Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Jeremy Coote and Anthony Shelton -- I. The Anthropology of Art. 1. Art and Anthropology / Raymond Firth. 2. The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology / Alfred Gell -- II. Objects and Interpretations. 3. Art, Architecture, and Collective Representations in a New Guinea Society / Ross Bowden. 4. Making Skins: Malangan and the Idiom of Kinship in Northern New Ireland / Susanne Kuchler. 5. Representing the Spirits: The Masks of the Alaskan Inuit / Jarich Oosten -- III. Traditions and Innovations. 6. Traditional and Contemporary Art of Aboriginal Australia: Two Case Studies / Robert Layton. 7. Textile Design in Southern Lembata: Tradition and Change / Ruth Barnes -- IV. The Anthropology of Aesthetics. 8. From Dull to Brilliant: The Aesthetics of Spiritual Power among the Yolngu / Howard Morphy. 9. Predicates of Aesthetic Judgement: Ontology and Value in Huichol Material Representations / Anthony Shelton.

10. 'Marvels of Everyday Vision': The Anthropology of Aesthetics and the Cattle-Keeping Nilotes / Jeremy Coote.

This collection of essays on anthropological approaches to art and aesthetics is the first in its field to be published for some time. In recent years a number of new galleries of non-Western art have been opened, many exhibitions of non-Western art held, and new courses in the anthropology of art established.

This collection is both part of and complements these developments, contributing to the general resurgence of interest in what has been until recently a comparatively neglected field of academic study and intellectual debate.

Unlike many previous collections, the focus of this volume is resolutely anthropological. The contributors draw on contemporary anthropological theory as well as on analyses of classic anthropological topics such as myth, ritual, and exchange, to deepen our understanding of particular aesthetic traditions in their socio-cultural and historical contexts. In addition, the cross-cultural applicability of the very concepts 'art' and 'aesthetics' is assessed.

Each essay illustrates a specific approach and develops a particular argument. Many present new ethnography based on recent field research among Australian Aborigines, in New Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, and elsewhere. Others example, the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia draw on classic anthropological accounts of, for and the Nuer of the Southern Sudan, putting this material to new uses.

Sir Raymond Firth's introductory overview of the history of the anthropological study of art makes this volume particularly useful for the non-specialist interested in learning what anthropology has to contribute to our understanding of art and aesthetics in general. With its wide geographical and cultural coverage and plentiful illustrations, many of which are in colour, Anthropology, Art, and Aesthetics will be a valuable resource for all serious students of the subject.