Anthropology, Art, and Aesthetics

by Coote, Jeremy; Shelton, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780198279457
• ISBN10: 0198279450
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-06-02
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This collection of essays on anthropological approaches to art and aesthetics is the first in its field to be published for some time. In recent years a number of new galleries of non-Western art have been opened, many exhibitions of non-Western art held, and new courses in the anthropologyof art established. This collection is part of and complements these developments, contributing to the general resurgence of interest in what has been until recently a comparatively neglected field of academic study and intellectual debate.Unlike many previous collections, the focus of this volume is resolutely anthropological. The contributors draw on contemporary anthropological theory and exchange, to deepen our understanding of particular aesthetic traditions in their socio-cultural and historical contexts. In addition, thecross-cultural applicability of the very concepts 'art' and 'aesthetics' is assessed.Each essay illustrates a specific approach and develops a particular argument. Many present new ethnography based on recent field research among Australian Aborigines, in New Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, and elsewhere. Others draw on classic anthropological accounts of, for example, the TrobriandIslanders of Melanesia and the Nuer of the Southern Sudan, putting this material to new uses.Sir Raymond Firth's introductory overview of the history of the anthropological study of art makes this volume particularly useful for the non-specialist interested in learning what anthropology has to contribute to our understanding of art and aesthetics in general.With its wide geographical and cultural coverage and plentiful illustrations, many of which are in colour, Anthropology, Art, and Aesthetics will be a valuable resource for all serious students of the subject.

Table of Contents

The Anthropology of Art

Raymond Firth: Art and Anthropology

Alfred Gell: The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology

Objects and Interpretations

Ross Bowden: Art, Architecture, and Collective Representations in a New Guinea Soceity

Susanne Kuchler: Making Skins

Malangan and the Idiom of Kinship in Northern New Ireland

Jarich Oosten: Representing the Spirits

The Masks of the Alaskan Inuit

Traditions and Innovations

Robert Layton: Traditional and Contemporary Art of Aboriginal Australia

Ruth Barnes: Textile Design in Southern Lembata

Tradition and Change

The Anthropology of Aesthetics

Howard Morphy: From Dull to Brilliant

The Aesthetics of Spiritual Power among the Yolngu

Anthony Shelton: Predicates of Aesthetic Judgement

Ontology and Value in Huichol Material Representations

Jeremy Coote: `Marvels of Everyday Vision'

The Anthropology of Aesthetics and the Cattle-Keeping Nilotes

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