Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity, edited by anthropologist Levon Abrahamian and artist and art historian Nancy Sweezy, traces this ancient culture from the end of the fourth millennium B.C., when the Kura-Arakses civilization occupied the Armenian highland, to contemporary Armenian wedding ceremonies (wherein "the bridegroom, in his role as king during the wedding ritual" becomes "transformed miraculously, once in his lifetime, into the symbolic defender of the Armenian people"). Color images of ruins, landscapes, artifacts, art, households, businesses and people, as well as maps, manuscripts and paintings, appear on every page, accompanying the essays by assorted scholars. This comprehensive scholarly and pictorial history will make anyone of Armenian descent proud.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
English-language information on the cultural products of Armenia is scarce. Present-day Armenia, located east of Turkey and northwest of Iran, is a small fraction of the much larger historic territory that is the geographic basis of this book. Appropriately, then, the nine contributors to this scholarly work take a historical and anthropological approach in their examination of Armenian architecture, costume, festivals, and artifacts (including carpets, sculpture, funeral arts, articles of clothing, and jewelry). Edited by an anthropologist and an art historian, respectively, this thorough treatment of Armenian folk arts is based on a variety of sources, ranging from ancient and medieval inscriptions to modern travel narratives, and is generously illustrated with more than 60 color and 200 black-and-white photographs, many offering a glimpse of the rich collections at the State Museum of Folk Art of Armenia. Highly recommended for academic libraries and public libraries needing materials related to Armenian culture. [For more on Armenian art and culture, see Vrej Nersessian's Treasures from the Ark: 1,700 Years of Armenian Christian Art, LJ 8/01, Nersessian's The Bible in the Armenian Tradition, LJ 10/15/01, and Thomas F. Mathews & Alice Taylor's The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor, LJ 10/15/01. Ed.] Nancy B. Turner, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruce.
- Nancy B. Turner, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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