The extent of representation,the relationships of artifacts and the anthropology of art

This paper provides an account of the potential roles that artifacts can occupy and distinguishes their occurrence as instruments of representation from other types of relationship of artifact use. When artifacts are employed as instruments of representation there is a deliberately constructed causal connection between the artifact and what it represents. This is in contrast to relationships of association in which the artifact takes on features of the context of its occurrence. Anthropological studies of artifact use in the native societies of Africa, America, the Indian Subcontinent and the Pacific are reviewed by comparing “dominant functions” that artifacts can serve.