ANTH 264 - Anthropology of Art

1 unit(s)

The Anthropology of Art explores the origins of art and symbolic behavior in human evolution as well as the practices of producing and interpreting art. The course moves from a survey of the earliest art of the Paleolithic (Stone Age) including cave paintings, engravings, body decoration and small portable sculptures to analyses of the form and function of art by early prehistorians and anthropologists through ethnoaesthetics, to the developing world market in the art objects traditionally studied by anthropologists. Among the topics explored in the course are connoisseurship and taste, authenticity, “primitive art,” and the ethnographic museum. Ms. Pike-Tay.

Prerequisite: previous coursework in Anthropology or permission of the instructor.

Not offered in 2014/15.

Two 75-minute periods.