Aboriginal Cultural Production
aesthetic interpretation
aesthetic value
Ancestral Agency
anthropologists
anthropology of art
art mediation in political practice
Australian National University
BC Hydro
Category=ABA
Category=AGA
Category=JHMC
Coast Salish
Composite Prototype
contemporary indigenous art
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lamas
Draw Back
Elizabeth Durack
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnographic methodology
Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Gell's Arguments
Gell’s Arguments
Historical Performance Movement
Human Social Agency
Imaginary Museum
indigenous visual culture
material culture theory
Metronome Markings
Ninth Panchen Lama
Panchen Lama
post-colonial environment
postcolonial art studies
Pre-1959 Tibet
Queen's Baton
Queen’s Baton
social agency in objects
Thirteenth Dalai Lama
UK Run
Vice Versa
Yoruba Sculpture
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9781859734643
- Weight: 560g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2001
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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The anthropology of art is currently at a crossroads. Although well versed in the meaning of art in small-scale tribal societies, anthropologists are still wrestling with the question of how to interpret art in a complex, post-colonial environment. Alfred Gell recently confronted this problem in his posthumous book Art and Agency. The central thesis of his study was that art objects could be seen, not as bearers of meaning or aesthetic value, but as forms mediating social action. At a stroke, Gell provocatively dismissed many longstanding but tired questions of definition and issues of aesthetic value. His book proposed a novel perspective on the roles of art in political practice and made fresh links between analyses of style, tradition and society. Offering a new overview of the anthropology of art, this book begins where Gell left off. Presenting wide-ranging critiques of the limits of aesthetic interpretation, the workings of objects in practice, the relations between meaning and efficacy and the politics of postcolonial art, its distinguished contributors both elaborate on and dissent from the controversies of Gells important text. Subjects covered include music and the internet as well as ethnographic traditions and contemporary indigenous art. Geographically its case studies range from India to Oceania to North America and Europe.
Christopher Pinney is Senior Lecturer in Material Culture in the Department of Anthropology, University College London Nicholas Thomas is Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His books include 'Entangled Objects' (1991),'Colonialism's Culture' (1994) and 'Possessions: Indigenous Art/Colonial Culture' (1999)
