1. Western Perspectives: Chapter 4. Primitive Art
1.1. Most interesting quote: Douglas Fraser wrote:"The most primitive of peoples always have the most ancient of art styles—unless historical accident has introduced new visual ideas,"(Burt, 2020, pg. 61). This quote peaked my interest because it is very hypocritical. It's hypocritical because Westerners and Europeans criticize and diminish the art of non-Europeans, calling it primitive and a representation of the early stages of human development due to their ancient art styles, but Europeans' could also be referred to as primitive since they appreciate Greek art forms from Ancient Greece, which can also be considered ancient styles. Burt, B. (2020). World Art. Taylor & Francis. https://fullerton.vitalsource.com/books/9781000181678
1.2. Savages and Anthropologists: The evolutionary theory that all of humanity "shared common biological origins as a single species" and that we as all animals of nature had evolved as well, but that some races and groups of people had progressed more than others (Burt, 2020, pg. 53). Because of this view, Western people grew to see people of smaller civilization that weren't as "advanced" as them to have "racial or cultural deficiencies" (Burt, 2020, pg. 53). The word "primitive was utilized to descrube the early humans that weren't as developed and this word was used to hihglight the more sophistaced nature and being of Western Europeans (Burt, 2020, pg. 53). Thomas Hobbs' talked about a "brutal savage" that was aggressive and a ruthless beast and Rosseau talks about a "noble savage" that referred to a more calm and peaceful beast (Burt, 2020, pg. 53).
1.3. Perspectives from Anthropology: The reasons that smaller civilizations didn't develop into larger civilizations with more diverse and higher order mechanisms of trade is because their environments where their small societies resulted in "structural limitations" (Burt, 2020, pg. 54). Because the small groups of people didn't have rulers, they were led to form small and self-governing groups that were egalitarian in nature, plus the separation of individuals into small groups allowed for greater diversity of cultural products (Burt, 2020, pg. 54). Moreover, any artistic variations seen in "primitive" cultures were explained as higher cultures being an influence on lower cultures and because of this the high cultures degenerated "through racial and cultural mixing" (Burt, 2020, pg. 54).
1.4. Evolutionism: Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers founded the Oxford’s university museum with goal of presenting "the evolution of human culture from primitive simplicity to civilized complexity" and did so by "arranging artefacts from around the world in sequence" that can be referred to as typology (Burt, 2020, pg. 56). He also mentioned that the present "savages" of his time could be used to see what "earlier stages of human evolution" looked like (Burt, 2020, pg. 56).
1.5. Diffusionism: This was the theory that explained exotic cultures as borrowing from "more advanced" cultures based on the beleif that these smaller societies didn't have the capacity to "develop on their own" (Burt, 2020, pg. 58). This was a very racist and ehtnocentric assumption that belittled people that deciated from the typical Western individual.
1.5.1. Video explaining cultural diffusionism: https://youtu.be/rCFWqNwvyAE
1.6. Culture Areas: Clark Wissler created a way to classify people's cultures and artefacts by defining "culture areas," which outlined specific Native traits in certain regional enviornments in North America (Burt, 2020, pg. 63). However, these were made from a Western perspective and perpetuated primitive stereotypes (Burt, 2020, pg. 63).
2. Western Perspectives: Chapter 5. Prehistoric Art
2.1. Discovering Antiquity: Straitifcation was finally recognized and peopleby the end of the 17th century realized that items located deeper in the ground "had been buried under layers of deposits over long periods of time" and this idea was utilized to interpret archeological remains and date other artefacts of various styles to their places of origin (Burt, 2020, pg. 69).
2.2. Paleolithic Caves: It was discovered that during the Upper Paleolithic era, human beings that were similar to contemporary humans biologically, started the process of creating artefacts that would be considered as "art" in contemporary times (Burt, 2020, pg. 73). Moreover, this art's suddent appearanc in archeological records as though a neurological developed was brought upon humans by social and enviornmental changes due to migration out of Africa (Burt, 2020, pg. 73).
