The Arts
What Is Art?
Art is the creative use of the human imagination to
aesthetically interpret, express, and engage life, modifying
experienced reality in the process.
Most societies past and present have used art to give
meaningful expression to almost every part of their culture,
including ideas about religion, kinship, and ethnic identity.
Views About Art
American View
– Nonessential
Communicate
– Feelings
– Make statements
– Share values
Marcel Duchamp,
The Fountain, 1917.
Art and Anthropology
Why study art?
– Cultural insight
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Religion
Social Structure
Lifeways
Subsistence
Resources
What Are the Functions of Art?
Myths offer basic explanations about the world and set
cultural standards for right behavior.
Verbal arts transmit and preserve a culture’s customs and
values.
Any art form may contribute to the cohesiveness or
solidarity of that society.
Social Functions of Art
Individuality – express individual tastes
Social Identity – identify with specific
group
Social Status – can show wealth, expressed
through cars, clothing, etc.
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 for Arts Sake
Art for Ritual
– Not to be seen by all
• Tutankhamen
– Not to be saved for posterity
• Navajo
• Johann Sebastian Bach
Types of Art
Verbal arts
– Folklore
Music
– Verbal
– Nonverbal
Pictorial Arts
– Painting
– Sculpture
Verbal arts
Stories within a culture reflecting a history,
gender relationships, proper or improper
behavior, or religious beliefs.
Examples: Narratives, dramas, poetry,
incantations, proverbs, compliments, and insults.
art
Verbal Arts - Myth
Religious
A myth provides
rationale for religious
beliefs and practices.
Creation myths
Verbal Arts – Legend
Stories told as true
Common elements
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No known author
Multiple versions
Detail
Insight to society
Verbal Arts - Tale
Common elements
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Secular
Nonhistorical
Entertainment
May be moralistic
Motif
– Story situation
Verbal Arts – Poetry and Epics
Poetry - Allows for
inappropriate subjects
to be talked about
– Epics - Long oral
narratives, sometimes
in poetry or rhythmic
prose, recounting the
glorious events in the
life of a real or
legendary person.
Music
Ethnomusicology – Study of music in a
specific culture.
Anthropology studies how a culture defines
music.
art
Music
Verbal and nonverbal
Abstract emotion
Define
– Indigenous terms
– Musical lingo
• Melody, rhythm, form
Components
– Repetition
– Tonality
Functions of Music
Group identification
Self-identification
Political commentary
Social commentary
Social function
– Entertainment
– Work
– Oral tradition
Pictorial Arts
A type of symbolic expression that can be realistic
or abstract.
Aesthetic approach - Looks at technique and form.
Narrative approach - Looks at what is depicted.
Interpretive approach – Looks at symbols and
beliefs that are depicted in art, a knowledge of
these must first be understood.
art
Pictorial Art
Various mediums
– Drawing, painting,
sketching, etc…
– Walls, rock, fibers,
wood, animal hide,
plants, clay, etc…
Symbolic expression
Rock Art
Pictographs
– Painting
Petroglyph
– Pecking
Anthropomorphic
Animals
Abstract
Ritualistic
Non-Representational
Meaning
Entoptic phenomena
– Trance phase 1
– Nervous system
– Geometric patterns
Construal
– Trance phase 2
– Brain makes sense of
image
Representational
Naturalistic
Western art
Abstracted
– Style
– Technique
– Ability
Art and Iconography
Symbols
Colors
Meaning to culture
Hard to decipher
Sculpture
Many forms
– Relief
– In the round
Media
– Marble
– Mixed