from George Nash

[alice]

*********
Things that move and things that don't: Theortical perspectives in
European Portable and Static Art.


Session organiser:  George Nash, Centre for the Historic
Environment, University of Bristol, England


SESSION ABSTRACT
Within Europe, there is a high material culture that transcends both
time and space.  Rock-art and portable art [or mobile  art]
assemblages extend from the Palaeolithic to the present and are
found throughout Europe. This assemblage includes representative
(e.g. anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery), as well as stylistic
and abstract art forms which has been placed within a broad
European chronology.  However, in the past, the archaeological
record has tended to ignore this rich cultural heritage. More
importantly, the mechanisms that potentially control and manipulate
the art is rarely discussed.  However, a number of thought provoking
theoretical and philosophical studies recently undertaken by Choyke
& Bartosiewicz (2001), Fischer 1995, Nash & Chippindale (2001)
and Price (2001) has attempted to draw together this high material
culture and integrate it with social, political and economic
framework.  In some cases, these approaches have taken the
staleness from a period such  as the Mesolithic which has, in
the past been considered to be rather functional and devoid of any
symbolic meaning or activity.

The session will be an interdisciplinary concern, drawing theoretical
perspectives from a wide range of art-based studies, focusing on the
underlying structures that control and manipulate society which in
turn determines the style and form of the art.  An emphasis will be
placed on studies that draw on anthropology, structural and post-
structural approaches.

Key words: static art, portable art, social, political, economic, high
material culture

REFERENCES

Choyke, A.M. & Bartosiewicz, L. (eds.) 2001. Crafting Bone:
Skeletal Technologies through time and Space. BAR International
Series 937.

Fischer, A. (ed.) 1995. Men and Sea in the Mesolithic: coastal
settlement above and below present sea level.  Oxford.  Oxbow
Books monograph 53.

Nash, G.H. & Chippindale, C. (eds.) 2001.  European Landscapes
of Rock-art.London. Routledge.

Price, N. (ed.) 2001.  The Archaeology of Shamanism. London.
Routledge.