ABSTRACT
The division between art and technology, as it has come to be institutionalised in modern society, has affected anthropology as much as any other field of inquiry. By going back to the original connotations of ars and tekhne as skill, one can overcome the deep divisions that currently separate the anthropologies of art and technology, and develop a far more satisfactory account of the socially and environmentally situated practices of real human agents. The connotation of skill is preserved in many words derived from the same roots and that remain in common currency today. On the one hand there is ‘technics’ and ‘technique’; on the other hand such terms as ‘artless’ – meaning clumsy or lacking in skill – and, of course, ‘artefact’. It is evident from the Collias’ account that all the qualities of skill which are exemplified in the making of string bags by people of central New Guinea, are also manifest in the nest building of weaverbirds.
