The Andean worldview has four concepts that can all be associated with the idea of "essence over appearance". This idea is rooted in almost all things in Andean life, most interestingly it acknowledges the process of something, not the end result. Essence is the one concept that gives a general description of Andean worldview, as the other concepts have similar significance.
Andean worldview encourages collectivity, where the group is more important than the individual. There has been mention of collective consciousness, and supernatural imagery among artists that remain abstract and anonymous. This makes Art much different as there was no fame or recognition, but more likely an accomplishment and activation of a process. For example the 40 chavin heads hanging outside the New Temple showed strong collectivity for the shaman rituals and ceremonies. In the name of collectivity, they built a bigger temple.
The next concept is reciprocity, where everything is connected and countered by opposing forces. Everywhere there is a pair, or relationship where there must be a balance maintained to progress. This seems most naturally to be connected to collectivity.
A final concept is the transformations performed by shamans. This showed the transformation of humans to animal or supernatural forms. They believed that, just like in reciprocity, that there is a continuum that exists between the worlds, and that they must be in equilibrium.
The key to Andean belief is cyclical thinking, and that as the world cycle and remain in balance, humans repeat their actions over the years. As if this wasn't a challenging enough concept to understand, Andean artists attempt to portray multidimensional existences. The art that can be seen by this culture has a lot of significance in verticality and symbolism.
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Interesting blog, I especially am intrigued about collectivity in Andean art. You mention that the art is anonymous and no fame comes to the artist. Perhaps the artists did not even consider themselves as artists, but merely expressing Andean beliefs for the community as a whole. Quite a different concept than most art where it expresses an individual's interpretation. In contrast, Andean artwork expresses the community's interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of the process being more important then the end result of a piece of art is a concept that has unfortunately been lost in a lot of Western Culture but is a really intriguing concept. I also like this cyclical idea of the world it is really neat and it gives people a different appreciation of one another and the earth. The shaman art work is a great example of this.
ReplyDeleteYes, this class has helped me develop a new perspective. I like classes that make you think.
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