Elizabeth Ewart

Body Arts and Modernity Elizabeth Ewart

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: What happens to body arts when these aesthetic practices assume fresh significance in the context of modernity? In many parts of the indigenous world, the realm of body arts has become an arena for innovation, debate, revival and repression under the conditions of modernity. Among some groups, formerly suppressed 'traditions' of body arts have recently been revived. Elsewhere, body arts have been the means for creating or renovating identities in response to a developing international tourist market and in the light of novel technologies of representation, such as photography and film. The contributions to this volume draw together ideas emerging from the anthropology of the body, the western interest in body ornamentation of the 'Other', and the recent revival of specific body arts such as tattooing and piercing. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from Amazonia, Indonesia, Africa, Melanesia and Polynesia, this volume shows how bodily presentation plays a fundamental role in contemporary identity politics in tension with encompassing national and global stereotypes, which may in turn both constrain and empower local traditions. Contributor Bio:  Ewart, Elizabeth Dr Elizabeth Ewart is university lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. She obtained her doctorate from the University of London, London School of Economics in 2000. In 2001 her thesis was awarded the Robert McKenzie Prize by the LSE. Her research interests include the anthropology of Lowland South America, Brazil, indigenous peoples, Amerindian cosmology, material anthropology, body arts, the social significance of everyday practices and sensory perception. Contributor Bio:  O'Hanlon, Michael E Michael E. O'Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in national security policy. His many books include "Bending History" and "The Wounded Giant."