Secret symbolism in occult art

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Martha G. Anderson, Christine Mullen Kreamer

"Wild Spirits, Strong Medicine: African Art and the Wilderness explores African concepts of the nature/culture, wilderness/village dichotomy as it is expressed through works of art. The opposition between nature and culture, one of the fundamental organizing principles of African cosmologies, is an old topic in anthropological discourse. It has, however, never been closely examined in African art. African ideas about the qualities of the wilderness and the village give us insights into African concepts of civilization. These ideas are explored through a sifting of past research and current studies on the subject, and the inclusion of related works of art"--Book jacket.

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Lux Vidal (organizadora

"Beautifully illustrated and well-organized collection of 15 articles by Brazilian ethnologists and specialists deals with such questions as interpretation of prehistoric rock art, artistic expression of mythological themes, hallucinogenic art, body painting and its relation to sociocultural symbolism, and tradition and innovation in the context of historical change. A major theoretical and methodological contribution to the interpretation of indigenous art forms and, more generally, to the anthropology of esthetics"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

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Albert C. Moore

The vivid art forms of Australia, Melanesia, Polynesia and New Zealand are rooted in their primal, religious cultures; this relationship with religious life is still very much apparent in the new and ever-evolving art forms of the modern Pacific world. Moore's well-illustrated volume examines this relationship between religious experience and diverse art forms, such as music, dance, masks and carvings, which have all come to symbolise life itself. Their geographical, historical and cultural contexts are explored by illuminating analysis, that draws on a variety of disciplines, including religious studies, anthropology and art history. Arts in the Religions of the Pacific, distinctive in relating the scholarly study of the world's religions to the arts of the Pacific, is the first title in a major series entitled Religion and the Arts.

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Andrew Benjamin

Walter Benjamin's most famous and influential essay remains The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Walter Benjamin and the Work of Art is the first book to provide a broad and dedicated analysis of this canonical work and its effect upon core contemporary concerns in the visual arts, aesthetics and the history of philosophy. The book is structured around three distinct areas: the extension of Benjamin's work; the question of historical connection; the importance of the essay in the development of criticism of both the visual arts and literature. Contributors to the volume include major Benjamin commentators, whose work has very much defined the reception of the essay, and leading philosophers, historians and aesthetician, whose approaches open up new areas of interest and relevance