Anthropology and folkloristics: Alfred Gell’s theory of art and understanding of folklore

This paper investigates the relationship between anthropology and folkloristics. We are interested in theoretical and methodological similarities and differences between these disciplines, rather than in institutional (political) solutions that differenced the two and produced certain forms of knowledge. It seems that the main difference between folkloristics and anthropology lays in anthropological focus on social and cultural context and processes, while traditional folkloristics focus on folklore forms as such. Contemporary folklore studies remake anthropological idea that “folklore” is a form of communication that has to be understood in its social and cultural context. However, we believe that anthropology has still to expand its view of folklore in order to go beyond its traditional paradigms of social contextualisation that basically interpret all social phenomena in structural functionalist paradigm. In that sense, we suggest Alfred Gell’s theory of art as an experimental attempt for building of a new theoretical foundation for both disciplines. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177026: Kulturno nasleđe i idenitet]

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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