2.3. Paleolithic Figurines: In the Paleolithic European tradition, there were prominent scultpures of women with large genitalia and some had engravings, but mostly all had their lower body emphasized. In addition, research indicates that these images symbolizes pregnant and middle-aged women, so they were not exactly erotic images. This indicated that these were possibly made by both males and females exactly made for neither gender more than the other. These figurines were also suggested to illustrate the self-perception of women towards their own bodies. (Burt, 2020, pg. 74-75).
2.3.1. Venus Figurines: https://youtu.be/VHor_kjhByM
2.4. Stonehenge: The Stonehenge's architectural and geometrical structure suggested the moon cosmology favored a community dominated by a group of women, whereas solar cosmology favored men as the dominant figures of the community (Burt, 2020, pg. 76).
3. Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Chapter 8. Performance
3.1. Parades: Papua New Guinea Highlands
3.1.1. The Papuan New Guineans of the Highlands created extremely elaborate parade costumes that consisted of "feather headdresses, painted faces, greased bodies, and shell ornaments" (Burt, 2020, pg. 116).
3.1.2. Specifically, the Melpa of the Mount Hagan's costumes contained implicit meanings because bright displays symbolized "friendship and fertility," while dark displays represented "strength and aggression" (Burt, 2020, pg. 116).
3.1.2.1. Tribal Sing Sing Papua New Guinea in it's colorful parade of glory: https://youtu.be/2GDvpAQnoQQ
3.2. The Art of Impersonation: The Niger Delta, Nigeria
3.2.1. The "ritual transformation" brought upon by masquerades "can effect an emotional transformation for both the performer and the audience" to the point of allowing them to undergo spiritual manifestations (Burt, 2020, pg. 121).
3.2.2. As an example, the Ekine people utilized masquerade plays in order to "[impersonate] and [invoke] the water spirits of the creeks of the niger Delta" and eahc of these plays occured in. seasonal cycle (Burt, 2020, pg. 121).
4. Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Chapter 7. Meaning
4.1. Reading Symbols: Britain
4.1.1. In Britain, heraldry was very popular. Herlardry refers to the tradition of creating "graphic emblems" that would be "representative of the histories and prerogatives of high-status individuals, families, and corporate bodies in Europe" (Burt, 2020, pg. 98).
4.1.2. Heraldry involves a coat of arms, which includes a shield containing "distinctive motifs, surmounted by a helmet" displaying a "crest," along with a "motto" at the bottom of the shield (Burt, 2020, pg. 99). The "helm" was also indicative of one's"aristocratic rank" (Burt, 2020, pg. 99).
4.1.2.1. Heraldry: What is a coat of arms and what was it for?: https://youtu.be/zexpH6GCOh8
4.1.3. The display of heraldry also played a large role in legitamizing "the hierarchy of social class, headed by the monarch" (Burt, 2020, pg. 102).
4.2. Hidden Meanings: The Sepik, Papua New Guinea
4.2.1. The styles present in cultures are "esentially a communication system" because they help to communicate infomation that cannot be verbalized and the style coveys information only to those "socialized to receive it" (Burt, 2020, pg. 110).
4.2.2. Each culture's style "[transmits] across the generations concepts and values and their" fundamental inter-relationships, such as is seen with the people parts of the Abelam society (Burt, 2020, pg. 110).
5. Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Chapter 6. Form
5.1. Connoisseurs of Form
5.1.1. At the end of the 19th century, "Western painters and art critics" of symbolic iconography began engaged in "formalism," which focused on visual designs "as the source of aesthetic values that were the essence of art" (Burt, 2020, pg. 85).
5.1.1.1. What Is Formalism?: https://youtu.be/WUpUi_21T0c
5.1.2. Proponents of formalism believed that the connoisseur was the "best judge of what was significant, in terms of universal aesthetic values" (Burt, 2020, pg. 86).
5.2. Form in Northwest Coast Art
5.2.1. Franz Boas was interested in how both "form and content worked together," so he instead searched for "universal principles by making comparisons across societies and cultures," since he did not fancy "applying Western aesthetic values to non-Western artifacts" (Burt, 2020, pg. 86).
5.2.2. Boas emphasized superiority of art's formal qualities "over the expressive or communicativr ones" and so he classified formal principles, which "included symmetry, rhythmic repetition, and the enhancement of form by decoration" (Burt, 2020, pg. 87).
