The Formation and Basic Meaning of Art Anthropology

The anthropology of art, as we know it, is a relatively recent product of the vicissitudes of the relationship between anthropology and art. It took a long time for a systematic discipline of anthropology of art to take shape. The old-style “Anthropology of Art” is concerned mainly with the study of the art of preliterate societies, while the new “Anthropology of Art” has a greater range both temporally and geographically, since it reconstructs the artistic ways of life of peoples in all parts of the world so far. This new “Anthropology of Art” not only retains a commitment to a broader, overall perspective on the panorama of art through the ages, but seeks an understanding of the truths of art and life.