This volume is a very welcome corrective to the bifurcation of anthropological inquiry into the arts that has sustained the surprisingly persistent notion of `non-Western' and `contemporary' arts as inevitably distinct and discontinuous fields of practice. With insightful and cogent introductions to each section, and an inspired selection of historical and recent scholarship, this reader is an invaluable resource for ... Read moreteaching a re-aligned anthropology of the arts.
Pamela Smart, Binghamton University, USA
This collection makes a compelling case for artful expression as a key to human experience cross-culturally. The book covers contemporary anthropological theory, the anthropology of the arts, and contemporary social issues, and engages effectively with the challenge of studying aesthetic expressiveness as part of everyday lived experience rather than as a separate sphere of activity.
Paolo Fortis, Durham University, UK
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