This book presents a personal collection of ancestor sculpture and protective deities, following the ancient migratory and trade routes of the Austronesian, Southeast Asian Bronze Age, and Hindu-Buddhist peoples. The author, Thomas Murray, has spent a lifetime studying this art through his endeavours as a peripatetic dealer, collector, and field researcher. The objects illustrated come from a swath of widely varied cultures from Nepal eastward to Hawaii, with the overwhelming majority from Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Murray's eye is highly informed and based on an unusually large sampling of objects to which his experience and research have exposed him. The artworks documented represent some of the top examples he has acquired and retained over the course of a long career. They are characterised by sculptural balance and a harmony of line, as well as a rare quality of expressiveness. Each ranks high in terms of aesthetics and desirability within its own particular style as perceived by the art market and by other western aficionados.

The rock paintings and engravings of southern Africa have long been considered obscure, yet research has managed since to piece together that message, and we now know that this beautiful and detailed art tells us about the religious experiences of the San (bushmen) who made it: centuries ago the San believed that the art carried messages from the spirit world. This book traces the story behind that research, how it started, its failures and successes, and some of its debates, linking the art to the people who made it.

Only 1000 copies of People of the Eland were printed in 1976. It was neither reissued nor reprinted. It has become one of the rarest and most expensive of all books on the African past. One of the things that most disturbed Patricia Vinnicombe while she was working at the Rock Art Research Institute at Wits in the early 2000s was that students could not access her book. As in many libraries, Wits University locks People of the Eland away in its rare and valuable book section. In 2002, Pat started to explore the possibility of republication. But, she did not feel that the book could be reissued without adding additional sections to explain how knowledge had expanded in the decades since the publication of the book. Tragically, Pat died in March 2003 before she could start work on the new sections. Peter Mitchell and Ben Smith have taken up this challenge and brought together the leading scholars in the field to write new sections to explain both how knowledge has changed since the publication of People of the Eland, and how current research is still influenced by this landmark volume. The Eland's People is thus intended as a companion volume to People of the Eland and it is hoped that this new volume will provide a richer appreciation of the importance of Pat's original work, as well as allowing readers an overview of current understandings of Drakensberg rock art.

World is Africa brings together more than 30 important texts by Eddie Chambers, who for several decades has been an original and a critical voice within the field of African diaspora art history. The texts range from book chapters and catalogue essays, to shorter texts. Chambers focuses on contemporary artists and their practices, from a range of international locations, who for the most part are identified with the African diaspora. None of the texts are available online and none have been available outside of the original publication in which they first appeared. The volume contains several new pieces of writing, including a consideration of the art world 'fetishization' of the 1980s, as the manifestation of a reluctance to accept the majority of Black British artists as valid individual practitioners, choosing instead to shackle them to exhibitions that took place three decades ago. Another new text re-examines the 'map paintings' of Frank Bowling, the Guyana-born artist who was the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain in 2019. The third introduces the little-known record sleeve illustrations of Charles White, the American artist who was the subject of a major retrospective in 2018 at major galleries across the US. Among the other new texts is a critical reflection on the patronage the Greater London Council extended to Black artists in 1980s London. World is Africa makes a valuable contribution to the emerging discipline of black British art history, the field of African diaspora studies and African diaspora art history.

South of the Sahara opens with general observations on the immensely rich and diversified artistic heritage of sub-Saharan Africa. Constantine Petridis examines the relationship between contemporary and so-called traditional African arts, and presents examples showing that many African works were originally part of an ensemble or one element of a performance. He discusses how works relate to ideas about leadership and the supernatural and then relates the many misunderstandings that still exist concerning the history and the chronology of African art. After dissecting the complex issue of style, he concentrates on the relationship between styles and both time and geography. Finally, Petridis considers the little-known issue of African aesthetics, investigating how the aesthetic preferences of the makers and users of the works differ from those of the Western museum audience and art lovers. Forty-two important works from thirty different cultures are featured in color, including objects from the ancient kingdom of Benin and examples of two of Africa's oldest archaeological art traditions: Nok in Nigeria and Djenne in Mali. Enriched with many field photographs and much ethnographical information, this presentation emphasizes the extraordinary formal invention and spiritual power of the objects.

