Chapter 26 The Arts

12/02/2014

Art another cultural universal? is there an intrinsic quality to all

art?
Or- is art in the eye of the beholder?
Characteristics
Communicates creators ideas a form of expression
Recipient reacts their senses are simulated affects recipients
emotions, and evokes ideas
When anthropologists consider art as a product of culture they note
that it has culturally patterned ways and styles
Art has cultural meaning
Evidence of art in the archeological record
Beads
Carvings
Cave art
Issues with differential preservation
Body decoration and adornment
Within all societies observe that people decorate or adorn the body
This may be either temporary or permanent
Can include: scars, piercings, tattoos, change in shape of body part
[permanent]
Can include: paint, objects, non-utilitarian clothing [ temporary]
There is immense cultural variation in what body part is decorated
Multiple functions for body decoration and adornment:
Can indicate social position, rank, sex, occupation, local and ethnic
identity, or religion
Can communicate erotic significance

Scarification
Samoan Tattoos designs distinguished chiefly class from commoners;
bands & stripes high status, low status full black and from waist to knee
Maori Tattoos identify tribe
Samoan Tatau religious
Eyelash extensions
Mens use of eyeliner film & fasion, eastern religious practices
Headdresses
New Guinea Penis Sheaths
Turbans
Haute Couture
Explaining Variation in the Arts
Culture variation in:
What materials are used or emphasized in art
Different conceptions of beauty and aesthetics
Often can extract characteristic styles and themes
See impact of social complexity and mobile vs sedentary societies
-Visual Arts
-Music
-Folklore
Visual Art
Creations often reflect raw materials in the environment
Egalitarian Society

Repetition of simple elements

Much empty or irrelevant space
Symmetrical design
Unenclosed figures
Stratified Society
Integration of unlike elements
Little empty space
Asymmetrical design
Enclosed figures
Music
Egalitarian
Repetition of sounds in music
Interlocked singing
Stratified society
Greater enunciation and wordiness in music
Increased prominence of individuals in singing, including call and response to
chorus
Musical Variation
There is wide variation in music styles and musical instruments from society
to society.
Is the meaning of music programmed into us by our culture?
Some possible relationships between childrearing practices and certain
rhythmical patterns, tonal ranges, and voice quality.
Music and its many functions within and between cultures.
Group identity sport, nationalism, ethnicity
Religious ceremonies and transmission of sacred knowledge
Secular contexts regional & social stratification

Folklore
Myths, legends, folktales, ballads, riddles, proverbs, and superstitions of a
cultural group
For preliterate societies especially crucial to religious ideas, spirituality,
identity
Guides for socially appropriate behavior
Explanations for deep history
Is this a default category if more oral than written tradition and also not
Western? Not entirely. Western societies have folklore.
Viewing Art of Other Cultures
Outside anthropological perspective it is often the case that art from less
complex cultures does not have personal attribution [folk art timeless],
referred to as primitive and interpreted as timeless
Fine Arts Museums vs Natural History Museums: Compare content and how
labeled, displayed; ethnographic content and utility versus sterility
Western vs non-Western prejudice?
False dichotomy regarding change, style evolution, diffusion of cultural
elements
Art production
Patrons
Mass Market
Primitive Art
Ethnographic collections
Who owns cultural motifs?
Artistic Change and Culture Contact
How to measure impact of recent culture contact on art in various
parts of the world
Commodification and/or entry into global flows of material culture, or
both?
Artistic judgment and choices
Loss of artistic traditions

Renaissance of new artists with modern sensibilities

Revival of old traditions
Text example: Maria and Julian Martinez
San Ildefonso Pueblo
Polished black-on-black pottery