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.

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 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 Social Identity Social Status

Art for Ritual –Not to be seen by all Tutankhamen –Not to be saved for posterity Navajo Johann Sebastian Bach

Types of Art Verbal Art –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.

Verbal Arts - Myth Religious A myth provides rationale for religious beliefs and practices. Creation myths

Verbal Arts – Legend Stories told as true Common elements –No known author –Multiple versions –Detail –Insight to society

Verbal Arts - Tale Common elements –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