Since the late 1980s the dominant theory of human origins has been that a 'cognitive revolution' (C.50,000 years ago) led to the advent of our species, Homo sapiens. As a result of this revolution our species spread and eventually replaced all existing archaic Homo species, ultimately leading to the superiority of modern humans. Or so we thought. As Clive Finlayson explains, the latest advances in genetics prove that there was significant interbreeding between Modern Humans and the Neanderthals. All non-Africans today carry some Neanderthal genes. We have also discovered aspects of Neanderthal behaviour that indicate that they were not cognitively inferior to modern humans, as we once thought, and in fact had their own rituals and art. Finlayson, who is at the forefront of this research, recounts the discoveries of his team, providing evidence that Neanderthals caught birds of prey, and used their feathers for symbolic purposes. There is also evidence that Neanderthals practised other forms of art, as the recently discovered engravings in Gorham's Cave Gibraltar indicate. Linking all the recent evidence, The Smart Neanderthal casts a new light on the Neanderthals and the "Cognitive Revolution". Finlayson argues that there was no revolution and, instead, modern behaviour arose gradually and independently among different populations of Modern Humans and Neanderthals. Some practices were even adopted by Modern Humans from the Neanderthals. Finlayson overturns classic narratives of human origins, and raises important questions about who we really are.

If you met a dragon, could you keep it secret? One day in the forest, Winnie discovers the last dragon in the whole world. His fabulous friends, the gryphon, the winged lion and the tree-man, are the last of their kind, too. They'll be in danger if grown-ups discover them. But can Winnie really keep them secret? With its brave, resourceful heroine and magical endangered animals, this exquisite picture book is a perfect story for our time.

The Tlingit form a distinct ethnic and linguistic group of the Koluschan stock. Koluschan is from the Russian kalyushka, meaning piece of wood (worn in the nether lip). They occupy a compact geographical area along the Pacific coast from about Mount St Elias to the Nass River, and including Sitka and the other adjacent islands of the Alexander Archipelago. The chief tribes are the Chilcat, Stikine and Yakutat. They are essentially a seafaring people and today work in the salmon industries. Prior to the deterioration suffered from contact with the white race they were the foremost traders of the Northwest.

This book is an attempt to make sense of what is the matter with humanity today. For the author and artist Kareline van der Burg 9-11 was a turning point and the inspiration of her artistic work. It made her think about Americas karma, the loss of the Indian Wisdom and the outright aggressiveness of America. Kareline realised that the western way of living is no longer the way forward. That inspired her to start studying the Indian culture and their love and feel for the unspoiled nature around them, seemingly unparalleled in history. Indians viewed their interaction with the animals and plants as important lessons to help them understand their own nature. As a result of Karelines inspiration, poetry and artwork, a rich illustrated art book was born: "A Time: All There is Matters Equally". A masterpiece with glossy pictures of painted drums and jewellery and a new calendar, which makes you think about our cosmic nature. A collection of new native art, like goat-skinned drums with oils, with feathers and shells. The 52 drums are accompanied by 365 sentences to announce a new mindset to honor Gaia. The book shows jewellery inspired by the Mayan Calendar, revealing the relationship between cosmic cycles and our body. A perfect gift for who loves art and the true spirit of nature.

A Comprehensive Guide to the Objects Associated with the Voyages of James Cook Held at New Zealands National Museum. Almost 250 years after James Cook first sighted Aotearoa New Zealand in October 1769, there is still world-wide interest in all aspects of his three voyages of exploration in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779: discovery (by Europeans), astronomy, natural science, and interactions with indigenous communities. For many people, the artificial curiosities -- works of human manufacture from exotic locations collected on these voyages by Cook himself and others on his ships,including super-numenaries and servants, have held a particular fascination. In this handsome book, widely respected Pacific scholar Janet Davidson details the collection of Maori, Pacific and Native American objects associated with the voyages held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, one of the few significant institutional collections that have not been fully described until now. Richly illustrated and accessibly written, it is a treasure trove.

