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316 Juan M Ossio ZUIDEMA, TOMA, and ULPIANO QUISPE 1973. 'A Visit to God: The Account of an Interpretation of a Religious Experience in the Peruvian Community of Choque Huarcaya', in Danil R. Gross (ed.), Peoples and Cultures of Native South America, New York: Doubleday.
JASO 30/3 (1999); 317-332 BOOK REVIEWS ALFRED GELL, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1998. xv, 272 pp., Illustrations, Bibliography, Index. £15.99. Alfred Gell's latest and unfortunately last attempt to tackle art from an anthropological perspective deserves careful attention from any serious scholar concerned with the somewhat tenuous relationship between the arts and anthropology. Art and Agency, published posthumously, was very much work in progress, as Nick Thomas outlines in his foreword. This, of course, rings with double meaning (a fact Gell would no doubt have enjoyed), in that Gell's general approach to art was in continual development, just as the book itself reads as somewhat incomplete. For obvious reasons, this renders the book difficult to. review. I will seek to summarize Gell's general argument while not shying way from areas I feel would have needed more careful thought. Throughout the work, Gell maintains his discomfort with the notion of aesthetics as an applicable anthropological concept, but extends his earlier concept of art as technology into a more generalizable approach to art as an 'index of agency'. In a commendable shift away from strictly symbolic interpretations of art, Gell moves towards establishing a connection between art and everyday political and social activity. As he writes: 'in place of symbolic communication, I place all the emphasis on agency, intention, causation, result, and transformation. I view art as a system of action, intended to change the world rather than encode symbolic propositions about it' (p. 6, emphasis in original). Situating art in a nexus of human relations, Gell theorizes art objects as extensions of human agency, which are endowed by their creators with certain amounts of social power. For Gell this is expressed in his 'rough defmition' of the anthropological theory of art: 'social relations in the vicinity of objects mediating social agency' (p. 7). All of this is neatly summed up in the first two chapters devoted to defining the problem as he sees it and to defming his rather innovative terminology. Chapters three to five proceed to deconstruct that terminology by creating a complex set of scenarios for each aspect of interaction between artists, their works, their inspirations, and their audience (in Gell's terms respectively: Artist, Index, Prototype, and Recipient). These scenarios, some of which are given greater emphasis than others, support the more general statements about the process of artistic agency outlined in the first two chapters. Chapter six,' which deals with decorative art, begins a transition from abstract theory to more specific areas of application for Gell's ideas by connecting Gell's theory of agency with the problems of non-representational design in the anthropology of art. Chapters seven and eight, however, come as more complete breaks from the flow of the argument, examining idolatry and artistic style respectively. By far the lengthiest chapters in the work, they are presumably intended to present the ethnographic data to support the general theory, but unfortunately they do more to distract the reader from
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ii Contents Book Reviews (continued
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2 Michael Sa/tman less, the study o
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A Loosely Structured Society 5 of V
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A Loosely Structured Society 7 of d
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A Loosely Structured Society 9 tion
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12 Michael Saltman and mildewed', W
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14 Michael Saltman others will pull
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16 Michael Saltman mainly to foreig
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18 Michael Saltman only aesthetical
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20 Michael Saltman SMITH, M. G. 196
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A Quaker Ritual 23 author. Bunting
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A Quaker Ritual 25 The study ingred
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28 Kathleen Thomas elements sit unc
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30 Kathleen Thomas acknowledged in
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JASO 3011 (1999): 35-50 PLAYING (WI
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Playing (with) the Numbers 37 As to
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Allen's Fourth Function Playing (wi
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Playing (with) the Numbers 41 and a
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44 Dean A. Miller (prosperity and r
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46 Dean A, Miller Odysseos, or Bedw
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The Internet in the Field 53 There
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The Internet in the Field 55 ory an
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The Internet in the Field 57 anthro
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60 Stephen M Lyon I let this activi
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62 Stephen M Lyon Dangers and Drawb
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64 Stephen M Lyon APPENDIX Mark-up
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JASO 30/1 (1999): 67-72 EV ANS-PRIT
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Anthropology and Catholicism at Oif
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Anthropology and Catholicism at Oxf
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JASO 30/1 (199): 73-88 BOOK REVIEWS
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Book Reviews 75 tion anthropology c
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Book Reviews 77 Read without the co
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Book Reviews 79 of employment, inco
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82 Book Reviews and where one of th
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84 Book Reviews specifics of the hi
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86 Book Reviews Mwahadia and his se
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88 Book Reviews sis but have tended
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90 Publications Received EDGERTON,
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92 Publications Received MASSENZIO,
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JASO OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES No. 1
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IV Contents Book Reviews (continued
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96 Abner Cohen (1921-2001) cal acti
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98 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman themselves
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·1 100 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman they w
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Returning Home, Remaking Place 105
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108 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman upper floo
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110 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman after this
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112 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman tions on t
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114 Lisa R. Kaul-Seidman that Tekoa
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120 Akira Deguchi When brain death
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122 Akira Deguchi However, the body
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124 Akira Deguchi In these examples
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126 Akira Deguchi donate organs to
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128 Aldra Deguchi Fox and Swazey ba
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130 Akira Deguchi SAKAI, S. 1988. '
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132 Robert A. Segal The French, acc
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Durkheim in Britain 135 theorem, ma
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Durkheim in Britain 137 follows Amo
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Durkheim in Britain 139 cliffe-Brow
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142 Robert A. Segal ogy is 'to arri
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146 Robert A. Segal To take an exam
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148 Robert A. Segal underlies the r
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150 Robert A. Segal viduals as part
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Durkheim in Britain 153 not make an
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Durkheim in Britain 155 which we wa
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Durkheim in Britain 161 RIVERS, W.
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JASO 30/2 (1999): 163-181 Propositi
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Updating the Classics 165 nonnal, b
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168 Kuniko Miyanaga observers of th
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170 Kuniko Miyanaga not know the re
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172 Kuniko Miyanaga the anthropolog
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Updating the Classics 177 signs. Th
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Oxford Research in Social and Cultu
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Book Reviews 193 is apparently a cu
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200 Book Reviews grow up-to marry a
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206 Book Reviews The following two
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JASO VoI.XXX 1999 No. 3 SPECIAL ISS
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216 Laura Rival that no distinction
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218 Laura Rival own words, 'a socie
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220 Peter Riviere: Complete Bibliog
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JASO 30/3 (1999): 233-245 Introduct
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236 Eithne B. Carlin also translata
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240 Eithne B. Carlin (9) ti-papa-ke
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WYSIWYG in Trio 245 while both are
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Pemon Kinship Revisited 249 list wh
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252 H Dieter Heinen TABLE 1. Kamara
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254 H Dieter Heinen PosGosCC should
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256 H. Dieter Heinen ,ApPENDIX. Kam
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258 H Dieter Heinen APPENDIX contin
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262 George Mentore relying on what
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Page 336 and 337: 332 Book Reviews GERALD SULLIV AN,
Page 338: 334 Publications Received NAKAMAKI,
Page 341 and 342: Index to Vo!. XXX (1999) 337 HILL,
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