Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture

by Ingold; Tim

• ISBN13: 9780415567237
• ISBN10: 0415567238
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2013-05-03
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This exciting new book takes an entirely new approach to the study of four related disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Tim Ingold argues that these four disciplines are concerned with exploring, interpreting and describing the worlds we inhabit and the ways we perceive them. Too often we treat the products of processes as objects to be analysed, whilst neglecting the practices which produce them. Ingold calls for a reintegration of theory and practice, looking at the processes of producing art and architecture, arguing that this involves a new way of doing anthropology and archaeology. Students are encouraged to think about materiality by working with stuff gathered from the ground, such as soil, gravel and leaf-mould, to consider ideas of agency and animacy by making and flying kites, to reflect on the capacities of the hand by making and knotting string, to investigate sensory perception by walking on the seashore, and to explore ways of reconnecting observation and description through exercises in drawing and model-making. This new approach offers a way of drawing the four disciplines together in a way which should excite, challenge and stimulate students taking advanced courses in social and cultural anthropology, archaology, material culture, art and architecture.