The Arts

1
Chapter 25

• The Arts

2
Chapter Outline

• What is art?
• Why do anthropologists study art?
• What are the functions of the arts?

3
What Is 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.

4
Verbal Arts

• Oral traditions denote a cultures unwritten
  stories, beliefs, and customs.
• Include narrative, drama, poetry, incantations,
  proverbs, riddles, and word games.

5
3 Categories of Narratives

• Myths - sacred narratives that explain how the
  world came to be as it is.
• Legends - stories told as if true that recount
  the exploits of heroes.
• Tales are fictional, secular, and nonhistorical
  narratives that instruct as they entertain.

6
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.

7
Social Functions of Music

• Express a groups concerns.
• Serves as a powerful way for a social or ethnic
  group to assert a distinctive identity.
• It may be used to advance political, economic,
  and social agendas.

8
Pictorial Art

• Three ways to approach the study of art
• Aesthetic approach focuses on how things are
  depicted.
• Narrative approach focuses on what things are
  depicted.
• Interpretive approach can reveal the meaning of
  another peoples art.