Towards An Anthropological Approach To Everyday Aesthetics

Dutch aesthetician Wilfried van Damme is a representative and leading figure in the current study of aesthetic anthropology.He advocates an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of aesthetic preference and proposes an anthropological approach with three main features:empirical research,cross-cultural perspective,and emphasis on contextuality,which is used to explain the problems of aesthetic universalism and aesthetic relativism,and to energize the traditional discursive aesthetics.In its most general sense,anthropology refers to the examination of human beings,usually focusing on the social and cultural lives of people.Extensive aesthetic ethnographic practices have shown that aesthetic is closely intertwined with human existence and that aesthetic is inseparable from people’s daily lives.Aesthetic anthropology focuses on people’s real-life preferences,understands aesthetic as a component of various forms in society and culture,and aims to examine aesthetics as a fundamental dimension of human beings.In this sense,the research problem domain of aesthetic anthropology overlaps highly with the everyday aesthetics.While the study of aesthetic anthropology and the study of the everyday aesthetics have been separated in domestic and foreign academia,Van Damme’s aesthetic anthropology theory has actively contributed to the interpenetration and coherence of the two,showing the possibility of their unification.An in-depth exploration of the ideas of everyday aesthetics contained in Van Damme’s aesthetic anthropology theory not only helps to further improve the systemic construction of Van Damme’s theoretical research,but also solves the dilemma of traditional everyday aesthetics research,foreshadowing a more ideal and broader path for the research of everyday aesthetics from an anthropological perspective.Based on Van Damme’s relatively mature aesthetic anthropology theory,this thesis brings together the discussions on the relationship between aesthetic and human daily life found in different works and at different times,and takes the key concept of"ordinary" beauty as a grip to explore Van Damme’s everyday aesthetics at three levels:contextualist theory,empirical data and empirical research,and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research.The thesis seeks to present the advantages of anthropological perspectives and methods in the study of the everyday aesthetics,and to reveal the possibility and feasibility of constructing a contemporary everyday aesthetics that moves toward anthropology.The first chapter compares the historical background and academic origins of Van Damme’s theory of the everyday aesthetics.At the macro level,western aesthetics has undergone a dramatic change from traditional to postmodern aesthetic narratives since the twentieth century,and the emergence of Van Damme’s idea of the everyday aesthetics follows the trend of the practical turn,the life turn,and the anthropological turn in western aesthetics studies.On a micro level,through the study and acceptance of primitive art research.Boas’s cultural relativism and Gross’s anthropological aesthetics,Van Damme gradually constructs a perfect aesthetic anthropology system.and the outline of his thinking on the everyday aesthetics is clearly revealed in this process.The second chapter explores the theory of "ordinary beauty" as the core of Van Damme’s theory on the everyday aesthetics.Western everyday aesthetics emerged as a response to the inappropriate limitation of the scope of aesthetics research,and in the process of further development,both the object of study and the research method have fallen into a theoretical dilemma.Van Damme’s concept of "ordinary beauty"effectively circumvents the difficulty of defining the object of everyday aesthetics by using the word "ordinary" adjectivally,and shows that it is different from the traditional western everyday aesthetics in three aspects:non-Western-centered research field,nonart-centered research content,and anthropological research method.The concept of"ordinary beauty",with its use of the adjective "ordinary",effectively avoids the problem of difficulty in defining the object of everyday aesthetics.The third chapter elaborates the theoretical construction of Van Damme’s everyday aesthetics.Van Damme’s aesthetic anthropology is rich in the ideas of everyday aesthetics,and many parallel concepts and theoretical issues of the former can inspire the latter.With the theory of"ordinary beauty" as the umbrella,the theoretical system of Van Damme’s everyday aesthetics is presented as "one general and three divisions",which are the "contextualism" theory,which explains aesthetic and cultural relativism in the macro socio-cultural matrix,the empirical study of aesthetic preferences centered on aesthetic vocabulary,and comparativism and the move toward cross-cultural and interdisciplinary aesthetic studies,thus showing a broader and more effective paradigm for the study of the everyday aesthetics.Finally,summarize and conclude the thesis,reiterates that Van Damme’s theory of aesthetic anthropology shows the great vitality of aesthetic research in an anthropological perspective.In view of this,this thesis ventures to speculate that the everyday aesthetics will certainly go to anthropology,and aesthetics will also go to anthropology,thus becoming a multi-level but unified human science.