Interpreting ancient figurines : context, comparison, and prehistoric art / Richard G. Lesure.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lesure, Richard G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Figurines, Ancient.

Art--Historiography.

Art.

Art and anthropology.

Art and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 256 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book examines ancient figurines from several world areas to address recurring challenges in the interpretation of prehistoric art. Sometimes figurines from one context are perceived to resemble those from another. Richard G. Lesure asks whether such resemblances play a role in our interpretations. Early interpreters seized on the idea that figurines were recurringly female and constructed the fanciful myth of a primordial Neolithic Goddess. Contemporary practice instead rejects interpretive leaps across contexts. Dr Lesure offers a middle path: a new framework for assessing the relevance of particular comparisons. He develops the argument in case studies that consider figurines from Paleolithic Europe, the Neolithic Near East and Formative Mesoamerica.

Contents:

Universalist explanation and prehistoric figures

Comparison and context

The questions we ask of images

A cross-cultural explanation for female figurines?

Mesoamerican figurines and the contextualist appeal to universal truths

Figurines, goddesses, and the texture of long-term structures in the Near East

On figurines, femaleness, and comparison.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-99411-7

1-107-21491-2

0-511-99191-6

0-511-99291-2

9786613050151

0-511-98912-1

1-283-05015-3

0-511-98733-1

0-511-99091-X

0-511-97337-3

OCLC:

700706251