Seminar 2

Reading: Blocker, Gene. 1991. Is primitive art art? The Journal of Aesthetic Education 25 (4): 87-97.

  1. What is the problem involved in any cross-cultural study?
  2. What is the dilemma Blocker identifies on the bottom of page 89?
  3. Why can’t we avoid ethnocentrism?
  4. What are Blocker’s three criteria for a good cross-cultural description? (How do his examples of the missionary in West Africa illustrate these criteria)?
  5. Explain the distinction he draws on page 92 between two types of cross-cultural description.
  6. What are the three objections – ‘waves’ – he considers, and what are his responses to them?
  7. Why is it hard to remove an evaluative element in a cross-cultural description?
  8. What is Blocker’s ‘modified objectivist approach’?
  9. Do you agree with (any of) his claims?
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