ABSTRACT
This chapter examines performance and aesthetics as a conceptual pair. As the two concepts tend to be treated separately, and aesthetics has attracted the least attention in anthropology, the development of aesthetics is considered from its origin in European philosophical thought. This leads to a discussion of the role of aesthetics in anthropology including objects such as visual art, images, and design. To this belongs the idea of alternative aesthetics as well as peak experiences of art and performance and an understanding of how such rare, but revelatory, expressive events come about. The chapter concludes by observing that to the study of performance and aesthetics has now been added political aesthetics, everyday aesthetics, and social aesthetics. Future study of aesthetics is predicted to keep steering away from the notion of aesthetics as beauty, and instead focus on affective and sensorial aspects in a cross-cultural perspective.
