Distributed Objects Meaning and Mattering after Alfred Gell [Paperback]

One of the most influential anthropological works of the last two decades, Alfred GellsArt and Agencyis a provocative and ambitious work that both challenged and reshaped anthropological understandings of art, agency, creativity and the social. It has become a touchstone in contemporary artifact-based scholarship. This volume brings together leading anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians and other scholars into an interdisciplinary dialogue withArt and Agency, generating a timely re-engagement with the themes, issues and arguments at the heart of Gells work, which remains salient, and controversial, in the social sciences and humanities. Extending his theory into new territory  from music to literary technology and ontology to technological change  the contributors do not simply take stock, but also provoke, critically reassessing this important work while using it to challenge conceptual and disciplinary boundaries.

&profound scholarly reflections on the distributed effects of Alfred Gells endeavor to identify an anthropological theory of &a captivating pendant piece to Gells original publication. Itis not meant as a guidebook to understanding Gells work; rather it is a collection of complex studies that capture distinct engagements with Gells ideas around an anthropology of art.?????Material World

Chua and Elliott have pulled together an excellent volume to address a real problem in the interdisciplinary discussions of art& While I think the volume is most useful for those teaching arts-oriented disciplines, it is also a valuable volume for those thinking through curatorial choices in regard to ethnographic and art objects.?????Museum Anthropology

Liana Chuais Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University London. She works on conversion to Christianity, ethnic citizenship, landscape, resettlement and conservation in Malaysian Borneo, andlóW