Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
ANTH 270 – Anthropology of Art
Fall 2015‐2016
Instructor Lukas Werth
Room No. 221 HSS New Wing
Office Hours TBA
Email Lukas.werth@lums.edu.pk
Telephone 8059
Secretary/TA
TA Office Hours
Course URL (if
any)
Course Basics
Credit Hours 4
Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration
Week
Recitation/Lab (per Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration
week) Week
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration
Week
Course Distribution
Core
Elective
Open for Student
Category
Close for Student
Category
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Visual art has been with mankind ever since its beginnings: this alone warrants a closer look at this dimension of
human culture. However, this observation does not make any definition or analysis easier. There are different ways in
which the term is used, and often the question presents itself: “but is this art?”
Art seems to be related to the notion of aesthetics, but is this not a notion which crept up in Western culture as an
aspect of the new perspective on the world and on human identity which was formed in the enlightenment? What
about art of other times and of other places, decorations of the homesteads of people in New Guinea and of
indigenous Americans, for instance? What about the objects of art uncovered in Taxila or Harappa, what about
traditional Islamic art? Can, in all these cultural contexts, a notion of art be separated from, in particular, the notion of
the sacred?
But the course does not only look at art as an object to be investigated, it also finds it a medium to be made use of,
Lahore University of Management Sciences
which informs, as will be argued, academic practice, and which therefore cannot be exorcised from the practice of
anthropology itself – quite to the contrary, the discipline uses, today more consciously than ever, artistic means to
question and redefine itself. The course tries to trace these two aspects of the engagement with art:
1) It tries to locate what we call art in different cultural contexts and looks at the commonality between art and
ritual at the root of art. Alfred Gell's “art and agency” serves as a textbook here.
2) It engages in an artistic quality of anthropology itself, an interaction between cultural contexts through a
dialogue in the medium of art, a domain of visual anthropology, which is exemplified by the medium of
photography. We will thus try to envisage an interface between science and art, on the way scrutinizing ideas
about objectivity in anthropology.
We will look at photography's restrictions and possibilities, try to find out whether there is a particular way of
photographic seeing, talk about different cultural uses of photography, and engage into the question whether
photography is really art, a question related to the relation between photography and reality and which, as you will
see, is hotly debated and quite worth looking at for epistemological reasons.
3) The course will also include two excursions in which photographic pictures will be taken, and the process of
making them will be discussed. So keep your cameras ready. (The destinations of the exursions will be decided
together with the students.)
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)
None
COURSE OBJECTIVES
to introduce the students to anthropological approaches to art,
to discuss issues of objectivity and subjectivity, and to explore the place of art in relation to science,
to understand photography as a medium,
to handle photography as a means of visual anthropology and art.
Learning Outcomes
COURSE EVALUATION
1. The distribution of the grades will be 25 % for each exam and the presentation. Eventual plus‐points may be acquired
through creative work in the excursions and through class participation.
2. a) A prepared presentation has to be discussed with the teacher in advance during the consultation hour. This
discussion forms part of the grade.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
IMPORTANT: Please take care that each group member writes her or his own share of the presentation within the
outline which, however, has to be submitted as a group. Each group has to mail or hand out the outline to each
student in the class before the presentation. It is expected that despite sharing a work for the presentation all members
of the group are expected to read the whole work.
b) The followings points concerning the structure should be taken regard of when writing an outline for or when
giving a presentation:
a) introduction which includes the following headings:
a. About the author: biography, work, etc.
b. What is the author's intention?
c. Against or in favor of which other authors does he or she argue?
d. In which theoretical framework her or his arguments are embedded?
b) detailed outline but formulated in points (that is, between two and four pages)
c) significance of the work
d) significance in relation to the other presentations or upcoming presentations or lectures
e) some extra research
f) conclusion
g) your opinion, what you think about the work? (Please base your argument on an
interpretation of the text rather than stating any personal opinion.)
h) critical questions
i) Are there any contradictions in the work?
j) each participant should discuss a given author two times alternatively, and the
presentation of your part should be in your own words and given orally, that is, direct
formulations of the author should be avoided, otherwise you will be downgraded.