6. Artistic Globalization: Chapter 15. The Global and the Local
6.1. Universal and National Musuems
6.1.1. Even though the Western country's institutions "possess the artistic resources" to make a "signficant contribution," they instead "homogenize the world's cultures" while also claiming that they preserve diversity (Burt, 2020, pg. 224).
6.1.2. The meaning of artifacts changes as it goes into different hands and owners. As an example, Western museums contain objects that "became the patrimony of European imperial powers after they took them from people who had appropriated them from others" (Burt, 2020, pg. 225).
6.1.3. Because some colonizers realized that they were generating huge transformations, they "treated artefact collecting as a way to preserve evidence of disappearing cultures and peoples" and built their own musuems in order to help "identify themselves" in their newly colonized country (Burt, 2020, pg. 226).
6.1.4. National Museums located in Black Africa present that the Western model of musuems has serious limitations, such as the failture to preserve the cultural heritage of the items it houses (Burt, 2020, pg. 227).
7. Artistic Globalization: Chapter 12. The Exotic Primitive
7.1. Primitivism and Primitive Art
7.1.1. The notion that certain groups of people were primitive was utilized by the Western civilization to serve their own colonialist agendas and to not allow for the "appreciation of their artefacts" which they referred to as "curios" instead of art (Burt, 2020, pg. 173).
7.1.2. In the year of 1925, an American by the name of Alexander Powell traveled to the Belgian Congo because he wanted the "romantic primitive experience" that involved being able to feel their "awful solitude" and witness "naked blacks leaping and whirling" in reaction to thunder because he perceived them to not be educated and be unable understand what it was (Burt, 2020, pg. 173).
7.2. Adopting Primitive Art
7.2.1. Primitive art gained large popularity due to European artists who gave rise to the idea during the 1900s. They were "dissatisfied" with the naturalism concept utilized during the Renaissance, so they "began to see alternative formal principles in the sculpture of Africa and the Pacific Islands, which appeared to express new moral values" (Burt, 2020, pg. 177).
7.2.2. When the 1910's rolled around, European artists had already begun to use African sculpture as a means to support the "formalist theory of art that discounted the history and symbolic content of artefacts" because they believed that "remarkable aesthetic qualities could be produced by peoples without a culture of art appreciation" (Burt, 2020, pg. 177). This further painted these groups of people as uneducated primitives.
8. Western Perspectives: Chapter 2. Classical Art
8.1. The Obsession with Ancient Greece: In the eyes of western Europeans, Greek and Roman art forms represented the ideal standard for art and led to the British parliament claiming that they salvaged marbles from "barbaric" Turks, because only they themselves could properly appreciate the Greek art (Burt, 2020, pg. 22).
8.2. The Obsession with Ancient Greece: Europeans regarding Greek and Roman art forms as the ideal and standard by which all art should be compared against greatly impacted Western art concepts. Consequently, the belief of Roman and Greek art forms as the "Classical" standard fortified a "cultural identity that claims superiority over all other traditions" and was utilized to denigrate non-European art to an inferior status (Burt, 2020, pg. 22).
8.3. Biblical Antiquity: It was believed by Europeans that Christianity's origins could be tied back to the Middle East because Egyptian architecture was utilized by historians to "depict gradiose scenes from biblical history" (Burt, 2020, pg. 25). Despite this, Egyptian's scultpure and architecture was still considered to be massive and grotesque (Burt, 2020, pg. 25).
8.4. Classical Art History: During the 19th century, Ancient Greek culture became fetishized and the term for this became known officially as "Hellenomania" and during this same century, art historians believed that Europeans represented the next peak in the cycle of progressive civilizations (Burt, 2020, pg. 29).
8.4.1. Classical Art: https://youtu.be/c2PYPmwWQOQ
8.5. The Story of Art: Byzantine and Gothic traditions aided in developing "religious paintings and scultpures" that soon became commisioned for elites of Europe (Burt, 2020, pg. 33).
9. Western Perspectives: Chapter 3. Oriental Art
9.1. Orientalism: Edward said commented that Orientalism was something that was invented by Europeans in order for them to be able to view the Orient from a western European persepective and paint these people in very stereotypical ways that did not account for individual group differences (Burt, 2020, pg. 39).
