Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (McLellan Books) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "IN ALDOUS HUXLEY'S early novel Antic Hay, Theodore Gombril, Jr., attends a concert of chamber music and hears a performance of Mozart's String Quintet in..." (more)
Key Phrases: Papua New Guinea, United States, Herbert Cole (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from Dissanayake (Homo Aestheticus; What Is Art For?) pursues two grand and simultaneous goals: the first is to show that aesthetic experience in all its variety (viewing paintings, playing concerti, observing sunsets, etc.) shares basic features with experiences we call "love"--whether parental, fraternal or romantic. The second is to place these features within a theory of natural selection as it worked on primates and early hominids. For Dissanayake, love and art minister to a "hierarchy of needs" that recall the terminology of mid-century psychology. The first term of the hierarchy ("mutuality") has its prototype in the bond between parent and infant; the last ("elaborating") explains why we sometimes want art for art's sake. The superb first chapter synthesizes studies of mother-infant bonding in people, chimps and apes, and rebukes other "evolutionary psychologists" who attend to how babies get made, but not to what happens after they're born. "Elaborating" in premodern societies, Dissanayake contends, took place most often through communal ceremonies; today, we find this sort of satisfaction primarily in sex or in works of art--one reason why society, and government, ought to be "taking the arts seriously." Provocative if not always convincing, Dissanayake knows she hasn't produced a fully fledged philosophical aesthetics and avoids the strident determinisms that often afflict "evolutionary psychology." The weakest parts of her book trail off into cultural jeremiads: video games are (surprise!) bad, handicrafts good. But the strongest elements bring welcome information from the social and natural sciences to readers who think, or want to think, about art in general. (July)

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Review

... compelling rationales for the value of art in society. Strongly recommended . . . [A] valuable resource for all art educators. -- School Arts (June 2001) Kent Anderson

...a deep and even moving investigation of art's capacity to touch every corner of our emotional lives. -- Washington Post Book Review (Dec. 3, 2000). Denis Dutton

...a major work of cultural analysis. ...will invigorate the study of art for many years to come. -- Philosophy and Literature 25: 155-165 (2001), Nancy Easterlin

...skillfully integrates at least fourteen disciplinary sources in a readable text appropriate for . . an educated general readership. -- Religious Studies Review 27:4 (October 2001).

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 265 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295979119
• ISBN-13: 978-0295979113
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #226,968 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Consilience and 'the art of making special', February 4, 2001

By	Cheryl (Surrey BC CANADA) - See all my reviews

I read Ellen Dissanayake's previous 2 books and found this current publication a little disappointing in comparison. She has developed a philosophy of the arts called 'consilience' based on her Darwinian (biosocial) perspective which unifies biological and cultural viewpoints. The chapters cover her theory of mother/infant mutuality, the need to belong to a group, finding meaning, hands-on competence (making things), and elaboration (making special) as they pertain to the evolution of the arts in human development. My concern is mainly focussed on her ideas of a 'Naturalistic Aesthetics' found in the appendix. She aims to emcompass all the arts (music, dance, drama, visual arts) in developing criteria for assigning aesthetic quality to the artistic process (or is it product??) but fails to convince me that these criteria span all of the arts. For instance, the criteria 'strikingness' is something I would attribute to visual arts but certainly not music where the visual component is not a sense priority. She rightly claims that the meaning of aesthetics is currently fraught with ambiguity in its association with the definition of 'beauty'. Beauty, to me, is highly subjective and not necessarily a universal characteristic amongst all cultural groups. I feel until 'aesthetics' is properly redefined (possibly as 'the power to communicate emotion and value systems') we as arts educators looking for philosophies to give us direction, will continue to beat down the wrong garden path. I can only hope that Dissanayake will receive enough constructive feedback from scholars of other arts disciplines so that she can round out her philosophical viewpoint.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Great Beauty and Vast Riches, December 4, 2002

By	G. B. Talovich (Wulai, Taiwan, ROC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have been trying for some time to write a review of this book. I give up: I simply cannot do it justice in 1,000 words or less. The book is not flawless, but in the two years since I first read it, I have come back to it again and again, always learning something. It took a long time to read in the first place, because every few pages I would run into an idea that required a few days' thought.

The book is illustrated with wonderful photos. Nobody can look at those babies in Chapter 1 without smiling, thus proving Dissanayake's points. My particular favorite is the little girl in Sudan absorbed in her drawing (p197). Some photos I wish had been bigger. The mbari house on page 153 is barely distinguishable.

Anybody interested in human affairs will benefit from this book. Even those outside human concerns should read it, simply to see how perceptive and stimulating the ideas are.