The course sets the anthropology of art in a wider sociological and historical context, with a focus on the appropriation of objects and forms from colonised and post-colonial peoples into the western category of art, the invention of the categories primitive art and tribal art, and processes of commoditisation. There will be some emphasis on Aboriginal art. A major theme of the course will be the plurality of significance accorded to the same object as it moves from one cultural context to another. In order to appreciate this movement we begin with an analysis of the institution of art in western societies, and then examine the creation and significance of visual forms in a range of cultures, drawing on perspectives in the anthropology of art, the sociology of art, and related disciplines.

Two hours of lectures and one hour of tutorial per week