nimbus, areole, or halo to evoke their literal brilliance. The Rigveda, and Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Persian, Zoroastrian, and Greek texts represent divinities, kings, and heroes as brilliantly shining, conforming their rulership. It is common to make loud noises to salute rulers, or praise divinities. In the British empire, the number of cannons fired in salutes marked the top levels of political hierarchies.