9.1.1. Edward Said and Orientalism: https://youtu.be/RfeAxw502Hs
9.2. Orientalism: Europeans' love and adoration of Ancient Greece's art influenced their judgments of all other art forms and resulted in viewing art from other cultures unvaforably because it was always compared to the Classic Greek ideals (Burt, 2020, pg. 39).
9.3. Islamic Art: An Orientalist Stereotype?: Islamic art was problematic because it did not acknowledge "the religious and cultural diversity of Muslim peoples, past and present" and the Islamic art was seen as less than Classical art because it was seen as having no real purpose behind it and therefore was more "decorative" than "fine art" (Burt, 2020, pg. 42).
9.4. Indian Art: Decorative and Denigrated: Indian art was also denigrated because Europeans realized that "Indian ornamental design" disillusioned Europeans because it made their art look like it "suffered a decline in craftsmanship" (Burt, 2020, pg. 43). For this reason, Europeans sought any way to devalue the Indian art growing in populariy and stated that "[the] monstrous shapes of Puranic deities are unsuitable for the higher forms of artistic represention"(Burt, 2020, pg. 43). By doing so, Europeans represented a need to be considered the most superior creators of fine arts.
10. Western Perspectives: Chapter 1. The Origins of Art
10.1. New Worlds and Histories: After exploration to the New World took place, riches brought back home to Europe shifted "the balance of power in society" and threatened the "political and intellectual" knowings that had been established and accepted by the state and church (Burt, 2020, pg. 8).
10.2. New Worlds and Histories: Art connoisseurship took off and these experts considered paintings representing natural features like landscapes and human figures to be the most outstanding because they replicated God's work (Burt, 2020, pg. 9).
10.3. Industrial and Intellectual Revolutions: It was also the "thought-provoking" images that the European elite had established as being a superior art form (Burt, 2020, pg. 11).
10.4. Industrial and Intellectual Revolutions: The era of Enlightenment led Europeans to re-examine challenge the already established ideas and social values taught to them and began utiliizing a methodology to expose universal truths and rid themselves of ignorance (Burt, 2020, pg. 11). During this time, the "fine arts" were created and they consisted only of "painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and dance" (Burt, 2020, pg. 12).
10.5. Industrial and Intellectual Revolutions: After Europeans had accumulated a myriad of objects and items from their explorations, they began creating museums. For example, the British Museum began and they displayed these items as "artifical curiosities" in order to present the progress of humanity to the elites via "art of different ages and nations" (Burt, 2020, pg. 12).
10.5.1. The British Museum: https://youtu.be/hoTxiRWrvp8
11. Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Chapter 9. Archaeology
11.1. Archeological Methodology In Peru
11.1.1. Archeologists identify cultures using "complexes of artifacts that share a certain formal style" and any alterations to those styles visibly in the "layers of cultural remains" in the soil permit for the each of the identified styles to be placed in chronological order (Burt, 2020, pg. 128). These styles ate then classified as eithers "periods" or "phases" (Burt, 2020, pg. 128).
11.2. Moche Iconography
11.2.1. Through a complication fo Moche archived images on pottery, "scenes" were identified and are defined as a motif of recurring patterns of figures and objects (Burt, 2020, pg.129). Adding, on more complex combinations of scenes were referred to as "themes" (Burt, 2020, pg 129).
11.2.2. A particular recurrent theme seen in Moche Culture iconography is one of the "Sacrifice Ceremony," which depcicts individuals in "elaborate costumes" torturing, killing, and dirnking the blood of victims (Burt, 2020, pg. 129).
11.3. Moche Culture
11.3.1. The Moche people's sacrifices and immense suffering brought upon of victims was thought to have "placated the deities" (Burt, 2020, pg. 133).
12. Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Chapter 10. The Work of Art
12.1. Art in Anthropology
12.1.1. When anthropologists analyze art, they "usually" focus on certan "issues of formal development and structure, symbolism and communication," all while not attemptin to propose "universal theories" pertaining to art (Burt, 2020, pg. 141).
12.1.2. Anthropology has been identified to be a "Western discipline" that conducts interpretations of "all cultures in terms that allow comparisons between them" (Burt, 2020, pg. 141). So, art itself isn't isolated and fully interpreted in a neutral and objective manner because it is biased towards Western styles.
