Ellen Dissanayake introduced the term “paleoanthropsychobiological”. Dissanayake refers to her own paleoanthropsychobiological view is “ that in order to include human history, human cultures, and human psychology, art must be viewed as an inherent universal (or biological) trait of the human species, as normal and natural as language, sex, sociability, aggression, or any of the other characteristics of human nature” (Dissanayake 15). The paleoanthropsychobiological view is described as being species centered. The view is of a broad perspective relating to art as a universal need and propensity of the human species.

Dissanayake refers to art and the phrase “making special”. This phrase relates to art in the sense of making something that is extra ordinary. Dissanayake writes, I claim, is also the behavior or propensity to “make special,” particularly things that one cares deeply about or activities whose outcome has strong personal significance” (Dissanayake 22). Animals lack the intelligence, resourcefulness, emotional and mental complexity, and the ability to plan ahead to make something special like humans do. In relation to human survival, “behavior made special (or controlled behavior) is much a part of preparation for the hunt as readying spears or arrows” (Dissanayake 23). These behaviors made the hunt for food special. The tools and weapons that were made would be candidates for being made special. Art is created with purpose and emotions. “Art is not confined to a small choleric of geniuses, visionaries, cranks, and charlatans-indistinguishable from one another-but is instead a fundamental human characteristic that demands and deserves to be promoted and nourished. Art like activities exist in all societies and all walks of life” (Dissanayake 26). Making something special is a human need that is seen throughout art and survival.

During the 18^th century, modernism arises as an art ideology. The subject of aesthetics arose, “a concern with elucidating principles such as taste and beauty that govern all the arts and indeed make them not simply paintings or statuses but example of (fine) art” (Dissanyake  17). Disinterest of art was described to be that viewers could appreciate any work of art, even if the art was unrelated to the individual’s culture or time period.

An institutional theory of art, formulated by philosophers George Dickie and Arthur Danto, attempted to explain what art is. This theory was popular in the 1960s and is described as an artworld compromised of various types of critics who were “the source of conferring the status “work of art” onto objects” (19). Whatever the artists made, these people verified the work as “art” by buying and selling, writing about them, and displaying the art.

Medieval times consisted of art relating to religion. “Renaissance artists gradually replaced God-centered with man-centered concerns, but their works continued to portray a recognizable world, whether actual or ideal” (Dissanayake 16).  This shift of art from God-centered to Man-centered concerns provided new types of artworks addressing concerns of man.

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.