An eHRAF Workbook Activity

Art
&
Society
in eHRAF World Cultures

Human Relations Area Files

at Yale University
 In this
activity
• Compare and contrast artistic
Topics We'll Cover practices across societies
• How are societal complexity,
subsistence, and artistic symmetry
related?
• Read and interpret ethnographic data
in eHRAF World Cultures
ART & ANTHROPOLOGY
 This workbook is based on the
Explaining Human Culture
(EHC) summary on Art

by
https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/ Carol R. Ember, Abbe McCarter, and Jack Dunnington
summaries/art

You may wish to read the EHC summary to learn

more about artistic creation, performance, and
culture before you begin.
 All societies have some
form of art.
People around the world find all kinds of
w a y s t o e x p r e s s t h e m s e l v e s c r e a t i v e l y,
such as decorating their bodies, painting, Did you
carving, telling stories, singing, dancing, know?
and playing music.

Art is not just a way for individuals to

express themselves. It is also a cultural
product.
Art &
Society
The different ways that a society organizes
itself can have far-reaching impacts in other
c u l t u r a l a r e a s . Va r i a t i o n i n d e g r e e o f
s t r a t i f i c a t i o n o r t y p e o f s u b s i s t e n c e a c t i v i t y,
for instance, appear to be related to
characteristics of creativity in art.
 eHRAF Workbook
ACTIVITY 1
compare and contrast types of art
1. ART & CULTURE
Art can vary drastically across societies. This
activity will explore how and why artistic practices
may differ, and what commonalities they share.

In eHRAF World Cultures, view the following

documents. Read the passages indicated, then
answer these questions:

• How do these societies compare in terms of

who creates art?
• Is it a communal practice or restricted to
specialists?
• What distinctions determine who may be an
artist? (e.g. gender, training, social status, type
of designs)
To read pages in eHRAF: INSTRUCTIONS

First, follow the permalinks provided in the activities below to get to the relevant
documents.
For example:
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=fo04-003

Then, use the Page List dropdown menu to navigate to the required page(s).
Finding pages without permalinks INSTRUCTIONS

Follow these steps if you are having trouble with permalinks from off campus while using a
proxy or VPN service, or if you have been provided with a HRAF-issued username and
password.
• Sign in via your library proxy or VPN, or using the HRAF-issued credentials.
• Go to the Browse Documents tab.
• Enter the author's last name into the Filter Index box.
• Click on the required title to access the document, then select the page number from the
Page List dropdown menu as shown above.
 1. ART & CULTURE
Read the following passages:

Blackfoot (NF06)
John Ewers: Blackfeet Crafts - pages 15-16 and 19-27
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nf06-041

Balinese (O507)
Miguel Covarrubias: Island of Bali - pages 161-164
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=of07-002

Azande(FO07)
E. E. Evans-Pritchard: The Dance - "patterns of the dance" on pages 451-453(1) to 453-454(1)
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=fo07-006
 1. ART & CULTURE
Read the following passages:

Hausa (MS12)
Fremont Besmer: Horses, musicians & gods: the Hausa cult of possession-trance
- pages 44, 57-58, and 150
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ms12-021

Ojibwa (NG06)
Ruth Landes: The Ojibwa Woman - page 129
🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng06-008

Laura Peers: The Ojibwa of Western Canada, 1780 to 1870 - page 58

🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng06-036
ART & SOCIETAL COMPLEXITY
 Exploring Cross-
trends based on degree of
societal complexity Cultural Findings
O n e o f F i s c h e r ’s ( 1 9 6 1 ) f i n d i n g s i s
an association between the
complexity of a society and the
degree of symmetry in art.

He argues that visual art from

egalitarian societies will tend to
be more repetitive as well as
symmetrical in composition
compared with art from stratified
societies.
 Ega l it ari a n soci e ti e s l ac k si gnificant status
diffe renc e s be tw ee n me m bers and value sameness ;
whe rea s s t ra t ifi ed s oci e ti es value hierarchy and
diffe rent i at i on.

As sum ing t hat a rti st s re fle ct s ociety in their w ork,

the a rt i n ega li t ar ia n s oc ie t ie s would more likely
have sym m et ric a l c ompos it ions and/or a repetition
Why? of si mi l ar e le m ent s, a nal ogous to the majority of
peopl e sha ring a si mi l ar s ta tus .

Convers el y, a sym me t ric a l compos itions , like the

hie ra rchi c al s oc ie t ie s t hat te nd to produce them,
have c onsi dera ble di ffe re nti at ion and imbalances
of powe r whi ch m a y be re fle cted in as ymmetry of
des ign.
What is
symmetry?
A design is symmetrical if, drawing an
imaginary line down the middle of the visual
field, everything to the left of the line is
perfectly reflected on the right.

