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

Abstract

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.

U ovom radu bavimo se odnosom antropologije i folkloristike. Pri tome nas pre svega zanimaju teorijske i metodološke sličnosti i razlike između ove dve discipline, a manje institucionalna (politička) rešenja koja su proizvela određene forme znanja. Čini se da je razlika između folkloristike i antropologije pre svega u tome što se antropologija fokusira na socijalni i kulturni "kontekst" procesa, pojava i artefakata, dok se folkloristika, u svojim počecima, bavila proučavanjem folklornih umetničkih formi. Antropološki pristup u folkloristici doprineo je da se folklor posmatra u konkretnoj komunikativnoj situaciji, te da se folklorne forme sagledaju u društvenom i kulturnom kontekstu u kojem nastaju, čime se proširuju granice proučavanja i širi opseg samog pojma folklora. Antropologija bi iz folkloristike mogla da preuzme razumevanje folklora kao "estetske intervencije" u kulturi/društvu i pitanjima folklora pristupi van socioloških paradigmi "dpuštvene funkcije". U tom smislu, predlažemo upotrebu teorije umetnosti Alfreda Gela, kao eksperimentalni pokušaj proširivanja prostora za susret ove dve discipline.