3. a) The grades will be marked on an absolute basis.
The following is the grading scheme I will try to stick to:
Outstanding Work
A+ 100 ———— 96
A 95 ———— 91
A‐ 90 ———— 86
Good work
B+ 85 ———— 81
B 80 ———— 76
B‐ 75 ———— 71
Passable Work
C+ 70 ———— 66
C 65 ———— 61
Work just about passable (with a lot of good will)
C‐ 60 ———— 56
D 55 ———— 50
Work that does not meet the minimum standard for passing
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Fail 49 and below.
Examination Detail
Yes/No:
Combine Separate:
Midterm
Duration:
Exam
Preferred Date:
Exam Specifications:
Yes/No:
Combine Separate:
Final Exam
Duration:
Exam Specifications:
COURSE OVERVIEW
1. Add and Drop; general introduction: grading and such issues.
Introductory lectures: they are meant to build the bridge from art as an anthropological subject to art as a
practice within anthropology, and to define photography as such a possible practice.
2. Introductory lecture: what, if anything, is art? Art and the human condition. The first visual art.
3. Art through the centuries and cultures. ‐But why do we call it art? Substance and aspect (my own proposal.)
Two definitions of art in general use. Contemporary art: The artist and the artisan.
(please note: If the registered students are not present, it will, however, be just a replay of the general
introduction)
4. Introductory lecture: Art and ritual. Permanence. Gell's notion of agency. The aesthetic dimension. Axiology:
ethics and aesthetics. Aesthetics and the sacred. Art and knowledge. Reading: Gell, Alfred (1998) Art and
Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Chapters 1,2
5. Introductory lecture: Art and science. The view of the particular. Aesthetics II: The sacred and the secular.
Objectivity and subjectivity. Clifford Geertz: anthropology as art (the anthropologist as author). Visual
Anthropology. Reading: Geertz, Clifford (1988) Works and lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford:
Stanford UP. Chapter 1.
6. Introductory lecture: Photography: what is it? Is it objective? Photography and reality. The relation between
Photography and painting. The photographic vision: was the invention of photography driven by chemistry or
by art/a way of experiencing the world? Can it be art?
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Reading: Scruton, Roger (1998) Photography and Representation. In: Scruton, Roger: The Aesthetic
Understanding: Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture. South Bend, Indian: St. Augustine's Press.
7. Introductory lecture: Is there a photographic way of seeing – or are there different ones? A little history: styles
in photography, and photographies by different people (Japan, Africa, India, Pakistan)
Anthropological perspectives on art in different cultural contexts.
8. Topic 1: Gell, Alfred (1998) Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Reading: Chapters 6,7.
9. Topic 1 continued.
10. Revision
11. First Exam
12. Topic 2: Readings: Gell's critics: Layton, Robert (2003) Art and Agency: a reassessment. JRAI 9, p. 447‐464;
Morphy, Howard (2009) Art as a Mode of Action: Some Problems with Gell's Art and Agency Journal of Material
Culture March 1, 14: 5‐27)
13. Topic 2: continued
14. Topic 3: Reading: Tilley, Christopher et al. (2000) Art and the Re‐Represenbtation of the Past. JRAI 6, p. 35‐62.
15. Topic 3 continued
16. Topic 4: Reading: Irving, Andrew (2007) : Ethnography, Art, and Death. JRAI 13, p. 185‐208.
17. Topic 4: continued
18. Topic 5: Reading: Schneider, Arnd (2008): Three modes of Experimentation with Art and Ethnography. JRAI 14,
p. 171‐194.
19. Topic 5: continued (perhaps: showing of an ethnographic film)
20. Revision
21. Viva
From here on we will again look more explicitly on photography. Pinney is a classic on particular cultural uses
of photography, the excursion will introduce into the practical side, and the lecture should serve to elucidate
different ways in which photographers engage with their subjects.
