Art Is Never Just for Art's Sake
Alan WawruckArgument Draft 1FranklinEng 112 D8Sept-20-2010
Art is Never “Just for Art 's Sake.”
I have always felt that there must be an inherent reason or set of reasons behind human action. While there may not be any inherent reasons or value to the components of the universe, there is always a motive pushing along every person throughout their daily life. Everything a person does, says, and believes, no matter how inane or senseless it may seem, has some sort of reason, whether or not that reason is overt and obvious or subtle and unspoken. I intend to show that reason and reasons pervade all aspects of human life.
Imagine an earthenware jug, the kind once used by any number of ancient cultures to carry a volume of liquid from point A to point B. Most of us imagine a brown decorated vase scratched and stained from years of use and function. The vessel itself may be nothing of significant value or excitement, but the manner of decoration on the pot certainly is. The decoration tells us what is significant to the person who made the pot, to the person who used the pot daily, to what went on around that pot on a more human level than the material function. These human meanings are built on foundations of human needs.
This concept of acknowledging the universal human desire for ease of survival is one the anthropological community has been ignoring lately: while the Emic[*] studies of anthropology focus on the meanings of cultural artifacts of all people, and the Etic[**] school focuses on strict utilitarian necessity of human life, the two must certainly go hand in hand. As critically thinking adults, we can never hope to understand the life of another without attempting to understand the whole life. The most popular error in the world of anthropology these days is to think of the Etic school of thinking as cold, callous, or just plain bad, when this perception is just not the case. It seems almost a sin to toss out the aspect of Darwinian evolution when
Art is Never “Just for Art 's Sake.”
I have always felt that there must be an inherent reason or set of reasons behind human action. While there may not be any inherent reasons or value to the components of the universe, there is always a motive pushing along every person throughout their daily life. Everything a person does, says, and believes, no matter how inane or senseless it may seem, has some sort of reason, whether or not that reason is overt and obvious or subtle and unspoken. I intend to show that reason and reasons pervade all aspects of human life.
Imagine an earthenware jug, the kind once used by any number of ancient cultures to carry a volume of liquid from point A to point B. Most of us imagine a brown decorated vase scratched and stained from years of use and function. The vessel itself may be nothing of significant value or excitement, but the manner of decoration on the pot certainly is. The decoration tells us what is significant to the person who made the pot, to the person who used the pot daily, to what went on around that pot on a more human level than the material function. These human meanings are built on foundations of human needs.
This concept of acknowledging the universal human desire for ease of survival is one the anthropological community has been ignoring lately: while the Emic[*] studies of anthropology focus on the meanings of cultural artifacts of all people, and the Etic[**] school focuses on strict utilitarian necessity of human life, the two must certainly go hand in hand. As critically thinking adults, we can never hope to understand the life of another without attempting to understand the whole life. The most popular error in the world of anthropology these days is to think of the Etic school of thinking as cold, callous, or just plain bad, when this perception is just not the case. It seems almost a sin to toss out the aspect of Darwinian evolution when
Cited: Durrenberger, E. Paul. “Are Ethnographies “Just So” Stories?” Faces of Anthropology: A Reader for the 21st Century. Ed. Kevin A. Rafferty, Dorothy Chinwe Ukaegbu. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Ed, Inc. , 2007. 74-81. Print. Harris, Marvin. Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture. New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1980. Print. Isajiw, Wsevolod W. Causation and Functionalism in Sociology. London: Routledge 1968. PDF, retrieved via http://books.google.com on 10-21-10. Tylor, Sir Edward Burnett. The origins of Culture: First Volume. New York, New York, Harper and Row, 1958. Print. ... Religion in Primitive Culture: Second Volume. New York, New York, Harper and Row, 1958. Print. Unknown author. "Cultural Materialism vs. Technological Determinism Part One- Part(s)1-3" 14 December 2009. Online video clips. YouTube. Accessed on 25 October 2010. --------------------------------- [ * ]. Emic Anthropology- description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor [ ** ]. Etic Anthropology- description of a behavior or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral '.