Book reviews
Fellow Stephen Davies, a philosopher at the University of Auckland who works mainly on aesthetics and the philosophy of the arts, has recently published his sixth monograph — 'Adornment: What self-decoration tells us about who we are.'
The publisher, Bloomsbury Academic, describes the book:
"From the decline of the hat, the function of jewelry, and popularity of tattooing to the wealth of grave goods found in the Upper Paleolithic burials and body painting of the Nuba, we see that there is no one who does not adorn themselves, their possessions, or their environment. But what messages do these adornments send?
Drawing on aesthetics, evolutionary history, archaeology, ethology, anthropology, psychology, cultural history, and gender studies, Stephen Davies brings together African, Australasian, and North and South American indigenous cultures and unites them around the theme of adornment. A captivating story unfolds of hair, skin, and make-up practices across times and cultures. Through each illustrated chapter, we come to see that adorning is one of the few social behaviors that is close to being genuinely universal, sending vitally important signals about what we care about, our affiliations and backgrounds, our social status, and values.
In short, by using the theme of bodily adornment to unify a diverse set of human practices, this book tells us about who we are."
View more on 'Adornment'.