12.2. Art at Work
12.2.1. Alfred Gell, created the "influential theory of the 'agency' of art," with agency meaning that art has the power and impact to "act in society" in the manner of influencing "people's emotions ansd behaviors" (Burt, 2020, pg. 148).
12.3. Art in Cosmic Agency: Walbiri Australian Aboriginals
12.3.1. The designs of Walbiri Australian Aboriginals contained layers that "conveyed meanings" and permitted people to comprehend the world around them "in the terms developed by their ancestors through the cosmology of the dreamtime" (Burt, 2020, pg. 156).
12.3.2. Dreamtime was a "an event that explained the special relationship between the descendants" (Burt, 2020, pg. 153). It was believed that Dreamtime "shaped the landscape"and dreamings formed the "routes" that subsequent generations would follow (Burt, 2020, pg. 153).
12.3.2.1. The Aboriginal Creation Myth: https://youtu.be/koxp_q46z0Q
13. Artistic Globalization: Chapter 14. Artistic Colonialism
13.1. Art Goes Global
13.1.1. During the 1850's, Euopeans introduced their academic art to India and founded schools with the intention to "improve the artistic taste of the Indian higher class and the quality of exportable manufactures among the artisans" so that they could integrste within them the "technical and intellectual values of the superior European civilization" (Burt, 2020, pg. 213).
13.1.2. However, during the 1900s, artists in India "introduced Japanese wash techniques to enliven Mughal-style painting" and in this way "developed the distinctly Indian but modern Bengal School" all in reaction against the colonial repression brought upon them by the European civilization (Burt, 2020, pg. 214).
13.2. Global But Exclusive
13.2.1. Around the world, ethnic artists are still "subjected to immense pressures to create only" the arts that fit "the image desired by the mainstream art market" and don't have much creative freedom (Burt, 2020, pg. 218).
13.2.2. Artists that do not come form Western backgrounds continuously face discrimination because they are "accepted as representatives of particular ethnic identities rather than simply as artists on the same terms as Westerners" (Burt, 2020, pg. 218).
14. Artistic Globalization: Chapter 11. The Art World
14.1. Art History As Ideology
14.1.1. The West has not shown to be able to subject their "own concepts of art to the kind of scrutiny that has" brought further findings and insights in terms of the "role of art in other cultural traditions" (Burt, 2020, pg. 160).
14.1.2. The history of art is really just a discussion about classes of objects where distinctions are made what is art and what is not, so "hierarchial judgments of worth" are constantly being made (Burt, 2020, pg. 161).
14.2. Repraising Art History
14.2.1. The art hiearchy is based on "social class" because it is the ruling elites who claim "superiority through the possession of the most valuable art objects" and express their educated taste to identify "their true value" (Burt, 2020, pg. 162).
14.3. Art As Collectibles
14.3.1. When metropolitan elites are in situations of surplus of capital, they then invest that capital into "collectible artefacts" and the artefact's value "is enhanced by their scarcity and acceptability to the art world that shapes the values" of it (Burt, 2020, pg. 166).
15. Artistic Globalization: Chapter 13. Marketing Exotic Art
15.1. Exporting Local Artefacts
15.1.1. The Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands located on the Northwest Coast used to decorate their artefacts with "creatures of the forests and seas," containing "human and other special characteristics."These decorations served as emblems for their "clan histories and [as] sources of spiritual power" utilized by shamans during ritual performances where they "appeared as masked figures" (Burt, 2020, pg. 190).
15.1.2. After the Haida began trade with the Europeans, they creating "a new export market" of “curios” and started "to carve argillite" to form shapes that were appealing to the Europeans' eyes (Burt, 2020, pg. 190).
15.1.3. However, once the 19tha arrived, "Haida society became increasingly destabilized" because European settlers intruded, the Canadian government opposed the local culture, and due to the arrival of "new diseases" such as smallpox that reduced the Haida population from 9,000 to 1,000 (Burt, 2020, pg. 190).
15.1.4. As a result of the large decline in the Haida population, "local commissions for ceremonial and architectural carving declined" and forced the local Haida to rely on argillite carvings, but they now "decorated European-style objects" with the local motifs they usually utilized and created "models of ceremonial woodcarvings" (Burt, 2020, pg. 191).