Aesthetic Realism
A New Perspective for Anthropology & Sociology
Anthro TECH Site of the Month Award
 study sphere award of excellence
 
 

Rainbow in the Valley
Rainbow in the Valley: Papua New Guinea


Mountain Ok man with stone axe cutting down tree

 

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Anthropology Is about You & Everyone, taught by Dr. Arnold Perey at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City, shows how people everywhere in the world, including yourself—whether you live in a NY apartment or a pandanus-roofed home in Papua New Guinea—are understood truly through the principles of Aesthetic Realism.

These are the three principles of this study, stated by the founder, Eli Siegel:

1. The deepest desire of every person is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis.

2. The greatest danger for a person is to have contempt for the world and what is in it. Contempt can be defined as the lessening of what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it.

3. All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.

As I have had the privilege to show in anthropology classes I've taught since the 1970's, Eli Siegel's unparalleled scientific understanding of the human self—the self which is in common among and underlies all cultures—makes relevant to people living today the work done by anthropologists for generations—from Tylor, to Spencer and Gillen, to Grinnell, to Benedict, to Herskovits, to Napoleon Chagnon and Richard B. Lee. 

To register or audit / call 212-777-4490
For information [beginning date, fee, etc.]

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Winter 2013
6:00 - 7:30 PM on Alternate Wednesdays


ANTHROPOLOGY IS ABOUT YOU & EVERYONE

 

JAN. 23    Can a Tribe Be Dysfunctional Too?

FEB. 6      Icelandic Vikings--“Intensely Familiar & Intensely Strange”  

The Sagas of Icelanders (900-1200 AD) are about real people.

FEB. 20     War & Peace in New Guinea & You 

The warfare of an earlier time illuminates the fight in us.

MAR. 6     The Subtlety of Stone Tools

As we respect mind in prehistory, do we respect ourselves more?

MAR. 20    Funny Tales from Asia and What We All Go Through

APR. 3      Opposites & the Facts of Anthropology

Students speak about their own findings.

APR. 20  (SATURDAY) “Dunhuang Buddist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road”

We meet with The Visual Arts & the Opposites class, taught by Marcia Rackow to see the show at the China Institute.

 

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Gwe — Young Man of New Guinea: A Novel Against Racism

By Arnold Perey, Ph.D., Anthropologist and Aesthetic Realism Consultant

diamond dot for Aesthetic Realism: A New Perspective for Anthropology & SociologySee a sample announcement for the multimedia reading of selections from GWE—presented with slides and music

bulletRead chapters from Gwe. Find out how Aesthetic Realism has you see and feel the earth of New Guinea, the emotions of Gwe and his people—there, in the mountains of this magnificent Pacific island.

Gwe, Young Man of New Guinea: A Novel Against RacismIntroduction
Chapter 1. "Gwe Is Born"
Chapter 2. "The Attack" 
Chapter 3. "Five Years Later" 
Chapter 8. "Alan Comes to New Guinea"  
Chapter 12. " Equality & Difference"
Chapter 16. "A Story of Famine"  
Glossary

diamond dot for Aesthetic Realism: A New Perspective for Anthropology & SociologyYou can order this book from Waverly Place Press.

 

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WERE THEY EQUAL?

An anti-prejudice book for children, inspired by a traditional story of the Ndowe People of Africa.
Told and illustrated by Arnold Perey.

Illustration from the book III
Illustration from the book II
 Illustration from the book I

Elephant and Hippopotamus were chatting one day, and Elephant said, "Have you heard, that little tortoise has been saying he's equal to us! What nerve!"

Said Hippopotamus, "Who, that pipsqueak? My foot is bigger than he is! And he's saying he's our equal?" He was angry.

Hippo was the biggest animal in the river and Elephant was the biggest animal on the land. At the thought of Tortoise calling himself their equal, they both laughed out loud... See http://www.gweofnewguinea.net for more information

Barbara Allen & Arnold Perey at the American Library Association in Chicago
Barbara Allen and Arnold Perey at the American Library Association in Chicago

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About Papua New Guinea

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Man resting from work in traditional
sweet potato agriculture. I took this
photo in the Mountain Ok region
of Papua New Guinea.
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"A New Perspective for American Anthropology"  In: The Anthropologist, University of Delhi, India

Consider the native people of 0kapmin, New Guinea....Do they have two opposite attitudes to the world—that it has been kind to them and the gods have been good, and also that it has rooked them?

This article has a new explanation of matters that people want to understand: What is the cause of culture shock? What emotions do people have in common? Can these be described accurately? Can the prejudices that men and women have in every country end once and for all?
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Kinship: "Body and World in Oksapmin Kin Terms"

By translating the terms used for relatives, we see a junction of body and world that is symbolic.

  
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Idealism and Practicality: How Can a Man Have Both?

Including a discussion of the great anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and his famed Diary in the Strict Sense of the Word, written in New Guinea of 1914-1918. This paper is about the division in a person between being "practical" and "idealistic." It suggests that Malinowski tried to solve that division in his anthropological functionalism.

 
Resources
  bulletAmerican Anthropological Association
 

bulletThe classic "Body Ritual among the Nacerima" by Horace Miner

  bulletNew Perspective blog
  bulletThe Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company Arnold Perey has performed with the Company
  bulletAesthetic Realism Foundation
  bulletLink to "Arrows of Melanesia: A Neglected Art Form"
bulletLink to Anthro.Net bulletPelagus literature
  bulletWeb Directory: FastSearch bulletSocial Sciences Resources: directory of Social Sciences related websites.
   
 


Depsin, one of the men I most respected during my field research
in the Mountain Ok area of Papua New Guinea

*These images from Papua New Guinea are photographs taken by Arnold Perey.

ROR

Copyright © 2001-2012 by Arnold Perey. All rights reserved