Synopsis
The American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904-1969), discovered a set of patterns designed by ancient peoples to illustrate their ideas about kinship. They tattooed and painted such "statements" on their bodies and clothing, and carved them on tools, game boards, pots, ceremonial objects, coins and other items, and carried these with them wherever they went. Through broad comparative study, Schuster decoded this iconography, which lasted over 10,000 years, crossed continents, and outlived most of the cultures that sheltered it. Having spent more than three decades gathering evidence for his study, Schuster delayed publication while he searched for more. This book, by his colleague Edmund Carpenter, distils his research to a single volume.
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About the Author
Edmund Carpenter (b.1922) taught anthropology at the univeristy of Toronto, California, & Harvard.
Reviews
American art historian Schuster (1904- 1969) crisscrossed the world, gathering ancient and tribal art and identifying motifs and archetypal patterns that show a remarkable continuity across cultures and eras. For example, equating the image of a tree with the branching of the human race dates back at least to the Upper Paleolithic and finds expression in anthropomorphic "Y-posts," often with a carved human head at the end of each branch, from Siberia, Hawaii, New Guinea and Mali. Carpenter, an anthropologist, has distilled the work of Schuster, his former colleague, into a single, gracefully written volume, an important cross-cultural survey and a cornucopia of discoveries and insights for art historians, anthropologists, students of myths, religion, folklore and symbolism. Elegantly decked with 1023 illustrations, the study uncovers often astonishing similarities in labyrinths and cosmic drawings from Crete to Finland; in village layouts mirroring creation myths of the Winnebago of Wisconsin and the Solomon Islanders; and in mosaic garments, body and hand decorations, sculpted figurines, robes, carved stones and children's games from around the world.
Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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