{"product_id":"the-death-of-authentic-primitive-shelly-errington-9780520212114","title":"The Death of Authentic Primitive Art: And Other Tales of Progress","description":"In this lucid, witty, and forceful book, Shelly Errington argues that Primitive Art was invented as a new type of art object at the beginning of the twentieth century but that now, at the century's end, it has died a double but contradictory death. Authenticity and primitivism, both attacked by cultural critics, have died as concepts. At the same time, the penetration of nation-states, the tourist industry, and transnational corporations into regions that formerly produced these artifacts has severely reduced supplies of \"primitive art,\" bringing about a second \"death.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eErrington argues that the construction of the primitive in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (and the kinds of objects chosen to exemplify it) must be understood as a product of discourses of progress-from the nineteenth-century European narrative of technological progress, to the twentieth-century narrative of modernism, to the late- twentieth-century narrative of the triumph of the free market. In Part One she charts a provocative argument ranging through the worlds of museums, art theorists, mail-order catalogs, boutiques, tourism, and world events, tracing a loosely historical account of the transformations of meanings of primitive art in this century. In Part Two she explores an eclectic collection of public sites in Mexico and Indonesia-a national museum of anthropology, a cultural theme park, an airport, and a ninth-century Buddhist monument (newly refurbished)-to show how the idea of the primitive can be used in the interests of promoting nationalism and economic development.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eErrington's dissection of discourses about progress and primitivism in the contemporary world is both a lively introduction to anthropological studies of art institutions and a dramatic new contribution to the growing field of cultural studies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Shelly Errington\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0520212118\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780520212114\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of California Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/21\/1998\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 335\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.97h x 6.09w x 0.91d","brand":"Shelly Errington","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46838254797055,"sku":"9780520212114","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d72dd3e3-a08d-44ca-9a83-d83e90b4d170.jpg?v=1746589271","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-death-of-authentic-primitive-shelly-errington-9780520212114","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}