Item BBR89
This Item was Sold on 2 June 2012
for $14
Similar artifacts for sale are often found on the Anthropology
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Prices.
Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal
System of Knowledge ( ISBN: 0226538664 ) Publisher: University Of Chicago Press ; 1992 ;
Author(s): Morphy, Howard ; Soft Cover : 329 pages ;
English Ancestral Connections unlocks the inner meaning of
Australian Aboriginal bark paintings. Drawing on more than
ten years of fieldwork among the Yolngu, an Aboriginal
people from Northeast Arnhem Land and applying both
anthropological and art historical methods, Howard Morphy
explores systematically the graphic representation of
traditional knowledge in Yolngu art. He also charts the role
that art has played in Aboriginal society both present and
past. The rich symbolism of Yolngu art links the Yolngu
directly with the "Dreaming," the time of world-creation
that continues as the spiritual dimension of the present.
Morphy shows how a complex dialectic of "inside" and
"outside" interpretations of painting structures the system
of knowledge in Yolngu society, and how European interest in
this art has caused certain changes in the conditions of its
production. The "inside" significance of the art, however,
has not changed; it retains its dual ability to represent
and to constitute relations between things. Ancestral
Connections is a major contribution to the anthropology of
art. A subtle commentary on the colonial encounter in
northern Australia, it demonstrates how the Yolngu have used
their art against all odds as an instrument of cultural
survival and as a component of the economic and political
transformation of their society. The binding is tight. The
pages are clean. Excellent condition except for a light
crease at bottom right of front cover.