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Art And Agency: An Anthropological Theory
Abstract
Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions--European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian. Art and Agency was completed just before Alfred Gell's death at the age of 51 in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigour, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.
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In the citing paper
“This way of thinking parallels a new body of anthropological theory which considers the implications of treating certain types of objects as having qualities of personhood (Strathern 1995, 2004a, 2004b; Gell 1998; Latour 2005; Ingold 2000; Bird-David 1990, 1999; Vivieros de Castro 1996; Matthews 2016)”
From Meshkwajisewin: Paradigm Shift (2021) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“Indeed, in Gell’s (1998) sense of art as a social technology, they accomplished many tasks, from presencing spiritual beings to asserting social power”
From Art (Pre)History: Ritual, Narrative and Visual Culture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe (2020) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“anthropologists have argued that aesthetic senses are culturally specific (Coote and Shelton 1992; Heyd 2012) and may be enmeshed with social reflexes (Gell 1998).”
From Art (Pre)History: Ritual, Narrative and Visual Culture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe (2020) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“Likewise, while debates about the power of things are central to Latour ' s theories, anthropologists such as Igor Kopytoff (1986), Alfred Gell (1998), Daniel Miller (2005), Tim Ingold (2011) and archaeologists like Ian Hodder (2012) have long discussed them.”
From Bruno Latour and the anthropology of the moderns (2013) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“whereas the external strategy further animates the idol into a social agent, able to embed itself into social contexts and obtain its significance from social interactions.”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“The internal strategy entails giving a body, a soul, and other materials to enliven an object in consecration”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“In his analysis of images, he discusses their agency from internal and external strategies (1998: 126-54).”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998: 126-54
In the citing paper
“The statue is thus internally animated (cf. Gell 1998: 126).”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998: 126
In the citing paper
“We can say that as the carving rituals bestow the god with internal agency, so the birth rituals performed by the villagers confer it with external agency (ibid.: 134).”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“In other words, the god, with its statue, now begins to take on social agency and becomes a 'social other' (Gell 1998: 117).”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
In the citing paper
“Employing the internal and external strategies of animation developed by Gell (1998), I have uncovered two more crucial symbolic processes-personification and localization-that bestow power and efficacy ( ling ) upon a god statue.”
From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Gell 1998
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gell, A.
- Corresponding author
- Gell, Alfred
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressOxford
- Published
- 1998-07-09
- OpenAlex
- W4388358549
- Cited by
- 3,460
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 216 · 2025: 193 · 2024: 188 · 2023: 185 · 2022: 176 · 2021: 190 · 2020: 318 · 2019: 246 · 2018: 252 · 2017: 141 · 2016: 135 · 2015: 170 · 2014: 147 · 2013: 122 · 2012: 107
- FWCI
- 53.92
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Visual Culture and Art Theory
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Art, Aesthetics, and Perception
- Keywords
- Alfred Gell, anthropology of art, visual arts, social agency, art as action, intentionality, personhood, knowledge control, meaning interpretation, art objects
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