Research Cen Wu Anthropology Art

Cen Jiawu is the famous anthropologist and ethnologist of China in the20thcentury, and isrevered as a master of anthropology and ethnology in China. And he also made greatachievements in the field of art, as the author of Prehistoric Art’s History, Art’s History of Totem,Collection of China Art and many other works of art. Using the research method of anthropologyin the field of art, he did the art research from the unique perspective of anthropology, and mademany achievements especially in the study of totem art and Chinese national art, formed his ownunique art view of anthropology, and made great contributions to the formation and developmentof Chinese art anthropology.This paper selects the two distinctive subjects of Cen Jiawu’s research—totem art andnational art to discuss, with his prehistoric art research and Chinese ancient art research asevidence, aims to examine, interpret and grasp his art view of anthropology, and then discussesthe details of his art view of anthropology and research characteristics, at last makes an objectand comprehensive evaluation on his contributions and limitations of art research, points out thevalue for absorbing nutrition and also avoids the problems.On the whole, this paper is divided into The formation background and characteristics of theAnthropology of art concept Cen Jiawu, totem art in the anthropological perspective and frontierart in the anthropological perspective.In the first part, it discuses and grasps the anthropological view of Cen Jiawu’s art researchon the whole. Cen Jiawu is the anthropologist and ethnologist with a rich knowledge ofanthropology, he loves art from an early age, and spends his childhood in the ethnic minorityareas with an artistic atmosphere, and at that time, the Marx doctrine was introduced into andgradually prevailed in China, Cen Jiawu studied the Marx materialism systematically. Underthe combined effect of these factors, Cen Jiawu gradually established his artistic view ofanthropology in concrete art research process. Cen Jiawu’s art research is influenced byanthropology, is based on the anthropological standpoint, is on the overall consideration of theanthropological perspective to form a theory system of its own methods, and mainly manifestingas art research under the paradigm of evolutionary, art research as social culture, art researchbased on field investigation and the interdisciplinary integration based on the anthropology. Hisanthropological view has significant enlightenment on the art research of literature and art aswell as aesthetics, and also promotes the development of Chinese artistic anthropology.In the second part, the paper explores Cen Jiawu’s totem art research in anthropologicalperspective. Cen Jiawu believes that every art is a reflection of human’s social and economic life,therefore, the emergence and development of totem art has a close relationship with the human’ssocial and economical condition at that time. In his view, totem system is a special system foreasing the contradiction between the original production groups, and is the transitional stage ofthe alternation of the original joint system and the clan system. Based on the totem system, thetotem art existed in al early ethnic groups. It is a production of the primitive hunting economy,and has a negative effect on the society at that time. Cen Jiawu systematically studied theliteratures, decorations, carvings, pictures, dances and music of totem, elaborated the emergence, development and demise of all artistic form with totem meanings, and discussed the relationshipbetween art and totem. He believes that totem art has sprouted art, and it is an early state andstage in the art history. The emergence of totem art, which has the magic performance, is notpurely aesthetic purposes, but the result of totem assimilation to a large extent. This magicperformance is just the shallow meaning of art in the early totem times, and its deep connotationis still its social significance. Cen Jiawu is the first domestic who does a systematical researchabout totem art, and fills many gaps in domestic. His Art’s History of Totem was one of the fewtotem art works at that time in the world, and his many views are highly valued. Of course, thereare some limitations such as neglecting aesthetic in Cen Jiawu’s totem art research.In the third part, the paper gives a discussion and evaluation of Cen Jiawu’s frontier artresearch in the anthropological perspective. The frontier art in Cen Jiawu’s opinion is theChinese ethnic art, he thinks Chinese ethnic art is special, and can not use the western theorymechanically. He points out that the frontier ethnic art is an important part of Chinese arts, andwe can not ignore it in the research and development of Chinese arts. There are abundant artisticresources in the minority areas, and those are the living materials for art research. Ethnic artresearch is an important way to explore Chinese ancient art, and also helpful for the developmentand innovation of Chinese art. On this basis, Cen Jiawu did a specific research of the bodydecoration, crafts and dances in the southwest border areas, demonstrated southwest ethnic art’saesthetic and artistic characteristics, and explored the social and cultural connotation. CenJiawu’s frontier art research has a great contribution to the national art research; he pointed outthe value of ethnic art research, promoted the scientific of field investigation and theoreticalconstruction of national art research, and accumulated a large number of data for the study ofnational art. The national consciousness, local consciousness and cross-cultural comparisonreflecting in his ethnic art research enlighten us significantly. Although there exits someshortcomings in Cen Jiawu’s frontier art research, he has made great and tremendouscontributions to the development of Chinese national art and Chinese anthropology in the whole.