Aesthetics in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

In this paper I attempt reconcile two apparently opposed views: artworks are embedded in culturally relative arthistorical contexts and cannot be fully understood without an awareness of these contexts,yet artworks trade in themes that are universally and perennially of human interest,such as war and peace,and shape these to cater to shared,biologically based perceptual systems. The first explains some of the difficulties we face in understanding and appreciating art cross-culturally. The second indicates why,nevertheless,a degree of cross-cultural artistic appreciation is possible. As well,our grasp of the challenges and possibilities of the media from which art is constructed help us to comprehend the art of other cultures. It is possible to improve one's understanding of the art of another society by reading about it,and to go yet further via more radical cultural immersion. Because of our ignorance of its wider context,the cave art of the Upper Paleolithic is an extreme case: we can locate the art and some of its content but are denied a deeper,more appreciative grasp of it.