Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory - Hardcover

Gell, The Late Alfred

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198280130 ISBN 13: 9780198280132

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions--European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian. Art and Agency was completed just before Alfred Gell's death at the age of 51 in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigour, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.

About this title

About the Author:

Gell was a reader in anthropology at the London School of Economics.

Review:

"...his final monograph...is a masterpiece" Daniel Miller, THES, 12/05/2000

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0198280130
• ISBN 13: 9780198280132
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296