| Unit name | Art and Symbolism in Middle and South America |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ARCH20061 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Saunders |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will explore the extraordinary artistic achievements of the indigenous peoples of Middle and South America, from pre-Columbian times (1500 BC) to the present-day. Taking an anthropological perspective, it will describe and analyse some of the greatest artworks and their symbolism from ancient Mexico – giant basalt heads from the Olmecs, to the towering Maya cities of the rainforest, and the bloody iconography of sacrifice amongst the Aztecs. In Peru and Colombia , similarly, it will investigate the astonishing gold-work of civilizations which flourished in the Andes and on the dry coastal deserts, and the imperial architecture of the Inca culture. The hybridization of these art styles followed the Spanish Conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century – creating a new complex way of representing pre-Columbian and Christian symbols and meanings which has survived to the present. In the great stretches of Amazonian rainforest too, indigenous and European styles mixed and have become ‘touristified’ as a modern version of an ancient past. The aims of this unit are several: to provide knowledge concerning a diversity of indigenous art styles from prehistory to the present; to explore and analyse the complex symbolism and Amerindian worldview which gave birth to it; to show how an anthropological approach to art and material culture can reveal aspects of life, death, and artistic expression in societies whose relationships with the natural world are quite different to our own, and to understand how conquest and colonisation both destroy and create new engagements with the world.
At the end of the unit the successful student will be able to:
1/ demonstrate familiarity with the diverse range of visual culture of Middle and South America from Pre-Columbian times to present-day ethnographic societies
2/ demonstrate an understanding of the complexities involved in recognising and analysing the relationship between material culture and indigenous Amerindian philosophies and symbolism of life and death
3/ demonstrate a sound understanding of how social and material culture anthropology interprets indigenous visual arts
Lectures 11x2 hrs = 22 hrs, timetabled as one two-hour block
One essay of 2500 words (50%) – assesses ILOs 1-3
One oral presentation of 15 mins (25%) – assesses ILOs 1-3
One essay of 2000 words based on the oral presentation (25%)
Braun, B. (ed.) 1995. Arts of the Amazon. London: Thames and Hudson.
Classen, C. 1991. Creation by sound/creation by light: A sensory analysis of two South American
cosmologies. In, D. Howes (ed.) The Vareties of Sensory Experience: Anthropology of the Senses,
pp 238-255. Toronto University Press.
Conklin, B.A. 1997. Body paint, feathers, and vcrs: aesthetics and authenticity in Amazonian activism. American Ethnologist 24 (4): 711-737
Cooke, R., J. Hoopes, J. Quilter and N.J. Saunders. 2011. To Capture the Sun: Gold of Ancient Panama.
Tulsa: Gilcrease Museum.
Dean, C.J. 2010. A culture of stone: Inka perspectives on rock. Duke University Press.
Miller, M.E. 2012. The Art of Mesoamerica from Olmec to Aztec. London: Thames and Hudson.
Pasztory, E. 1998. Aztec Art. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Stone, R.R. 2012. Art of the Andes. London: Thames and Hudson.
