Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the way anthropology has used the term ‘aesthetics’ to define art as opposed to craft and from the point of view of the observer rather than the maker. It explores this question through the transition from Kyrgyz hand-made felt craft production to textile art and fashion.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I argue that aesthetics, as it is most frequently raised in anthropology, not only tends to define art, as opposed to craft (Gell's 'artwork' as opposed to his 'mere artefact'), but also usually takes a viewer's perspective rather than a maker's. Clifford addresses how 19th century Eurocentric values came to dominate anthropology's approach to aesthetics, but he takes an observer's point of view. Gell's work on aesthetics has had significant influence, but he by-passes the maker, describing their aesthetic achievement as a kind of 'enchantment'. Ingold does address production, but is concerned with creativity rather than aesthetics. One almost has to return to Boas to find an anthropologist who approached aesthetics from the maker's point of view.

This anthropologist argues that all forms of makers find themselves working within an aesthetic, craft-workers and and artists. Exploring aesthetics from a maker's point of view enables us to explore the relationship between what we define as art and craft, in a concrete way. Drawing on research among Kyrgyz craftswomen, who have made the transition from felt-making, ostensibly a craft, to both textile-art and fashion design, ostensibly 'high art', I address how an aesthetics of craft emerges through the makers' dynamic involvement with community, with history, through their practical engagement with the environment and with their materials. I suggest how the aesthetic of Kyrgyz craft production enables an integrity of expression to be maintained in their work, allowing both continuity and change to occur in the face of globalizing influences.