ART AND ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH 3290
Winter Term 2007
4:00 – 5:50 MW
Professor: Christina Kreps Tel. 303-871-2688
Office: Sturm 109 ckreps@du.edu
Hours: 2-4 MW or by appointment
Course Description
The course introduces students to anthropological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. It focuses primarily on the arts of non-Western cultures, for example, those of Indonesia, Native North America, the Pacific islands, and Africa.
The first part of the course covers foundational work in the field, introducing key concepts as well as methods for viewing and understanding art from a cross-cultural/comparative perspective. We examine the relationships among art, technology and the environment, as well as the importance of form, function, style, meaning, and aesthetics in the study of art. The second part addresses issues of contemporary concern in art and anthropology, such as the influence of market forces and tourism on artistic traditions and cultural expressions; the intersection of art and identity, and the politics of cultural representation.
Objectives
- to introduce students to key concepts, scholars and literature in the field
- to introduce students to diverse art forms and styles
- help students develop visual and observational skills
- stimulate critical thinking on the role of art and cultural expression in society
Class Format
Class time will be primarily devoted to discussion of assigned readings, slide lectures, video presentations, guest speakers and visits to the DenverArt Museum. Students are responsible for completing the assigned readings prior to class, and are expected to come prepared to actively participate in class discussions.
Texts
Sally Price. 2001. Second Edition. Primitive Art in Civilized Places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Howard Morphy and Morgan Perkins, eds. 2006. The Anthropology of Art. A Reader.London: Blackwell Publishing.
Eric Venbrux, Pamela Sheffield Rosi, and Robert Welsch, eds. 2006. Exploring World
Art. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.
Kathleen Adams. 2006. Art as Politics: Re-Crafting Identities, Tourism, and Power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
Texts are available for purchase at the DU bookstore and on reserve at Penrose Library. Additional readings are on electronic reserve through Penrose Library website. Password is course number, ANTH 3290.
Course Requirements and Evaluation
Undergraduates
- Take home, mid-term essay exam. Due 2/5 (25%)
- Reading journal and notebook (guidelines provided) Due 3/12 (30%)
- Comparative review of exhibitions at the DenverArt Museum and Denver Museum of Nature and Science (guidelines provided). Due 2/28. 20%.
- Final, take-home essay exam. Due 3/16 (25%)
Graduates
- take home mid-term essay exam. Due 2/5 (25%)
- comparative review of exhibitions at the DenverArt Museum and Denver Museum of Nature and Science (guidelines provided). Due 2/28 (20%)
- term research paper (15-20 pages). Research topic description and preliminary bibliography due 1/24. Final paper due 3/16. 45%
- contribution to class (participating in and leading discussions, reading summaries, etc.) 15%
Assignments will not be accepted after due date unless prior arrangements have been made with instructor.
Final grades will be based on the following criteria:
- contributions to and participation in class discussion
- completion of and performance on assignments
- quality of written work (content and style, i.e., grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.)
Week I
Wednesday, 1/3
Course overview, introductions and preliminary discussion of visual culture. Watch and discuss John Berger’s classic film “Ways of Seeing”
Part I: Foundations
The Anthropology of Art: Form, Function, Style, Aesthetics, Meaning, and Context
Week II
Monday, 1/8
Reading
Dissanayake, E. 1999. (third edition) Homo Aestheticus. Where Art Comes From and Why? Preface pp. xi-xx, and Introduction, pp. 1-23 (on electronic reserve)
Brux, Rosi, and Welsch, Exploring World Art: An Introduction, pp. 1-37
Wednesday, 1/10
Reading
Wilfried van Damme. Anthropologies of Art: Three Approaches. In Exploring World Art, pp. 69-81
Morphy and Perkins. The Anthropology of Art: A Reflection on Its History and Contemporary Practice. In The Anthropology of Art. Pp. 1-32
Week III
Slide lecture on Alaskan Native Arts and Crafts
Reading
Introduction to Part IV in The Anthropology of Art, pp323-325
Boas, Franz. Primitive Art. In The Anthropology of Art, pp. 39-55
Lechtman, Heather. Style in Technology: Some Early Thoughts. In The Anthropology of Art, pp. 270-280
Rosman, Abraham and Paula G. Rubel. Structural Patterning in Kwakiutl Art and Ritual. In Art and Anthropology, pp. 339-357
Week IV
Reading
Introduction to Part II in The Anthropology of Art, pp. 125-128
Clifford, James. Histories of the Tribal and the Modern, in The Anthropology of Art, pp. 150-166
Vogel, Susan. Introduction to Art/Artifact: African Art in Anthropological Collections. In The Anthropology of Art, pp. 209-218
Graduate students read and summarize for class: Clifford, James. 1988. On Collecting Art and Culture. In The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth Century Literature, Ethnography, and Art.Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press. On electronic reserve.
