Adornment : what self-decoration tells us about who we are /
Elaborating the history, variety, pervasiveness, and function of the adornments and ornaments with which we beautify ourselves, this book takes in human prehistory, ancient civilizations, hunter-foragers, and present-day industrial societies to tell a captivating story of hair, skin, and make-up pra...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London, UK ; New York, NY, USA :
Bloomsbury Academic,
2020.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | CONNECT |
| Summary: | Elaborating the history, variety, pervasiveness, and function of the adornments and ornaments with which we beautify ourselves, this book takes in human prehistory, ancient civilizations, hunter-foragers, and present-day industrial societies to tell a captivating story of hair, skin, and make-up practices across times and cultures. From the decline of the hat, the function of jewelry and popularity of tattooing to the wealth of grave goods found in the Upper Paleolithic burials and body painting of the Nuba, we see that there is no one who does not adorn themselves, their possessions, or their environment. But what messages do these adornments send? Drawing on aesthetics, evolutionary history, archaeology, ethology, anthropology, psychology, cultural history, and gender studies, Stephen Davies brings together African, Australian and North and South American indigenous cultures and unites them around the theme of adornment. He shows us that adorning is one of the few social behaviors that is close to being genuinely universal, more typical and extensive than the high-minded activities we prefer to think of as marking our species religion, morality, and art. |
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| Item Description: | EBSCO eBook Academic Comprehensive Collection North America |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (x, 270 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 1350121002 9781350121010 1350121010 9781350121003 9781350121027 1350121029 |
