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Homo Aestheticus:

Where Art Comes from and why
Front Cover
6 Reviews
University of WASHINGTON Press, 1992 - Social Science - 297 pages
All human societies throughout history have given a special place to the arts. Even nomadic peoples who own scarcely any material possessions embellish what they do own, decorate their bodies, and celebrate special occasions with music, song, and dance. A fundamentally human appetite or need is being expressed--and met--by artistic activity. As Ellen Dissanayake argues in this stimulating and intellectually far-ranging book, only by discovering the natural origins of this human need of art will we truly know what art is, what it means, and what its future might be. Describing visual display, poetic language, song and dance, music, and dramatic performance as ways by which humans have universally, necessarily, and immemorially shaped and enhanced the things they care about, Dissanayake shows that aesthetic perception is not something that we learn or acquire for its own sake but is inherent in the reconciliation of culture and nature that has marked our evolution as humans. What "artists" do is an intensification and exaggeration of what "ordinary people" do, naturally and with enjoyment--as is evident in premodern societies, where artmaking is universally practiced. Dissanayake insists that aesthetic experience cannot be properly understood apart from the psychobiology of sense, feeling, and cognition--the ways we spontaneously and commonly think and behave. If homo aestheticus seems unrecognizable in today's modern and postmodern societies, it is so because "art" has been falsely set apart from life, while the reductive imperatives of an acquisitive and efficiency-oriented culture require us to ignore or devalue the aesthetic part of our nature. Dissanayake's original and provocativeapproach will stimulate new thinking in the current controversies regarding multi-cultural curricula and the role of art in education. Her ideas also have relevance to contemporary art and social theory and will be of interest to all who care strongly about the arts and their place in human, and humane, life.

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Review: Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why

User Review  - Michael - Goodreads

Fascinating and thoughtful, if a little unnecessarily dense at times. I found of particular interest a section that called into question the arbitrariness of language, a concept intrinsic to semiotics and both structuralism and post-structuralism. Read full review

Review: Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why

User Review  - Ingrid - Goodreads

This is an extremely interesting book that attempts to explain the universal human behavior to create art. She defines creating art as "making something special" and explains how this behavior has ... Read full review

All 5 reviews »

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References from web pages

JSTOR: Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why
Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why. Ellen Dissanayake. New York: Free Press (Macmillan), 1992. 320 pp. RICHARD L. ANDERSON Kansas City Art ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0002-7294(199303)2%3A95%3A1%3C183%3AHAWACF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

Ellen Dissanayake, "Homo Aestheticus"
Ellen Dissanayake, "Homo Aestheticus". Where Art Comes From and Why The Free Press New York 1992. Intro? "you can take the species out of the evolutionary ...
kmi.open.ac.uk/ people/ selvin/ notes/ Ellen_Dissanayake,_Homo_Aestheticus.html

Ellen Dissanayake: Becoming Homo Aestheticus
(1988); Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why (1992), and Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (1999, forthcoming), all published by the University ...
www.anth.ucsb.edu/ projects/ esm/ IAM/ EDissanayake.html

Retrospective on Homo Aestheticus
Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. Volume 1 Number 2 Fall 2003. 7. Retrospective on Homo Aestheticus. ELLEN DISSANAYAKE ...
www.csse.ca/ CACS/ JCACS/ V1N2/ PDF%20Content/ 03._Dissanayake.pdf

UW Press: Homo Aestheticus
Homo Aestheticus Where Art Comes From and Why. Ellen Dissanayake With a new preface by the author. "Dissanayake argues that art was central to human ...
www.washington.edu/ uwpress/ search/ books/ DISHOM.html

Denis Dutton on Ellen Dissanayake
Her Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why (Free Press, $24.95) is a wonderfully stimulating contribution to thinking about art. ...
www.denisdutton.com/ dissanayake_review.htm

Ellen Dissanayake - Becoming Homo Aestheticus : Sources of ...
Copyright © 2001 The Board of Regents of the University of the Wisconsin System. All rights reserved. substance 30.1&2 (2001) 85-103 ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ substance/ v030/ 30.1dissanayake.html

Ellen Dissanayake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. Ellen Dissanayake is an independent scholar whose work focuses on the anthropological ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Ellen_Dissanayake

anthrosource | American Anthropologist - 95(1):183 - Citation
Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why . Ellen Dissanayake . Review by Richard L. Anderson · rightslink Logo Reprints & Permissions, |, Full-Text on ...
www.anthrosource.net/ doi/ abs/ 10.1525/ aa.1993.95.1.02a00370

The New Humanities Reader - Link-O-Mat - Ellen Dissanayake
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www.newhum.com/ for_students/ link_o_mat/ dissanayake.html

About the author (1992)

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Bibliographic information

QR code for Homo Aestheticus
TitleHomo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and why
AuthorEllen Dissanayake
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherUniversity of WASHINGTON Press, 1992
ISBN0295974796, 9780295974798
Length297 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Art / Criticism & Theory
Philosophy / Aesthetics
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural
  
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