Alfred Gell

Alfred (Antony Francis) Gell (June 12, 1945-January 28, 1997) was a British social anthropologist whose most influential work concerned art, language, symbolism and ritual. He was trained by Edmund Leach (MPhil, Cambridge University) and Raymond Firth (PhD, London School of Economics)^[1] and did his fieldwork in Melanesia and tribal India. Gell taught at the London School of Economics, among other places. He died of cancer at the age of 51.^[2] In his 1998 book Art and Agency, Gell formulated an influential theory of art based on abductive reasoning.

Selected bibliography of works by Alfred Gell

• 1975 Metamorphosis of the Cassowaries: Umeda Society, Language and Ritual. London: Athlone.
• 1992a Under the Sign of the Cassowary. In Shooting the Sun: Ritual and Meaning in the West Sepik. B. Juillerat, ed. pp. 125–143. Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian Institution Press.
• 1992b The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology. In Anthropology, Art and Aesthetics. J. Coote and A. Shelton, eds. pp. 40–66. Oxford: Clarendon.
• 1992c The Anthropology of Time: Cultural Constructions of Temporal Maps and Images. Oxford: Berg.
• 1993 Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia. Oxford: Clarendon.
• 1995 The Language of the Forest: Landscape and Phonological Iconism in Umeda. In The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space. E. Hirsch and M. O'Hanlon, eds. pp. 232–254. Oxford: Clarendon.
• 1996 Vogel's Net: Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps. Journal of Material Culture 1:15-38.
• 1998 Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon.
• 1999 The Art of Anthropology: Essays and Diagrams. London: Athlone.

References

1. ^ Anthrobase--Dictionary of Anthropology. "Alfred Gell (1945–1997)." URL: http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/pers/gell_alfred.htm
2. ^ Hirsch, Eric. 1999. "Alfred Gell (1945–1997)." American Anthropologist, Mar , Vol. 101, No. 1: 152-155.

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