December 2 - 4
Good morning (last time)
 Yes, there will be a study guide (mainly based on book material). Pay attention
to class material for the short answer and essay questions.
 Please try to get better in short answers and essays questions. This is the last
exam, you are expected to use your previous knowledge to formulate
arguments and good descriptions.
Exam
 There are 35 m-c, 25 t-f (one points each),
 5 fill in the blank (2 points each)
 Two short answers (you can choose out of four)(five points each)
 One essay question (you can choose out of two) (20 points)
Chapter 14, Expressive culture
 Expressive culture
 Art, Art and society
 Anthropology of art
 Fine art versus folk art
 Body art/Visual arts
 Performance arts
 Verbal arts
 Play and sport
Expressive culture
 Expressive culture is learned and patterned ways of creative endeavour that
include art, leisure, and play (Miller).
Expressive culture
 Expressive culture includes the visual arts, theatre, music, dance and various
forms of play (from children's play to organized sports).
 Expressive culture helps us to reflect upon cultural values, social institutions,
structure and agency.
Expressive culture:
“reflects” and “reflected”
 Expressive culture can be seen as the mirror of cultural values and social
organization.
 Forms and styles of performance, the audience and the context are all shaped
by culture and social organization.
The most beautiful…..!
 There are no universal standards as to what is considered beautiful or
pleasurable.
 Are there?
Expression, senses & aesthetics
 All people have sensory experiences in relation to colour, form, design, sound,
taste etc.
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 All groups decorate their bodies, tools and dwellings,
 but aesthetics are subjective.
 Aesthetic criteria vary across cultures (generations, classes etc.).
Art everywhere?
 Do all societies have art?
 Do all societies produce objects for specific/artistic purposes?
Art
 All cultures have art and have a sense of what makes something “art”.
– symmetry, rhythmic repetition, naturalism
Art
 A cultural universal.
 Art is not viewed as something separate and distinct among all peoples.
 Not all peoples have a word for art in their languages.
Definition of art varies:
 "Application of imagination, skill and style to matter, movement and sound that
goes beyond the purely practical" (Nanda 1994:383).
Definition of art varies
 It is the artistic component, the design, that transforms an object from the
realm of the utilitarian to the realm of art (R. Anderson 1989).
Art
 The creative use of the human imagination to interpret, express, and enjoy life.
 From the uniquely human ability to use symbols to give shape and significance
to the physical world for more than just a utilitarian purpose.
Art and society
 The various forms of art can function as a commentary on society and culture.
Art and society
 1. Some forms provide a cultural critique.
 2. Conservative forms of expressive culture such as sports may reaffirm the
existing social and moral order.
Anthropology of art
addresses
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the production processes,
distribution and use of arts, products,
the symbolism attached to various forms,
preferred and common forms cross-culturally,
the meaning of art as a marker of ethnic or social identity, change in traditions
etc.
Art, expression and social organization
 Production of objects for specific purposes may be associated with task
specialization.
 Making of art objects is associated with stratification.
 An elite section or class of society commissions artistic/artisan work.
Art, cross culturally
 Production,
 ownership,
 the value of owning or
 possessing and
 the criticism of art
 are not universals.
Fine arts and folk art
 The distinction between fine arts and folk art is a longstanding debate.
 http://www.folkart.org/
Fine arts
 So-called fine art
produced by specialists employed by elites.
Folk art
 So-called folk art
objects produced by members of the lower classes for their own use.
Art in Western tradition
 In Western tradition art is owned (by the artist or the consumer),
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 the distinctions (of taste) and standards are set by an elite (and the artists),
 due to task specialization, there are specialists and not everybody can be a
critic.
Transformation of meaning
 Objects made by artists from lower classes or non-Western societies become
folk art when purchased by Western art consumers for display in a different
social context.
 Or craft objects become art objects as a result of change in place, ownership,
representation.
 Value of art objects are relative to their attributed place in the world.
Living art
 Aesthetic appreciation is also expressed in mundane aspects of everyday life
(E.g Nuer cattle talk).
 Gardens and landscape (E. g British gardens, Japanese gardens).
 Landscape paintings as culturally specific form.
Body art
 "All the world is a canvas" and the most commonly decorated canvas is the
human body.
Body ornaments
 Physical Alterations: hair styles, head shaping, food binding
 Body painting
 Tattooing
 Scarification
 Piercing
These are mobile art works. Why?
Symbolic in adornment
Body adornment can symbolize social status.
It can be
 gender- and
 strata-specific (E.g. Kwoma of Sepik river of Papua New Guinea).
Status of art
 How do art objects express systems of hierarchy and power?
 Connection between the supernatural world and the skills in carving and
painting.
 Value by association or possesion (E. g.Totem pools and painting on the
corporate walls).
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Visual Arts
 Basketry
 Ceramics
 Paintings
 Jewelry
 Clothing
 Masks
 Sculpture
Visual Arts: 2 Factors
 Form - the result of a combination of style and function.
 Ornamentation - design added to the physical form of an object.
Performance Arts
Refers to arts that use sound and movement.
 Music (Song)
 Dance
 Theater/drama
Music
 Production and performance of music can reflect cultural values.
 Most of the time music and dance performances have gender-specific rules
and accessibility.
 Music and dance can be associated with trance, secret rituals, sexuality.
Music
 Study of music in specific cultural settings has developed into the specialized
field of ethnomusicology.
 Almost everywhere human music is perceived in terms of a scale.
 Traditional European music is measured into recurrent patterns of two, three,
and four beats.
Play and sport
 Plays are bounded
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conceptually,
linguistically,
behaviourally,
temporally and
spatially.
Power of play
 Play forms derive much of their power from
"not being real".
Play versus “real”
 The context of play is separate from
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the "real world" and
 this is reinforced by the secrecy.
 Play is defined by a set of rules
which are specific
 to that context.
Reward in play
 The reward system of play is different
 to that of the real world and
 is superior to it.
 Channelling of tension and anger in sports talk,
war
 on the chess board or
 on the football field
are much safer grounds of expression.
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http://www.randomplace.com/yanomami/
http://www.material-insight.com/NavajoBlanket.htm
http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/360/362/najdeh/images/embroidery/
http://www.civilization.ca/arts/artse.asp
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http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/iqqaipaa/home-e.html
http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/iqqaipaa/artmak-e.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2007.html
http://www.angelfire.com/in/myindia/tajmahal.html
http://www.moa.ubc.ca/menu.html
http://www.cfl.ca/ (football)
http://www.canadianhockey.ca/e/index.html
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