Style and meaning : essays on the anthropology of art / Anthony Forge ; edited by Alison Clark & Nicholas Thomas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forge, Anthony, author.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

Pacific presences ; 1.

Pacific presences ; 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and anthropology.

Physical Description:

303 pages ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, [2017]

Summary:

Anthropology?s engagement with art has a complex and uneven history. While material culture, ?decorative art?, and art styles were of major significance for founding figures such as Alfred Haddon and Franz Boas, art became marginal as the discipline turned towards social analysis in the 1920s. This book addresses a major moment of renewal in the anthropology of art in the 1960s and 1970s. British anthropologist Anthony Forge (1929-1991), trained in Cambridge, undertook fieldwork among the Abelam of Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s and 1960s, and wrote influentially, especially about issues of style and meaning in art. His powerful, questioning-raising arguments addressed basic issues, asking why so much art was produced in some regions, and why was it so socially important?

Contents:

Part I Anthony Forge on Art, 1960-1990 23

1 Introduction to Primitive Art and Society 25

2 Three Kamanggabi Figures from the Arambak People of the Sepik District New Guinea 33

3 Notes on Eastern Abelam Designs Painted on Paper, New Guinea 37

4 Paint: A Magical Substance 43

5 Art and Environment in the Sepik 51

6 The Abelam Artist 71

7 Style and Meaning in Sepik Art 87

8 The Problem of Meaning in Art 111

9 Learning to See in New Guinea 123

10 The Power of Culture and the Culture of Power 139

11 Draft Introduction to Sepik Culture History, the Proceedings from the second Wenner-Gren conference on Sepik Culture History 1986, Mijas, Spain 153

Part II On Forge 179

12 Anthony Forge and Alfred Bühler: From Field Collecting to Friendship / Christian Kaufmann Kaufmann, Christian 181

13 Style and Meaning: Abelam Art through Yolngu Eyes / Howard Morphy Morphy, Howard 209

14 Anthony Forge and Innovation: Perspectives from Vanuatu / Lissant Bolton Bolton, Lissant 235

15 The problem of agency in art / Ludovic Coupaye Coupaye, Ludovic 243

16 Looking back: Abelam art and some of Forge's theses from a 2015 perspective / Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta 255

17 Communicating with Anthony Forge / Michael O'Hanlon O'Hanlon, Michael 269.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9789088904462

9789088904479

9088904472

9088904464

OCLC:

973919502

Publisher Number:

99974680826