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Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency, and he explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions?European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian. Art and Agency was completed just before Alfred Gell's death at the age of 51 in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigour, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.

Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns and perceptions, art and personhood, the control of knowledge, and the interpretation of meaning, drawing upon a diversity of artistic traditions?European, Indian, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian. Art and Agency was completed just before Alfred Gell's death at the age of 51 in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigour, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.

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CONTENTS

List of Figures = xx

1. The Problem Defined : The Need for an Anthropology of Art = 1

 1.1. Can there be an Anthropological Theory of Visual Art? = 1

 1.2. The Art Object = 5

 1.3. Art Sociology = 7

 1.4. The Silhouette of an Anthropological Theory = 10

2. The Theory of the Art Nexus = 12

 2.1. Constructing a Theory : Terms and Relations = 12

 2.2. The Index = 13

 2.3. Abduction = 14

 2.4. The Social Agent = 16

 2.5. 'Things' as Social Agents = 17

  2.5.1. Paradox Elimination = 19

  2.5.2. Agents and Patients = 21

 2.6. The Artist = 23

 2.7. The Recipient = 24

 2.8. The Prototype = 25

 2.9. Summary = 26

3. The Art Nexus and the Index = 28

 3.1. The Table of Agent／Patient Relations between Four Basic Terms = 28

 3.2. Index­A → Artist­P = 28

 3.3. Index­A → Recipient­P = 31

 3.4. Index­A → Prototype­P = 32

 3.5. Artist­A → Index­P = 33

 3.6. Recipient­A → Index­P = 33

 3.7. Prototype­A → Index­P = 35

 3.8. The Centrality of the Index = 35

  3.8.1. The Logic of 'Primary' and 'Secondary' Agents and Patients = 36

 3.9. The 'Illegitimate' Expressions = 38

 3.10. Index­A → Index­P = 41

 3.11. Artist­A → Artist­P = 45

 3.12. Recipient­A → Recipient­P = 47

 3.13. Prototype­A → Prototype­P = 48

4. The Involution of the Index in the Art Nexus = 51

 4.1. Hierarchical Embedding of Agent／Patient Relations = 51

 4.2. The Effect of Substitutions = 52

 4.3. Tree­Structures = 53

 4.4. Some more Complex Tree­Structures : The Nail Fetish = 59

5. The Origination of the Index = 66

 5.1. Agency = 66

 5.2. Captivation = 68

6. The Critique of the Index = 73

 6.1. On Decorative Art = 73

 6.2. Attachment = 74

 6.3. Decorative Pattern ＝ Index­A → Index­P = 76

 6.4. Symmetry and the Appearance of Animation = 77

 6.5. Complex Patterns = 70

 6.6. Complex Patterns as "Unfinished Business' = 80

 6.7. Taste and Tackincss = 81

 6.8. The Apotropaic Pattern = 83

 6.9. Kolam = 84

 6.10. Kolam, Tattoo, and the Cretan Maze = 86

 6.11. Sand-Drawings of Malakula and the Land of the Dead = 90

 6.12. Drawing and Dancing = 94

7. The Distributed Person = 96

 7.1. Mimesis and Sorcery = 96

 7.2. The Mimetic Faculty = 99

 7.3. Volt Sorcery = 102

 7.4. The Epicurean Theory of 'Flying Simulacra' as Parts of the Body = 104

 7.5. From Sorcery to the Cult of Images = 106

 7.6. Decortication and the Exchange of Indexes : Tahitian To'o = 109

 7.7. Darshan : Witnessing as Agency = 116

 7.8. Animism and Anthropomorphism = 121

  7.8.1. Stocks and Stones = 122

 7.9. External and Internal Conceptions of Agency = 126

 7.10. The Animation of Idols : The Externalist Strategy = 133

 7.11. Concentric Idols and Fractal Personhood = 137

 7.12. The Rites of Consecration = 143

 7.13. Conclusion : From the Individual to the Collective = 153

8. Style and Culture = 155

 8.1. On the Concept of Style = 155

 8.2. Hanson on Style and Culture = 159

 8.3. Style and Cognitive Saliency = 162

 8.4. Formal Analysis and the Linguistic Chimera = 163

 8.5. Synecdoche : Axes of Coherence in Stylistic Unities = 165

 8.6. The Marquesan Corpus = 168

 8.7. The Table of Etua Motifs = 171

 8.8. From Hope Vehine to Vai 0 Kena = 174

 8.9. From Hope Vehine to Kake Kea = 176

 8.10. From the Etua to the Face Motif (Mala Hoata} = 180

 8.11. From Mata Hoata to Ipu : Additional Face Motifs = 182

 8.12. Some Additional Motif­Transformation = 186

 8.13. Figure­Ground Reversal (Tortoiseshell Diadems) = 187

 8.14. From Two to Three Dimensions = 190

 8.15. Backlessness and Split Representation : Shell Crowns = 192

 8.16. Janus­Faced Images : Scale Transformations = 196

 8.17. Multiplication, Transposition, and Proboscis­Formation : Fan Handles = 202

 8.18. The Same Continued: Stilt­Steps = 205

 8.19. U'u : The Ultimate Double­Double­Double Tiki = 209

 8.20. Fusion : The Narrative Art of Ear­Ornaments = 211

 8.21. Conclusion : Coherence in Marquesan Art and Social Relations = 215

9. Conclusion : The Extended Mind = 221

 9.1. Distributed Objects = 221

 9.2. Malangan = 223

 9.3. Gawan Kula = 228

 9.4. The Artist's ○uvre as a Distributed Object = 232

 9.5. The ○uvre of Marcel Duchamp = 242

 9.6. The Maori Meeting House = 251

Bibliography = 259

Index = 265