The Art of Anthropology collects together the most influential of Gell's writings, which span the past two decades, with a new introductory chapter written by Gell. The essays vividly demonstrate Gell's theoretical and empirical interests and his distinctive contribution to several key areas of current anthropological enquiry. A central theme of the essays is Gel's highly original exploration of diagrammatic imagery as the site where social relations and cognitive processes converge and crystallise. Gell tracks this imagery across studies of tribal market transactions, dance forms, the iconicity of language and his most recent and groundbreaking analyses of artworks.Written with Gell's characteristic fluidity and grace and generously illustrated with Gell's original drawings and diagrams, the book will interest art historians, sociologists and geographers no less than anthropologists, challenging, as it does, established ideas about exchange, representation, aesthetics, cognition and spatial and temporal processes.
Also available in hardback, 9780485195675 GBP55.00 (January, 1999)About the AuthorAlfred Gell was a reader in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, and was posthumously awarded a Professorship by the School.
Reviews'A masterpiece.'Times Higher Education Supplement
Book InformationISBN 9781845204846
Author Alfred GellFormat Paperback
Page Count 316
Imprint Berg PublishersPublisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 580g