The anthropology of art studies and analyses the wide range of material objects produced by people around the world. These are considered not merely as aesthetic objects but are understood to play a wider role in people’s lives, for instance in their beliefs and rituals. The materials studied include sculpture, masks, paintings, textiles, baskets, pots, weapons, and the human body itself. Anthropologists are interested in the symbolic meanings encoded in such objects, as well as in the materials and techniques used to produce them.
The anthropology of art overlaps with art history, aesthetics, material culture studies, and visual anthropology. However, the anthropological approach to art is distinguished by its focus on the social processes involved in making objects. So, whereas art historians might be interested in the work and lives of named individuals, anthropologists of art are more concerned with the role and status of the artist in the wider community. Another central concern of this branch of the discipline has been to analyse the form and function of objects and to explore the relations between these and aspects of the wider society.
Since the 1960s in particular, anthropologists have produced increasingly sophisticated analyses of visual materials. More recently, closer attention has been paid to the different ideas of aesthetic value in different societies. Increasing attention has also been paid to the ways in which material objects made in one sphere come to have value in another. For example, there have been a number of recent studies of the tourist and art markets as well as of the role of museums.
Text written by Dr. Jeremy Coote
Postgraduate Programmes in the UK
** Currently, there are no postgraduate programmes specifically for Anthropology of Art. However universities such as University of East Anglia provide postgraduate degrees in World Art.**
Recommended Resources
Films
The following two trailers are for Je Ne Suis Pas Moi-Meme and Singing Pictures -Women Painters of Naya, films distributed by the RAI Film.
Je Ne Suis Pas Moi-Meme
Director Alba Mora, Anna Santamaria
Release 2009
Length 50 mins
Location Cameroon & Brussels
Language English, French (English subtitles)
Prizes/Commendations Material Culture Film Prize 2009
Shot in Cameroon and Brussels, Je ne suis pas moi-même examines the complex network surrounding the international market of African antiquities, and the contradictions in a European art market hungry for new tribal objects. Where do the African masks come from? What journey do these masks make before their unveiling in the windows of the biggest galleries or art collections in Europe? Who determines the economic and aesthetic value of these objects now that colonialism is supposedly dead? And then there’s a continent called Africa, in need of economic resources and therefore willing to sell its cultural heritage or, if need be, to fake it. The authenticity of the objects becomes blurred when the people that once adored them start to sell them.
Singing Pictures – Women Painters of Naya
Director Lina Fruzzetti, Ákos Östör
Release 2005
Length 45 mins
Location India, Kolkata, West Bengal / Asia
Prizes/Commendations Winner Material Culture & Archaeology Film Prize 2005
For generations the Patua (Chitrakara) communities of West Bengal have been painters and singers of stories depicted in scrolls. The film follows the daily lives of Muslim Patua women from Naya villages near Kolkata, which have formed a scroll painters’ cooperative.
RAI Film is the Film section of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). Their Ethnographic Film Catalogue is an extensive ethnographic film catalogue (over 600 titles) that are variously available to purchase as DVDs, personal rent on demand (Vimeo VOD), and accessible to institutions via our online streaming partners for educational and academic purposes. The following film is another example of anthropology of art: In and Out of Africa.
General
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/anthropology-and-history-of-art/ – Oxford Brookes University’s website on Anthropology of Art.
http://www.perey-anthropology.net/index.html – Dr. Arnold Perey’s site on Aesthetic Realism and Anthropology.
http://penn.museum/sites/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml– Penn University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology’s website on body art and modification.
http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/bodyarts/– Pitt Rivers Museum’s Body Arts website
Books
The Anthropology of Art 2nd Edition
Layton, Robert (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
The Anthropology of Art: A Reader
Morphy, H. and Perkins, M. (Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006)
Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice
Schneider, A. and Wright, C. (Berg, 2010)
Articles/Online Journals
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=164353§ioncode=26 – an article in the Times Higher Education by anthropologist Nicholas Thomas on body art and modification.
https://repub.eur.nl/pub/779/TOWSE%20EBOOK_pages0027-0031.pdf – an article on Anthropology of Art by Stuart Plattner.
Professional Organisations, Groups & Associations
Arts Council England –is the national development agency for the Arts in England.
Arts and Humanities Research Council – supports world-class research that furthers our understanding of human culture and creativity.
International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies– IFACCA us a global network of arts councils and ministries of culture.
