What is Art For?

What is Art For?
ISBN-10
0295970170
ISBN-13
9780295970172
Category
Philosophy
Pages
249
Language
English
Published
1990
Publisher
University of Washington Press
Author
Ellen Dissanayake

Description

Reprint. Originally published in 1982 by Payot, Paris. Courbin emphatically argues that the primary task of archaeology is the establishment of facts--stratigraphies, time sequences, and identifications of tools, bones, potsherds--and that archaeology is a distinct discipline, separate from history and anthropology. A new theory of the evolutionary significance of art (meaning not only visual art, but music, poetic language, dance, and performance). Art is regarded from a biobehavioral or ethological viewpoint and is shown to be a biological necessity in human existence and a fundamental characteristic of the human species. Dissanayake claims that the arts evolved as a means of making socially important activities memorable and pleasurable, and thus have been essential to human survival. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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