ABSTRACT
The anthropology of gender often focuses on how ideas about masculinity or femininity are upheld in different cultural contexts. In fact, as illustrated by Barry Smart’s work on sporting celebrities, there is now an entire ‘anthropology of sport’ that considers the many social meanings that are expressed through sporting activity. The anthropology of art thus offers us a rich source of ideas about how people uphold and communicate their identities, beliefs and values. The study of art and performance builds on a longstanding anthropologica interest in formal rituals and ceremonies. All human societies have rituals: these are often religious or semi-religious in nature, and intensely laden with cultural meanings. Many kinds of representational activity involve the use of film and photography and, as with museums and other mechanisms through which identity is communicated, much depends on who controls the process, and whether it involves a freely chosen self-representation, or one decided by someone else.
