Beauty in Context: Towards an Anthropological Approach to Aesthetics: 17 (Philosophy of History and Culture) - Hardcover

Damme, Wilfried

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004106081 ISBN 13: 9789004106086

Publisher: Brill, 1996

Synopsis

This is the first study to survey the field of the anthropology of aesthetics, which during the last few decades has emerged on the cross-roads between anthropology and non-Western art scholarship. While critically examining the available literature, thereby addressing such basic issues as the existence of aesthetic universals, the author elaborates on a central thesis which concerns the relationship between aesthetic preference and sociocultural ideals. Drawing on empirical data from several African cultures, he demonstrates that varying notions of beauty are inspired by varying sociocultural ideals, thus shedding light on the phenomenon of cultural relativism in aesthetic preference. Emphasizing unity within diversity, the systematic anthropological approach offered in this volume invites the reader to reconsider aesthetic preference from an empirical, cross-cultural, and contextual perspective.

About this title

About the Author:

Wilfried van Damme, Ph.D. (1993), University of Ghent, specializes in the anthropology of art and easthetics. Previous publications include A Comparative Analysis concerning Beauty and Ugliness in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghent, 1987). He is presently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ghent.

Synopsis:

This text elaborates on a central thesis concerning the relationship between aesthetic preference and sociocultural ideals. The author demonstrates the importance of cultural relativism in aesthetic preference, and takes an empirical, cross-cultural and contextual perspective.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 9004106081
• ISBN 13: 9789004106086
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400