- Paleoanthropsychobiological refers to a perspective or view of art that is is historical, societal, psychological/emotional, and a genetic inherited trait of the human species. Art can be all of these things together. This term was created by the author of the assigned text, Ellen Dissanayake.
- Dissanayake means by the phrase “making special” that every human has a genetic evolutionary personality trait to want to make things that they care about and have “strong personal significance” special. What she means by special is something extraordinary and not usual or every day. I think the fact that diamonds are valued is similar to this concept. Diamonds are shiny and pretty and they were made special because they are rare. Things can be more special when they are rare and unusual.
- One theory of art is that is for religious purposes: “In medieval times, the arts were in the service of religion…but were not regarded ‘aesthetically,’ if this means separately from their revelation of the Divine. Another theory she brings up is modernism in the 18th century where “a startling and influential idea took hold that, like the concept of ‘art,’ was unprecedented. This was that there is a special frame of mind for appreciating works of art — a ‘disinterested’ attitude that is separate from one’s own personal interest in the object, its utility, or its social or religious ramifications” (Dissanayake, 3). Another theory is postmodernism which is what we think of today is “rather than assuming that art reflects a unique and privelaged kind of knowledge, postmodernists point out that any ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ is only a point of view — a ‘representation’ that comes to us mediated and conditioned by our language, our social institutions, the assumptions that characterize individuals as members of a nation, a race, a gender, a class, a profession, a religious body, a particular historical period” (Dissanayake, 5).
July 30, 2014 at 10:57 pm
What do you think about art being paleoanthropsychobiological? Do you agree that art is an all-encompassing term that can be applied to any facet of the human existence? I think that art definitely has the ability to make anything special. We each care about things differently, and we care about different things in general, but art can take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. It’s individual, though. It may just be another mundane thing to someone else. Through which of the three views — modernist, post-modernist, paleo…. — do you view art with?
August 1, 2014 at 5:38 pm
I agree with you that food is art，but I disagree that some food not. According to Dissenayke’s article “what is art for?”, she claim that “ first, that the idea of art encompasses all of human history；second，that it include all human societies, and third，that it accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects.” Food encompasses all of these, so food is art. However, you also approve that “fast food” is not art. I disagree with you that because I think the fast food is a new kind food in the modern that like Dissanayake’s idea of “making special”. Fast food has been created to give people more food experience, and it saves time. Fast food can has psychological or emotional effects. The fast food looks like well that some people see the picture of hamburger and then want to eat it. Therefore, I think all kind of food is art