This study offers a new approach to the history of sites, archaeology, and heritage formation in Asia, at both the local and the trans-regional levels. Starting at Hindu-Buddhist, Chinese, Islamic, colonial, and prehistoric heritage sites in Indonesia, the focus is on people's encounters and the knowledge exchange taking place across colonial and post-colonial regimes. Objects are followed as they move from their site of origin to other locations, such as the Buddhist statues from Borobudur temple, that were gifted to King Chulalongkorn of Siam. The ways in which the meaning of these objects transformed as they moved away to other sites reveal their role in parallel processes of heritage formation outside Indonesia. Calling attention to the power of the material remains of the past, Marieke Bloembergen and Martijn Eickhoff explore questions of knowledge production, the relationship between heritage and violence, and the role of sites and objects in the creation of national histories.

A nuanced look at Maya mythology, from the literary record of the Popol Vuh to a broad range of artistic depictions by ancient Maya artists

For generations, the women of the South African Ndebele tribe have produced a rich, living art. They continue to do so today, conjuring up on the walls of their houses a world of spontaneous forms with intricate beadwork and wall painting. Their dynamic compositions and blazing colors show a bold graphic quality that makes them appear stunningly fresh and modern.

Margaret Courtney-Clarke spent five years visiting the Ndebele and recording their art. Her work on this book began long before the political upheavals following the end of apartheid and the coming to power of the black majority in South Africa. The Ndebele from the southern Transvaal, whose art is documented here, were violently displaced and forcibly resettled in the newly created KwaNdebele homeland. During her later visits Courtney-Clarke discovered that more and more of her favorite paintings had decayed or disappeared after the family had either moved away or been forcibly resettled. The result in several cases is that her photographs are the only surviving documents of some of the most impressive of Ndebele artworks.

These photographs bear witness to a people who, despite unspeakable suffering, have continued to decorate their surroundings with breathtaking brilliance and passion.

For hundreds of years, American artisanship and American authorship were entangled practices rather than distinct disciplines. Books, like other objects, were multisensory items all North American communities and cultures, including Native and settler colonial ones, regularly made and used. All cultures and communities narrated and documented their histories and imaginations through a variety of media. All created objects for domestic, sacred, curative, and collective purposes. In this innovative work at the intersection of Indigenous studies, literary studies, book history, and material culture studies, Caroline Wigginton tells a story of the interweavings of Native craftwork and American literatures from their ancient roots to the present. Focused primarily on North America, especially the colonized lands and waters now claimed by the United States, this book argues for the foundational but often-hidden aesthetic orientation of American literary history toward Native craftwork. Wigginton knits this narrative to another of Indigenous aesthetic repatriation through the making and using of books and works of material expression. Ultimately, she reveals that Native craftwork is by turns the warp and weft of American literature, interwoven throughout its long history.

Seeing the Inside is the first detailed study of one of the world's great visual art traditions and its role in the society that produces it. The bark painting of Aboriginal artists in western Arnhem Land is the product of a unique tradition of many thousands of years' duration. In recent years it has attracted enormous interest in the rest of Australia and beyond, with the result that the artists, who live primarily as hunters in this relatively secluded region of northern Australia, now paint for sale to the world art market.
Though the richness and power of Aboriginal arts are now, belatedly, finding wide recognition, they remain insufficiently understood. In this thoroughly illustrated book Luke Taylor examines the creative methods of the bark painters and the cultural meaning of their work. He discusses, on the one hand, the arrangements which allow the artists to project their culture onto an international stage, and on the other, the continuing social and religious roles of their paintings within their own society. The result is a remarkable and fascinating picture of artistic creativity in a changing world.

