ANT 102 Expressive Culture Scott A. Lukas, Ph.D.

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ANT 102Expressive CultureScott A. Lukas, Ph.D.
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Expressive Culture

• The term expressive culture refers to forms of
  expression in culture (music, drama, theatre,
  performance, plastic arts, spoken and verbal
  expressions) that communicate socio-cultural,
  ideological, political, aesthetic and personal
  aspects of living.

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Expressive Culture

• It is somewhat confusing that we use the term
  expressive culture, as we clearly have learned
  that all forms of culture are expressive--from
  making a tool, to planting a garden to
  worshipping a deity.
• The major reason we use this phrase in
  anthropology is to try and be as culturally
  relativistic as possible. If we just subsisted
  the word art or aesthetics we would run into
  some difficulties.

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Why Not Art?

• Using the term art would imply that every
  cultures forms of expression are similar enough
  to be categorized as such.
• We know that some cultures do not have the term
  art in their language, and other cultures do
  not recognize art in the Western sense of
  exhibition and display.

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Why Not Art?

• Even in the Western contexts of aesthetics, which
  are quite complex, noted artists like Marcel
  Duchamp and Joseph Beuys challenged the notion
  that art was something that could be displayed in
  a museum or gallery and that art was only
  produced by specialists (artists).

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Why Not Art?

• Christo project

• Everyone is an artist, Joseph Beuys

• Marcel Duchamps readymades.

• Joseph Beuys How to Explain Pictures to a Dead
  Hare

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Not Art

• Its clear that both contemporary artists and
  anthropologists would agree to the fact that no
  one can really say what art is.
• To be sure that we are culturally aware, we then
  use the term expressive culture.
• We recognize that expressive culture will vary
  from one culture to the next and that we should
  be prepared to not impose our own cultural biases
  in studying it.

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The Precedence for Its Study

• A number of social and intellectual developments
  inform the growth of interest in expressive
  culture in anthropology.
• Within anthropology we might recall that Franz
  Boas, the Father of American Anthropology, was
  one of the first anthropologists to dedicate
  attention and research of expressive culture.
  

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The Precedence for Its Study

• Boas and many other anthropologists were
  fascinated by forms of expression that challenged
  Western and other forms of expressive culture.
• Indeed, for Boas his project was one of salvaging
  expressive culture from what he felt was the
  onslaught of civilization and its forms.

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The Precedence for Its Study

• Academics, professionals and others from diverse
  fields--folklore, musicology, dance, theatre, art
  history--also studied the various forms of
  expressive culture found around the world.
• Such studies were also quite valuable. One of
  the major differences in the study of expressive
  culture within anthropology is the insight of how
  expressive culture functions within a culture
  what it says about its people and how we can
  best study it for understanding, preservation and
  appreciation.

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What Is Expressive Culture?

• Because we are aware of the fact that expressive
  culture does not fit the Western mold of art and
  aesthetics (music, dance, plastic arts, etc.) we
  have to be aware of the difficulty of attempting
  to categorize all forms of expressive culture.
• Particularly when much of what we are referring
  to cannot be understood outside of its context of
  happening, we may not even be able to take a
  snapshot or video of what we are studying.
  

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What Is Expressive Culture?

• Very generally, and with the preceding warnings
  in our mind, we may speak of a number of forms of
  expressive culture that are researched by
  cultural anthropologists.

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The Verbal Arts

• The verbal arts include forms of expression like
  spoken word, verbal performance, poetics, oral
  narrative, rapping, and praise-singing. Dick
  Baumans famous text Verbal Art as Performance
  set the stage for the study of verbal arts in
  culture. Another study is Greg Urbans "Ritual
  Wailing in Amerindian Brazil," "The Semiotics of
  Two Speech Styles in Shokleng."

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The Visual Arts (Plastic Arts)

• The plastic arts are sometimes named as a
  material is fashioned into a new expressive form.
  Examples include sculpture, painting, masking,
  pottery, paper making. James Fernandezs study
  of fang sculpture as a way to understand social
  structure.

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Dance

• Dance is a rich form of expressive culture that
  is present in all cultures. The forms of dance
  are very diverse. Just consider the number of
  different dance offerings at LTCC! Anya Peterson
  Royces The Anthropology of Dance (1977).

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Theatre

• Theatre is too often associated with western
  aesthetic contexts. In fact a number of
  anthropological texts have highlighted the fact
  that theatre and ritual serves important
  functions in many if not all cultures. Victor
  Turner--Between Theatre and Anthropology
  Johannes Fabian, Power and Performance
  Ethnographic Explorations through Proverbial
  Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire.

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Music

• Ethnomusicology refers to the study of music
  (generally non-Western) in its cultural context.
  Alan Merriams The Anthropology of Music offered
  an insightful approach to the study of music in
  its cultural contexts.

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Music

• Ethnomusicology refers to the study of music
  (generally non-Western) in its cultural context.
  Alan Merriams The Anthropology of Music offered
  an insightful approach to the study of music in
  its cultural contexts.

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Ethnomusicology

• Indiana Universitys Archives of Traditional
  Music--the worlds second largest collection of
  sound recordings. The archives includes
  listening facilities, extensive storage,
  laboratories and the Hoagy Carmichael Room.

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Ethnomusicology Forms

• Ethnomusicology involves a number of aspects
• Music Recording (audio, video, transcription)
• Ethnographic Interviews
• Transcription and Analysis
• Preservation and Conservation
• Apprenticeship (Learning an instrument or style)
• Concerts and Educational Outreach

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Ethnomusicology Education
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Ethnomusicology Process
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Ethnomusicology Research
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Ethnomusicology Transcription
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Ethnomusicology Transcription
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Ethnomusicology Transcription
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Media

• With the introduction of modern technological
  recording devices, media is a category of
  expressive culture that is just emerging in many
  cultures. Of course, anthropologists often use
  film to record other cultures, but many visual
  artists from non-Western cultures have used film
  and video as a means of cultural expression.

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Material Culture

• Forms of expressive culture may be material
  culture or artifacts themselves that have taken
  on new cultural, political or other properties.
  Following the events of 9/11, archaeologists
  worked with others to recover material culture
  from the World Trade Center. Many of the objects
  that were found have been preserved in the
  Smithsonian Institution.

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What Expressive Culture Says

• As we considered with Graffiti Verite,
  expressive culture offers us valuable insights
  into the worlds of culture.

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What Expressive Culture Says

• Cultural Associations What does the expressive
  culture offer us about the culture in which it
  originates?
• Political Connotations How does the expressive
  culture relate to indigenous political issues?
  Particularly as V. Turner offered us, symbols
  instigate social action.
• Ethnographic Issues What does the expressive
  culture tell us about its makers/performers or
  viewers? What questions will we ask them? Will
  we take part in the performance?
• Stylistic/Formalistic Issues what aspects of
  technique, style, continuity are present in the
  expressive culture we are witnessing?

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New Interest World Beat

• A very recent example of expressive culture
  gaining global interest is World Beat music.
  Often world beat represents the melding of
  traditional, indigenous non-western music and
  techno, popular music. Here, the legendary
  Malian griot Mory Kante who has fused traditional
  and popular musics.

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Academics and Expressive Culture