Distributed Objects

One of the most influential anthropological works of the last two decades, Alfred Gell's Art and Agency, is a provocative and ambitious work that both challenged and reshaped anthropological understandings of art, agency, creativity and the social. It has become a touchstone in contemporary artifact-based scholarship. Bringing together leading anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, and other scholars into an interdisciplinary dialogue with Art and Agency, this volume is a timely re-engagement with the themes, issues, and arguments at the heart of Gell's work, which remains salient-and controversial-in the social sciences and humanities. Extending his theory into new territory, from music to literary technology and ontology to technological change, the contributors do not simply take stock but also provoke: critically reassessing this important work while using it to challenge conceptual and disciplinary boundaries.