Imagination Meets Empiricism

Siding with Laming-Emperaire, trying to extract the cultural meaning of a piece of work is difficult but imperative to the study of any cultural artifact. Even if the conclusion is that the piece has no deeper meaning then what is physically represented, that negative still tells us more about the people who created it.

Part of neither group, balance is the key.  What we can obtain from a purely empirical approach to artifact analysis is limited. Though it is a good starting point, there need to be a point in our work. To learn from the past we must picture and question the past. It will never amount to more then a hypothesis; nevertheless the questioning it takes to create that hypothesis is a necessary step in the debate of cultures. First there is a general hypothesis and the reason for your work. Then there must be solid, physical evidence, which is extracted in the field, followed empirical analysis that will support or disprove the hypothesis.  A danger to avoid is getting too attached to a hypothesis. Allowing the hypothesis to be a guideline, fluid when working and then solidified into a conclusion at the end.

There is another approach to anthropology, and archaeology in particular that has emerged after the 1980’s. Referred to as Post-Processionalism or Post-Modernism, this movement takes the concept of ‘trying to wring a vivid, living past from historical remains’ and takes it a step further by asking how we know really came to that idea of their reality and how the cultural mindset at the creation of different views of the past effect how the theory was built. “Such is the richness of the human innovation that one can generally find some way to support his thinking.” It is this fallacy, as worded by Laming-Emperaire, which Post-Processionalist try to avoid. It takes artifacts and applies them in an attempt to reconstructing who the people of that culture were as humans. This humanistic approach challenges the studying anthropologist to imagine the everyday reality of that artifact

Other Sources:

Mills, Peter. Class Lecture. Archaeology. University of Hawaii at Hilo. Fall 2010

A Brief History of Archaeology. Fagen, Brian. University of California at Santa Barbra. 

Runs in the Family

Nothing we do is random. There is always some vestigial benefit that allowed for the evolution of an act that gives us either pleasure or pain. Art is an offshoot of those positive feedback reactions.

We have a ”universally inherited propensity to make some objects and activities special”. How long that propensity goes back is a matter of debate.
Art has never been about the end product, just to be mounted on a white wall with soft lighting and hushed voices; the process and the purpose define art.  Ellen Dissanayake elaborates on the concept of art evolving as a defining part of ritual; with the purpose of bonding social groups and communicating complex ideas. Art helps us work out the complex thought processes that characterize our species.  It helps with the expression of these complex ideas and standardizes the views experience when used as an aid.  It is believed that the oldest form of art was utilized in personal adornment (Ellen D.)

Not just a.m. Homo sapiens have been shown with evidence of this personal adornment however. Neanderthal adornment was simplistic compared to a.m. Homo sapiens of the same region.  Gregory Curtis, the author of The Cave Painters, proposes the idea that the Neanderthals were mimicking the Cro-Magnon people. That idea still implies that the Neanderthals had an appreciation for self-adornment, and therefore art itself. If they were able to appreciate art then there must have been a selection for the propensity of art before the evolutionary split of these two Homos.  Southern France has the highest density of cave paintings in Europe; this is also the area with the longest period of overlapping contact between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon (Curtis, 41). They lived together from 35,000-27,500 B.P. (Curtis, 37). Such a long-term overlap would lead to the necessity of interspecies communication between two decently intelligent species.  The physical difference between the two species would make vocal communication difficult if not impossible. Neanderthals vocal tracks to not make the same bend as a.m.Homo sapians consequently the types of vowels produced would be different.  Art would avoid this entire issue while still allowing for interspecies communications. 

Intrinsic Logic

"Intrinsic to life of all higher animals are two complementary needs- for making order out of experience, and for disorder- novelty or the unexpected” – pg. 134, Dissanayake

We enjoy making order.  O

If we are to make order then we need disorder. O⊃D

Therefore we enjoy disorder.   ∴D

We enjoy the challenge. 

Define Living

"To experience something that is outside order and ordinary - which we can call extraordinary. There is an unquestioned human appetite for intensity, and though we can exist without them, intense emotions make us feel we are living." (pg.134, Dissanayake)

Can we go a moment in our lives without seeing countless examples of the quest this? When does our personal appetites become fulfilled? Only when we learn to see the extraordinary everywhere; the phenomenal odds that came together to create the everyday does that appetite begin to be sufferable. Awe takes understanding and for this reason I love to learn. Spotting the extraordinary “requires prior familiarity with the elements”; you have to be aware of how far something has gone to appreciate the state it is in.

In my constant search for intensity, my goal is to try everything, learn everything, and be aware of everything that I can so that my appetite for intensity can be fed though never sated. I am not looking to be all knowing, to know the intimate details of the universe. My goal is to just to be knowledgeable enough to appreciate the world around me. I've been lovely teased for being "naturally high". Its not my body chemistry that creates that state however, its curiosity. Experience is just a type of learning. Thrill does not end with the experience; the thrill is revived whenever the memory of that experience is triggered. Trigging that neuron network that life has laid is art’s goal, life’s goal.

     Every time I see a well-executed pole vault I feel awe.

Every time I see a plant grow in the direction of the sun, I feel awe.

When I see a ceramic piece, I understand the journey it has made and feel awe.

