The American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904-1969), discovered a set of patterns designed by ancient peoples to illustrate their ideas about kinship. They tattooed and painted such "statements" on their bodies and clothing, and carved them on tools, game boards, pots, ceremonial objects, coins and other items, and carried these with them wherever they went. Through broad comparative study, Schuster decoded this iconography, which lasted over 10,000 years, crossed continents, and outlived most of the cultures that sheltered it. Having spent more than three decades gathering evidence for his study, Schuster delayed publication while he searched for more. This book, by his colleague Edmund Carpenter, distils his research to a single volume.
 Sell Back Your Copy for $6.83
Whether you buy it used on Amazon for $125.00 or somewhere else, you can sell it back through our Book Trade-In Program at the current price of $6.83.
Used Price$125.00
Trade-in Price$6.83
Price after
Trade-in$118.17 |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
American art historian Schuster (1904- 1969) crisscrossed the world, gathering ancient and tribal art and identifying motifs and archetypal patterns that show a remarkable continuity across cultures and eras. For example, equating the image of a tree with the branching of the human race dates back at least to the Upper Paleolithic and finds expression in anthropomorphic "Y-posts," often with a carved human head at the end of each branch, from Siberia, Hawaii, New Guinea and Mali. Carpenter, an anthropologist, has distilled the work of Schuster, his former colleague, into a single, gracefully written volume, an important cross-cultural survey and a cornucopia of discoveries and insights for art historians, anthropologists, students of myths, religion, folklore and symbolism. Elegantly decked with 1023 illustrations, the study uncovers often astonishing similarities in labyrinths and cosmic drawings from Crete to Finland; in village layouts mirroring creation myths of the Winnebago of Wisconsin and the Solomon Islanders; and in mosaic garments, body and hand decorations, sculpted figurines, robes, carved stones and children's games from around the world.
Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most beautiful books of the last decade,
By A Customer
This review is from: Patterns That Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art (Hardcover)
Forget the content, which is interesting enough in itself. I'm neither an ethnographer, nor an anthropologist; but the sheer beauty of the stippled and line drawings make this surely one of the most beautiful books produced in the last decade of the twentieth century. If you can't get to see a copy in the flesh, you will scarcely understand. The contents are summed up in the sub-title - indeed this is what Schuster and Carpenter's point is, that tribal and ancient artifacts contain the genealogy of the creators of these artifacts, whether or not the craftsman still remembers or knows of his tradition. I have personal story in confirmation of their thesis. I have a tribal work, which I interpreted along their lines. I then had written confirmation from the craftsman responsible for the work that my surmise; taken in toto from Shcuster and Carpenter was correct. Nevertheless, I'll repeat my view, that for the breathtaking beauty of the drawings alone, this book deserves a wide public.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant,
By
This review is from: Patterns That Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art (Hardcover)
Every artist, educator and scholar should have a copy of this book. It is Brilliant.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Patterns That Connect,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Patterns That Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art (Hardcover)
Reading this book, I was amazed at how much cultures had in common when it came to tribal art and design. This is a great book to start out with when learning about the ancient world. Each culture whether it be African, Asian, Hispanic, European, Middle Eastern, etc has something to offer. The book is a great way to understand the beliefs of others (Gods, Family, Social Order) I bought this book in search of South American tattoos, but also learned about their superstitions, duality, clothing, weapons, etc. The illustrations are very good and give the sense that great effort and reserch was put into this book!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