Graduate student research paper topic and preliminary bibliography due
Week V
Monday 1/29
Reading: Price. Primitive Art in Civilized Places, pp.1-55
Wednesday 1/31
Reading: Sally Price. 2001. Primitive Art in Civilized Places, pp. 56-99, 127-133
Midterm take home essay questions distributed. Due Monday 2/5
Guidelines for exhibitions reviews distributed. Due on or before 2/28
Week VI
Part II: Contemporary Issues in Art and Anthropology. Market forces, tourism, art and identity, and the politics of cultural representation
Monday, 2/5
Graduate students read: George Marcus and Fred Meyers. 1995. The Traffic in Art and Culture: An Introduction. In The Traffic in Art and Culture: Refiguring Art and Anthropology. George Marcus and Fred Meyers, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 1-51. On electronic reserve
Video: In and Out of Africa
Midterm due in class
Reading: Nelson Graburn. Arts of the Fourth World. In The Anthropology of Art, pp. 412-430
Silverman, Eric. High Art as Tourist Art: Tourist Art as High Art. In Exploring World Art, pp. 271-284
Video: Cannibal Tours
Week VII
Monday 2/12
Reading.
Adams, Kathleen. Art as Politics. Pp. 1-71
Wednesday 2/14
Reading
Adams, pp. 73-138, 166-192
Graduate students also read chapter 5, “Ceremonials, Monumental Displays, and Museumification,” pp. 139-166
Week VIII
Monday 2/19
Slide lecture on the AsmatMuseum for Culture and Progress (West Papua, Indonesia)
Reading
Stanley, Nick. Living with the Ancestors in an International Contemporary Art World. In Exploring World Art, pp. 343-355
Wednesday 2/21
Contemporary African and Papua New Guinea art
Reading
Rosi, Pamela. The Disputed Value of Contemporary Papua New Guinea Artists and Their Works. In Exploring World Art, pp. 245-269
VisitDenverArt Museum
Week IX
Monday 2/26
Contemporary Maori art
Reading
Thomas, Nicholas. A Second Reflection. Presence and Opposition in Contemporary Maori Art. In Exploring World Art, pp. 472-494
Guest speaker. Suzanne Macaulay, Associate Professor and Chair, Visual and Performing Arts, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Wednesday 2/28
Contemporary Native American Art
Reading
Townsend-Gault, Charlotte. Kinds of Knowing. In The Anthropology of Art, pp. 520-543
Perkins, Morgan. Do We Still Have no Word for Art? In Exploring World Art, pp. 291-315
Visit Denver Art Museum to see Edgar Heap of Birds’ “Wheel”
Exhibition review due
Week X
Monday 3/5
Bunten, Alexis. Commodities of Authenticity. When Native People Consume Their Own Tourist Art. In Exploring World Art, pp. 317-336
Video: Carved from the Heart
Wednesday 3/7
Hermer, Carol. Curatorial Authority and Postmodern Representations of African Art, In Exploring World Art, pp. 357-370
Mithlo, Nancy Marie. Native American Art in a Global Context. In Exploring World Art, pp. 371-387
Welsch, Robert. The Authenticity of the Contemporary Art World. In Exploring World Art, pp. 389-398
Final take home exam questions handed out. Due 3/16
Week XI
Monday 3/12
Review and wrap up
Undergraduate reading journals due
Graduate student research papers due 3/16
Biographical Description
- My research, teaching, and applied work crosses a number of disciplines and concerns, including anthropology, museology, art, international cultural policy and development. I have been studying the museum as a cultural phenomenon and cross-cultural approaches to museums, curation, and heritage preservation for nearly twenty years. (See "Liberating Culture: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Museums, Curation and Heritage Preservation," 2003) Recently, I have been examining the role of museums in promoting and protecting intangible cultural heritage. In 2005, I was awarded a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship through the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to explore how indigenous curation and concepts of heritage preservation are examples of intangible cultural heritage, and thus, eligible to be protected under the 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage(see online article under "Theorizing Heritage"). Currently, I am exploring what I call "cultural humanitarianism," or the integration of cultural concerns into humanitarian aid and efforts. I am examining how cultural humnitarianism is being applied at the Museum Pusaka Nias, in the town of Genungsitoli on the island of Nias off the northwest coast of Sumatra. In March 2005, a 8.7. earthquake flattened much of Genungsitoli. Although severely damaged, much of the museum survived. Museum staff made an appeal for aid from the international museum community for reconstruction and the response has been remarkable. I'm looking at how culture is being conceptualized as a "basic need," and how emergency cultural aid is being conceptualized, managed, and reconciled with other "basic needs" for survival. In my teaching I foster a critical and comparative museology, coupled with reflexive practice. I see museum anthropology as applied anthropology. Museums are a venue for making anthropological insights and knowledge accessible and relevant to the public. Museums, as institutions of public culture, are a forum for exploring contemporary social issues and concerns. I emphasize the importance of civic engagement in our museum studies curriculum, on both local and global levels.
