ABSTRACT
THIS BOOK IS AN invitation to an increased dialog about the world’s art bymembers of diverse cultures. It develops the idea that key cross-cultural issues are fundamental for understanding art and aesthetics. In organizing ideas about art, it is common to focus on national or other defined boundaries as a point of departure. But, art has frequently developed across boundaries of place and time. Because of its focus on issues of cross-cultural import and intercultural processes, the book expands the discussion of aesthetic concepts beyond the Western theorists and examples common to introductory and advanced courses in aesthetics. My objective is three-fold: (1) to discuss issues that impact art in various cultures; these issues serve as frameworks for understanding the art of cultures other than one’s own, (2) to gain an introductory knowledge of and appreciation for non-Western artistic expressions, and (3) to show that ideas about art are social in their origin and in their effects, which establishes that they have broad import for groups. Taken together, these goals reflect my conviction that art is central to the cross-cultural creation of meaning.
