Between Matter and Method

Building on the lively exchange between anthropology and art that has emerged in recent years, Toward an Anthropology of the Arts makes a bold and creative contribution to this rapidly growing field. Taking an expansive approach to the arts, it finds commonalities in approaches that engage with visual artifacts, sound, performance, improvisation, literature, dance, theater, and design. By emphasizing how artistic practice can influence both anthropological research and writing, the book questions current disciplinary boundaries and offers a new model for the interdisciplinary encounter between art and anthropology.

Toward An Artful Anthropology gathers the work of anthropologists whose work is notable for engaging the arts and creative practice in conceptually rigorous and methodologically innovative ways, including Kathleen Stewart, Keith Murphy, Natasha Myers, Stuart McLean, Craig Campbell, and Roger Sansi. Essays span the globe, drawing on material from Indonesia, West Virginia and Los Angeles in the United States, the Orkney Islands in the UK, as well as in Russia and Spain.

With an exciting combination of artforms in both content coverage and materials included in the book, Toward An Artful Anthropology succeeds in combining conceptual arguments with provocative case studies and conceptual tools. An important addition to the field, this is essential reading for students and scholars in fields such as anthropology of art and visual culture.