A New Perspective for American Anthropology—and Ourselves
Says anthropologist Dr. Arnold Perey, "Aesthetic Realism is the way of seeing the world and people, scientific and kind, that is needed for people to like themselves for the way they see other human beings and reality itself. This is true in a crisis--the pandemic we have today--and it is true in ordinary life with its tremendous vicissitudes, public and private. I invite you to see why this is so."
The basis of the Aesthetic Realism method is this great principle, stated by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, which is true of all cultures and societies now and in the knowable past: "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." As you can see, this important concept is saying the place of aesthetics in our being able to understand the world is much greater than has been realized.
"Aesthetic Realism gives to anthropology the depth, kindness, and scientific accuracy it has been hoping for."
Anthropology Is about You & Everyone: Class Taught by Dr. Arnold Perey "Nothing human is alien to me." — Terence
Gwe, Young Man of New Guinea—a Novel Against Racism:
From the Novel: Her second was born an hour before dawn, when it was cold, in the Rainy Season. According to custom, the child was nameless for 27 days and was secluded with her in a birth house built in a quiet tree-covered place by her brother and herself.
Those 27 days she held the small being in her arms, taking turns with her sister who was secluded with her. Thus the most vulnerable days for the infant were taken care of, keeping the baby steadily warm in mountain weather, cold even indoors.
Bettiana looked at his soft skin, the color of sunny earth. She felt his fingers grasp at her, and while he sucked milk from her breast she felt, blissfully, "The world is so kind." Then, in the dark, her mind seemed to turn upside down, and she remembered how insultingly her husband had ignored her opinion in the garden. Again, he said the potatoes she was ready to harvest weren’t big enough yet! She cradled the infant closer and thought, "But my baby loves me." The babe seemed to reply by paddling its little arms in the air and gurgling.
Man resting from work in traditional sweet potato agriculture. I took this photo where I did field research, in Betiana hamlet of Oksapmin, in the Mountain Ok region of Papua New Guinea.
