From the beginning of time human beings spread themselves across the landscape and marked their presence in a number of ways, but one of the most prevalent ways was, and still is, religious. From the sacred caves of India to the holy cities of South America, people used the stone of the earth to establish altars for sacrifice to their gods, thus declaring their faithfulness to the gods in whom they believed.

As civilization overtook primitive societies, religions moved their practices from actual to metaphorical sacrifice, but the ritual of the religion persisted, whether it be the Catholic Mass, Buddhist meditation, Islamic prayer or nativist worship. In the Christian world, the adherents of the new Protestant churches developed their own practices while at the same time redefining ancient ones. In both the ancient, traditional religions and the newer versions there are physical artifacts and representations that exist both inside and outside worship centers.

This project reveals these artifacts, the “fingerprints” of the various religions. The fingerprints point to the associated religion and provide clues to the religion’s essence, leading to important insights about the “other.” Gaining a sense of that which is outside ourselves helps us to answer questions of life and death, love and hate, the character of human beings and the hope of afterlife.