22. Excursion: photographic ethnography and the subjective perspective
23. Topic 6: Reading: Pinney, Christopher (1997) Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1‐3
Lahore University of Management Sciences
24. Topic 6: continued
25. Topic 7: The camera and the Other: Modern Photography and Ethnography ( The photography of Pierre
Bourdieu in Algeria, Herny Cartier‐Bresson, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Martin Parr, Richard Billingham,
modern Japanese photography, my own efforts)
26. Topic 7: continued
27. Revision
28. Exam
Literature/Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings
Aird, Michael (2005) Growing Up with Aborigines. In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s
Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Behrend, Heike (2005) Imagined Journeys: The Likoni Ferry Photographers of Mombasa, Kenya. In: Christopher Pinney
and Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre et al. (1990) Photography: a Middle‐brow Art. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Canal, Gemma Orobitg (2004) Photography in the field: word and image in ethnographic research. In: Sarah Pink, Lazlo
Kuerti, Ana Isabel Alfonso (eds.) Working Images: Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography. Oxon:
Routledge.
Driessens, Jo‐Anne (2005) Relating to Photographs. In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s
Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Faris, James (2005) Navajo and Photography. In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other
Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Gell, Alfred (1998) Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Geertz, Clifford (1988) Works and lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford: Stanford UP.
Graham‐Brown, Sarah (????) Images of Women: the Portrayal of Woman in Photography of the Middle East 1860‐1950.
Grenfell, Michael, and Hardy, Cheryl (2007) Art Rules: Pierre Bourdieu and the Visual Arts. Oxford: Berg.
Irving, Andrew (2007) : Ethnography, Art, and Death. JRAI 13, p. 185‐208.
Kuerti, Lazlo (2004) Picture Perfect: Community and Commemoration in postcards. In: Sarah Pink, Lazlo Kuerti, Ana
Isabel Alfonso (eds.) Working Images: Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography. Oxon: Routledge.
Layton, Robert (2003) Art and Agency: a reassessment. JRAI 9, p. 447‐464.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Meskin, Aaron, Cohen, Jonathan (2004) On the Epistemic Value of Photographs. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,
62: 197–210.
Morphy, Howard (2009) Art as a Mode of Action: Some Problems with Gell's Art and Agency Journal of Material Culture
March 1, 14: 5‐27
Peterson, Nicolas (2005) The Changing Photographic Contract: Aborigines and Image Ethics. In: Christopher Pinney and
Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pinney, Christopher (1992) The Parallel Histories of Anthropology and Photography. In: Elisabeth Edwards (ed.)
Anthropology and Photography: 1860‐1920.
Pinney, Christopher (1997) Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Pinney, Christopher (2005) Notes from the Surface of the Image: Photography, Postcolonialism, and Vernacular
Modernism. In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other Histories. Durham: Duke University
Press.
Ramos, Manuel Joao (2004) Drawing the lines: The limitations of intercultural emphasis. In: Sarah Pink, Lazlo Kuerti,
Ana Isabel Alfonso (eds.) Working Images: Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography. Oxon: Routledge.
Schneider, Arnd (2008): Three modes of Experimentation with Art and Ethnography. JRAI 14, p. 171‐194.
Scruton, Roger (1998) Photography and Representation. In: Scruton, Roger: The Aesthetic Understanding: Essays in the
Philosophy of Art and Culture. South Bend, Indian: St. Augustine's Press.
Snyder, Joel and Allen, Neil Walsh (1975) Photography, Vision, and Representation. Critical Inquiry 2: 143‐169
Sprague, Stephen (2005) Yoruba Photography: how the Yoruba see themselves. In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas
Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Tacknis, Ira (1988) Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson in Bali: Their Use of Photography and Film. Cutural
Anthropology 3: 160‐177.
Tilley, Christopher et al. (2000) Art and the Re‐Represenbtation of the Past. JRAI 6, p. 35‐62.
Tsinhnahjinnie, Hulleah J. (2005) When is a Photograph Worth a Thousand Words? In: Christopher Pinney and Nicolas
Peterson (ed.) Photography’s Other Histories. Durham: Duke University Press.
Walton, Kenneth (1984) Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism. Critical Inquiry 11:246‐277.