Asymmetry refers to the absence of this

property.
eHRAF Workbook
ACTIVITY 2
symmetry and subsistence
2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE

One of the major determinants of social

complexity is subsistence type. Using this
distinction, we may then pose the question:

Is asymmetry more frequent among

agriculturalists than hunter-gatherers?

Let's look for answers in the eHRAF World

Cultures database:

🌐 https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/
 2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE
In this workbook activity, you will:

conduct an Advanced Search in eHRAF

World Cultures

• look for thumbnails of images in your

search results

(Hint: for the Amhara, view Young’s work;

for Haitians, view Courlander; for Mescalero
Apache, view Farrer; for Zuni, view Harden;
and for Tehuelche, view Lothrup)
 2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE
• Try to evaluate whether designs are mostly
symmetrical or mostly asymmetrical in the
different cultures

(Hint: if the object is lying down, but is

supposed to be upright, try to imagine it
upright)

• sort your ethnographic findings into a table

• evaluate whether or not your results
conform to Fischer's proposed relationship
between social complexity and asymmetry
 2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE

Add 5 cultures: Add 3 subjects:

Haitians, Mescalero Apache, Decorative art (531),
Mi'kmaq, Zuni, and Tehuelche Visual arts (5311) and
Click "search"
Representative Art (532)
2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE
FILTER YOUR
RESULTS

In order to separate the intensive

agriculturalist culture results from
hunter-gatherers, click "Narrow
Results by Subsistence Type or
Sample", then check the box for
"Intensive Agriculturalists" or
"Hunter-Gatherers".
 2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE

Bro w se the e th n o gra p h ic d o cu m e nts fo r

ea c h s o c ie ty, p a y in g s pe c ia l a tten tio n to
th e im a g e s o f a rt.

Wh e n y o u lo ok a t the d es ig n s, s e p a ra te
th o s e re p re s e n ting th e hu m a n fa ce (i. e .
ma s k s), b e c a us e th e y te n d to b e
sy m m etric al.

Afte r y o u h a ve fin is he d lo o k in g a t th e
co lle c tio n o f d o c u me n ts fo r a s o c iety,
ju d g e w h e th e r th e a rtis ts u s e d m o stly
read and interpret
sy m m etric al or a s ym m etric a l d e sig n s ,
ethnographic data
an d re c o rd y o ur ev a lu a tio n in th e ta b le
be lo w.
 Culture Name Subsistence Type Symmetrical? Page Citation

Haitians
Apache
(Mescalero)
Mi’kmaq
Tehuelche
Zuni
 2. SYMMETRY & SUBSISTENCE

Now that the table is complete:

• D o y o u r re s ul t s a p p e a r t o c on fo rm to Fis c h e r ’s
p ro p o se d re l a t io n s h i p b e tw e e n c o mp le x ity a n d
a s y m me try?
• A re th e re a n y c a s e s t h a t a r e a m big u o us or
FINAL
o th e rw is e d i ff i c u l t t o c o d e ? Wh y d o y o u th in k QUESTIONS
th i s m ig ht be ?
• A re th e re c o n f o u n di n g v a r iab le s a t p la y th at
m ig ht b e s ke w i n g t h e r e s u lts ?
• A re th e re d iff e r e nc e s b y t y p e o f a rt (e .g .,
m a s k s, b a s k e t s , e t c . ) ?
• A re th e re d iff e r e nt ti m e p e riod s re p res en te d ,
a n d if so , h o w d oe s t h e a r t d iffer b etw e en
p e riod s ?
 1. This activity was adapted in part from Art (Explaining Human Culture), by Carol R.
Ember and Abbe McCarter, in Teaching eHRAF. https://hraf.yale.edu/teach-ehraf/art-
explaining-human-culture/
2. Besmer, Fremont E. 1983. Horses, Musicians & Gods: The Hausa Cult Of Possession-
Trance. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey Publishers.
References
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ms12-021.
3. Covarrubias, Miguel. 1938. Island Of Bali New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=of07-002.
4. Ember, Carol R., Abbe McCarter, and Jack Dunnington. 2019. "Art", In C. R. Ember, ed.
Explaining Human Culture. Human Relations Area Files
http://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/summaries/art.
5. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1928. The Dance. Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=fo07-006.
6. Ewers, John Canfield. 1945. “Blackfeet Crafts”, Indian Handcrafts. Lawrence, Kan.:
United States Indian Service. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nf06-041.

7. Fischer, John L. 1961. "Art Styles as Cultural Cognitive Maps", American Anthropologist
63 (1): 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1961.63.1.02a00050.
 8. Landes, Ruth. 1938. The Ojibwa Woman. New York: Columbia University Press.
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng06-008.
9. Peers, Laura L. 1994. "Ojibwa Of Western Canada, 1780 To 1870." Manitoba Studies In
Native History. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng06-036.
References
 Art
&
Society
in eHRAF World Cultures

Produced by
Human Relations Area Files
An eHRAF Workbook Activity at Yale University
hraf.yale.edu