Creativity and Cultural Improvisation (ASA Monographs) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184520526X ISBN 13: 9781845205263

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

There is no prepared script for social and cultural life. People work it out as they go along. Creativity and Cultural Improvisation casts fresh, anthropological eyes on the cultural sites of creativity that form part of our social matrix. The book explores the ways creative agency is attributed in the graphic and performing arts and in intellectual property law. It shows how the sources of creativity are embedded in social, political and religious institutions, examines the relationship between creativity and the perception and passage of time, and reviews the creativity and improvisational quality of anthropological scholarship itself. Individual essays examine how the concept of creativity has changed in the history of modern social theory, and question its applicability as a term of cross-cultural analysis. The contributors highlight the collaborative and political dimensions of creativity and thus challenge the idea that creativity arises only from individual talent and expression.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth Hallam is Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen. Tim Ingold is Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184520526X
• ISBN 13: 9781845205263
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348
• Editor: Hallam Elizabeth, Ingold Tim