MetaFilter posts tagged with Anthropology and Art

Fowler Museum of Cultural History

Kattullus — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:36:23 -0800

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has an extensive, searchable online collection. It focuse on material art and household items and has objects from all over the world. The website can be browsed either by geographic orgin: Africa, Asia, North and Central America, Pacific, South America, or through its two exhibits, Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives and Fowler in Focus. Some of my favorite objects (but really, everything is entrancing) are The Blind Scholar (a Taiwanese handpuppet), Chikunga (a Zambian mask) and a stirrup spout bottle which looks like a puma eating a piglet (Peruvian). All items have accompanying descriptions and some have short texts or audioguides with further information.

Tassili Rock Art

anansi — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:30:45 -0800

The rock art of the Tassili culture is found throughout North African mountains, the Tassili n'Ajjer. The rock art of Europe is well known around the world. Lesser known but just as amazing and less well-understood is the rock art of North Africa. (prev.,prev.) This tradition is thought to have developed independently of European rock art although researchers agree about very little else about it. This art hearkens back to a time when the Sahara's climate was milder and more wet. This rock art has often been compared to the pre-Nguni San rock art of Southern Africa. There are of course people who believe that aliens did it. The more research that is done about this area and its archaeology, the more we may have to rethink our ideas about the Sahara. . Sadly enough, like many archaeological sites it is becoming endangered.

Petroglyphs In the American Southwest

snsranch — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:57:36 -0800

Prehistoric art in the American Southwest.

An Anthropology of the Future

jefgodesky — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 06:17:21 -0800

Afterculture

The Quiet American

jdroth — Wed, 05 Mar 2003 09:10:57 -0800

The Quiet American provides glimpses of other cultures via phonographs: snapshots of sound. (The field recordings in Vietnam are beautiful and evocative.) Vagabonding also conveys the wonders of travel. What other sites allow non-travelers to experience other parts of the world?