{The course under this code is intended for MA level students. If a course is shared, BA students may register for the bachelor’s version of the course, identified by a course code beginning with “YB".}
The lecture provides an introduction to the history, theory, and methodology within the anthropology of art. It starts
out by discussing terminological issues and the difference between art-historical and art-anthropological
approaches. After introducing earlier anthropological studies on art, the lecture focuses on key debates within this
sub-discipline, including: differences between material culture and art, questions of agency, primitivism,
aesthetics, and iconography, as well as art and technology. Following, newer art-anthropological research will be
discussed in the context of art as a commodity, the collection and display of modern and contemporary art, art’s
circulation in global art worlds, as well as the provenance and restitution politics of art.
