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What is Art For?
Ellen Dissanayake
This book offers a new and unprecedentedly comprehensive theory of the evolutionary significance of art. Art, meaning not only visual art, but music, poetic language, dance, and performance, is for the first time regarded from a biobehavioral or ethical viewpoint. It is shown to be a biological necessity in human existence and fundamental characteristic of the human species. In this provocative study, Ellen Dissanayake examines art along with play and ritual as human behaviors that "make special," and proposes that making special is an inherited tendency as intrinsic to the human species as speech and toolmaking. She claims that the arts evolved as means of making socially important activities memorable and pleasurable, and thus have been essential to human survival.
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Cover
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Half title
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Title
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Copyright
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Dedication
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Contents
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Preface
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Acknowledgments
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Introduction
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1. The Biobehavioral View
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2. What Is Art?
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3. What Does Art Do for People?
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4. “Making Special”: Toward a Behavior of Art
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5. The Evolution of a Behavior of Art
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6. The Importance of Feeling
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7. From Tradition to Aestheticism
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Epilogue
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References
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Photographic Credits
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Index of Names
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Index of Subjects
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Citable Link
Published: 1990
Publisher: University of Washington Press
- 978-0-295-97017-2 (paper)