In this beautifully illustrated overview, Renee Worringer provides a clear and comprehensive account of the longevity, pragmatism, and flexibility of the Ottoman Empire in governing over vast territories and diverse peoples. A Short History of the Ottoman Empire uses clear headings, themes, text boxes, primary source translations, and maps to assist students in understanding the Empire's complex history.

This compilation, by an international grouping of scholars, focuses on the nature of Caribbean rock art or rock graphics and makes clear the region's substantial and distinctive rock art tradition. Thorough and comparative, it includes data on the history of rock graphic research, the nature of the assemblages (image numbers, types, locations), and the legal, conservation, and research status of the image sites. Chapters on these topics cover research on the islands of Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Aruba, and Bonaire.The prehispanic rock art and other ceremonial structures and artifacts, along with enthnohistorical accounts of the region at Contact, projected backward in time, all point to an active ritual and ceremonial life involving commoners, religious specialists, and elites in differing and interconnected roles and for diverse purposes. The selective use of common rock graphic design and physical elements can be seen in the distribution and execution of the carved and painted images. Pecked, ground, abraded, and scratched petroglyphs, along with pictographs done frequently in red, black, white, and orange hues are found on a range of rock surfaces including limestones, granites, diorites, and andesites.Caves/rock shelters and rock formations associated with water sources (water ways, pools, ocean) account for the two most common locations, followed by ball court sites, inland rock outcroppings and beach rock. In addition to specific area presentations, the work includes a review of recent advances in Caribbean rock graphic studies including dating and interpretative models; the application of a new documentation method and resulting computer manipulation advantages; a conservation project in Jamaica that has implications for the preservation and interpretation of the site; and, a proposed dating sequence for the Lesser Antillean Windward Islands.

Dive into the life and work of master craftsman Jeronimo Lozano and his extraordinarily detailed retablos. Steeped in ancient Peruvian traditions, these small sculpted figures show religious and secular scenes housed in structures large and small, ranging from pistachio shells and matchboxes to handmade wooden boxes and freestanding installations. Lozan's retablos are both traditional and innovative, visualizing the cultural life of people in the mountains of Peru, from ceremonies, processions, and market stands to fiestas, street performance, historical tableaux, and current events. Writer, documentarian, and folklorist Alan Govenar shares an in-depth interview with Lozano, tracking his childhood in Ayacucho, Peru, to his arrival in the US; how he's navigated his hearing disability; and his process from start to finish. Divided into My Story, My Life, and My Process, the interview is paired with colourful photographs of his work. A celebration of the form of the retablo, one of the many folk and traditional art forms that make up the American arts-and-crafts landscape.

When European explorers began their initial forays into southeastern North America in the 16th and 17th centuries they encountered what they called temples and shrines of native peoples, often decorated with idols in human form made of wood, pottery, or stone. The idols were fascinating to write about, but having no value to explorers searching for gold or land, there are no records of these idols being transported to the Old World, and mention of them seems to cease about the 1700s. However, with the settling of the fledgling United States in the 1800s, farming colonists began to unearth stone images in human form from land formerly inhabited by the native peoples. With little access to the records of the 16th and 17th centuries, debate and speculation abounded by the public and scholars alike concerning their origin and meaning.During the last twenty years the authors have researched over 88 possible examples of southeastern Mississippian stone statuary, dating as far back as 1,000 years ago, and discovered along the river valleys of the interior Southeast. Independently and in conjunction, they have measured, analyzed, photographed, and traced the known history of the 42 that appear in this volume. Compiling the data from both early documents and public and private collections, the authors remind us that the statuary should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as regional expressions of a much broader body of art, ritual, and belief.