     It is physically induced empathy. 

How Thoughtless- The act of "Making Special"

Making special is such an innate trait for humans we participate in the behavior everyday without thinking.  The act of  “making special” acknowledges the dimensions of reality that we overlay with the physical; making special acknowledges, reveals, and embodies this reality (Dissanayake). Every morning when we get dressed we participate in this process of making things special.  We are embellishing ourselves.

Clothes mentally makes our bodies sacrosanct, more then that of the bare animal.  Physically there is no difference in our flesh but by the process of dressing add a layer of meaning to the reality which is our bodies.  Our clothes help us express our identity. Why else do we feel like part of us is missing when suddenly stripped of our cotton armor?

This morning as I rolled out of bed and stumbled my closet, I mentally assemble a list of my requirements for the day that I will then apply to my wardrobe. Field school was easy; everyday I needed to be practical and warm to portray the hard worker I wished to be seen as. On slipped woolen socks, cargo pants to hold my gloves, trowl, and write in the rain, a plain shirt, warm vest, gortex jacket and a wide brimmed hat. My clothes embody the reality that I was experiencing, expressing my situation to anyone who observed. In the everyday, where the realistic components of getting dressed are less pronounced, the emotional components become more defined. Once I reached my closest, my mental list of this morning included the idea that I wished to been seen as simple, feminine and collected. Out I pulled a long sweater dress, long socks, and a loose strand of pearls.  Had I wish to be seen as outgoing, young and intellectual, out would have come well fitted pants, a white collared shirt, heeled boots and distinctive earrings made at the bead shop in town.  Though none of the objects I have pull out of my closet were particularly special, the manor in which they are worn are part of  highlighting an identify, a reality for the day.

We emphasis the traits which we wish people to view first and foremost. And we do so both by what we wear and by what we choose not to. Both the negative and the positive choice illustrates that for the day, whether we are cheerful or glum, flamboyant or reserved.  We can display strength, fragility, practically, femininity, or maturity.  

Humans recognize and respond to special, which is another key component of the role of our modern wardrobes.  Thought most of the items we dress ourselves in are mass-produced and sold to hundreds, we dress with the goal of making ourselves unique. Crossing our fingers everyday that we will not see someone else in the pattern of items as ourselves. Its a subconscious process more often then not. 

As stated by Ellen D., applying ornamental designs to the body is one of the oldest instances of making special; how we get dressed is simply an extension of that. 

Cultural Relativism in Art

Topeng Spirits

The mask making traditions of Indonesia displayed on walls around the world are prized for their flamboyant visual appeal. Known as Topeng in their country of origin, they are used in ritualized dances of the same name to help the performer take on the spirit of the character they are portraying. The masks are seen as living manifestations of the spirits; their creation, a religious act.  In defining this art form we look to The Anthropology of Art by Robert Layton and his two part cultural criteria for art. Using the aesthetic qualities and the substance that is being transmitted though the artwork. These criteria must be applied to the art form in an ethnographic manner in order to judge any type of art.

The Aesthetic criteria that a mask must meet is complex because if their perceived spiritual properties. The first criterion is symmetry, an aesthetic trait which is often used to judge visually appealing artwork around the world. Decoration is done in vivid colours, with natural dyes.  Trim is then added as demanded by character being portrayed. The end visual result is highly stylized representation of a dancers character whether human or spirit.

An Old Women Mask.

Completed mask with costume.  

Mask making is a specialized profession in Indonesia. The makers are called Undagi tapel, and come to be initiated in the art form by heredity.  Only consecrated individuals carve the ritual masks in the traditional manner. It is this preset method of their creation that gives them their sacred properties. A religious mask is not deemed complete until it is ritually purified and the mask united with its dance costume on a sacred night to invite the spirit in. Viewed as the most dangerous part of a masks creation, it is vital to a masks cultural significance. When the mask is not being used in a ceremony, it is thought to protect the village in which it is stored.

Other, "lesser", mask makers produce lower quality maskers to be used as a market produce as they are culturally aware of the western interest in the masks purely visual appeal.  These masks are not held to the same culturally demanded form and materials and are now treated as their own living art form, which is been evolving on its own such as the mask shown bellow. The highest peaks of mask art are reserved for those who value the cultural substance.

There is no doubt that the Indonesian mask making tradition is a stylized an art form as the surrealist movement in western painting.  There is a culturally defined level of aesthetic appeal that the creation must meet and a deeply infused spiritual imagery from the beginning to the end of a masks life.

Sources:

Photo: Artest, Balinese dance Resources for Schools. ://www.balinesedance.org/Making_Balinese_Dance_Masks.htm#topengphotos

Photo: Compete mask with costume, Purnama Sari. http://www.purnamasaribali.com/aboutus.html

Photo: Old Women Mask, Balinese dance Resources for Schools: Topèng Pajegan. http://www.balinesedance.org/Topeng_Pajegan_Istri.htm#femmaskphotos

Photo: Contemperary mask, Balinese dance Resources for Schools: Topèng Pajegan. http://www.balinesedance.org/Resources-Topeng_Pajegan.htm

Layton, Robert. The Anthropology of Art.1991

Slattun, Judy. Balinese Masks: Spirits of an Ancient Drama. 2003

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topeng.