Mary W. Helms

Craft and the Kingly Ideal

Art, Trade, and Power

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In ancient Mediterranean cultures, diamonds were thought to endow their owners with invincibility. In contemporary United States culture, a foreign-made luxury car is believed to give its owner status and prestige. Where do these beliefs come from? In this study of craft production and long-distance trade in traditional, nonindustrial societies, Mary W. Helms explores the power attributed to objects that either are produced by skilled artisans and/or come from "afar." She argues that fine artisanship and long-distance trade, both of which are more available to powerful elites than to ordinary people, are means of creating or acquiring tangible objects that embody intangible powers and energies from the cosmological realms of gods, ancestors, or heroes. Through the objects, these qualities become available to human society and confer honor and power on their possessors. Helms' novel approach equates trade with artistry and emphasizes acquisition rather than distribution. She rejects the classic Western separation between economics and aesthetics and offers a new paradigm for understanding traditional societies that will be of interest to all anthropologists and archaeologists.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: University of Texas Press
• Seitenzahl: 302
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. April 1993
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 493g
• ISBN-13: 9780292730786
• ISBN-10: 0292730780
• Artikelnr.: 33156064

Autorenporträt

Mary W. Helms is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Preface
2. 1. Introduction to the Problem
* Prelude
* The Activities of Gilgamesh
* Professional Perspectives
3. Part I: Skilled Crafting
4. 2. What Skilled Crafting Means
* Qualities of Skilled Crafting
* Crafting as Transformation
* Crafting and Creation
5. 3. Skilled Artisans in Time and Space
* Artisans and the Ancestors
* Artisans and Geographical Distance
* Travelers, Traders, and Artisans
* Traveling as Skilled Craft
* The Authenticity of Distance
6. 4. Qualities of Skilled Artisans
* Flawed Creators or the Epitome of Humanness
* Aesthetics
7. 5. Skilled Crafting and Political Authority
* Crafting and Politics in Egalitarian Societies
* Power over Things as Power over People
* The Kingly Craft of Building
8. Part II: Acquisition
9. 6. Exchange, Trade, and Acquisition
* Acquisition Defined
* Acquisition Explored
10. 7. Acquisition in Time and Space
* Original Travelers and Original Trade
* Craft and the Conduct of Acquisition
11. 8. Qualities of Acquisition
* The Flawed and the Ideal
* The Accumulation of Wealth
* Wealth and the Ancestors
12. 9. Naturally Endowed Goods and Skillfully Crafted Goods
* The Tangible and the Material
* Hunting
* The Skillfully Crafted vs. the Naturally Endowed
13. 10. Acquisition and Political Authority
* Elites and the Outside
* Elites as Acquirers
* Acquisition and Ancestral Conditions
14. Part III: Centers and Origins
15. 11. Superordinate Centers
* Outside Centers and Ancestral Powers
* Superordinate Centers
16. 12. Acquisitional Polities
* Characteristics of Centers-Out-There
* The Acquisition of “Civilization”
17. 13. Conclusions
18. Notes
19. References
20. Index