What do we mean by 'art'? As a category of objects, the concept belongs to a Western cultural tradition, originally European and now increasingly global, but how useful is it for understanding other traditions? To understand art as a universal human value, we need to look at how the concept was constructed in order to reconstruct it through an understanding of the wider world. Western art values have a pervasive influence upon non-Western cultures and upon Western attitudes to them. This innovative yet accessible new text explores the ways theories of art developed as Western knowledge of the world expanded through exploration and trade, conquest, colonisation and research into other cultures, present and past. It considers the issues arising from the historical relationships which brought diverse artistic traditions together under the influence of Western art values, looking at how art has been used by colonisers and colonised in the causes of collecting and commerce, cultural hegemony and autonomous identities.World Art questions conventional Western assumptions of art from an anthropological perspective which allows comparison between cultures. It treats art as a property of artefacts rather than a category of objects, reclaiming the idea of 'world art' from the 'art world'. This book is essential reading for all students on anthropology of art courses as well as students of museum studies and art history, based on a wide range of case studies and supported by learning features such as annotated further reading and chapter opening summaries.

Showcases the wealth of new research on sacred imagery found in 12 states and 4 Canadian provinces.

In archaeology, rock-art--any long-lasting marking made on a natural surface--is similar to material culture (pottery and tools) because it provides a record of human activity and ideology at that site. Petroglyphs, pictographs, and dendroglyphs (tree carvings) have been discovered and recorded throughout the eastern woodlands of North America on boulders, bluffs, and trees, in caves and in rock shelters. These cultural remnants scattered on the landscape can tell us much about the belief systems of the inhabitants that left them behind.

"The Rock-Art of Eastern North America" brings together 20 papers from recent research at sites in eastern North America, where humidity and the actions of weather, including acid rain, can be very damaging over time. Contributors to this volume range from professional archaeologists and art historians to avocational archaeologists, including a surgeon, a lawyer, two photographers, and an aerospace engineer. They present information, drawings, and photographs of sites ranging from the Seven Sacred Stones in Iowa to the Bald Friar Petroglyphs of Maryland and from the Lincoln Rise Site in Tennessee to the Nisula Site in Quebec.

Discussions of the significance of artist gender, the relationship of rock-art to mortuary caves, and the suggestive link to the peopling of the continent are particularly notable contributions. Discussions include the history, ethnography, recording methods, dating, and analysis of the subject sites and integrate these with the known archaeological data.

Moving the Museum documents the reopening of the J. S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art with a renewed focus on the AGO's Indigenous art collection. The volume reflects the nation-to-nation treaty relationship that is the foundation of Canada, asking questions, discovering truths, and leading conversations that address the weight of history and colonialism. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 reproductions, Moving the Museum: Indigenous + Canadian Art at the AGO features the work of First Nations artists -- including Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, and Kent Monkman -- along with work by Inuit artists like Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook. Canadian artists include Lawren Harris, Kazuo Nakamura, Joyce Wieland, and many others. Drawing from stories about our origins and identities, the featured artists and essayists invite readers to engage with issues of land, water, transformation, and sovereignty and to contemplate the historic and future representation of Indigenous and Canadian art in museums.

Blood and Beauty brings together a diverse, prestigious group of contributors to debate this charged topic in an open, critical and frank interchange. Authors specializing in the anthropology, archaeology, art history, and linguistics of Mesoamerica and Central America bring new data and interpretive strategies to bear on the nature of institutional violence in these ancient societies. The volume covers a broad time frame, from circa 1200 B.C.E. to the sixteenth century, including recent ethnography. The volume endeavors to contextualize violence and violent acts within the matrix of indigenous thought and culture. Chapter topics reflect that desire, including localized, culturally specific, examinations of warfare, sacrifice, ballgames, boxing, pain, and healing. While there is no overarching theoretical perspective, the contributors are sensitive to current theoretical discourse in the field, including recent perspectives on organized violence and the agency of artworks.

"Ancestral Connections unlocks the inner meaning of Australian Aboriginal bark painting. Drawing on more than ten years of fieldwork among the Yolngu--an Aboriginal people of 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 relationships between things.
"Ancestral Connections is a major contribution to the anthropology of art. A subtle commentary on the colonial encounter in northern Australia, the book 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.