Patterns that Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art

by Edmund Carpenter, Carl Schuster

Travelers & scholars have long been puzzled by similarities in the arts of diverse ancient & tribal cultures. It remained for the American art historian Carl Schuster (1904-1969) to discover a set of patterns designed by ancient peoples to illustrate their ideas about kinship. Schuster succeeded in decoding this iconography, which lasted over ten thousand years, crossed continents, & outlived most of the cultures that sheltered it.

Genres: Anthropology, Art

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Rick Rofihe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"They became what they beheld..."

[Nathan Elberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The material presented herein speaks to a unity of cultures, of the human heart. It demonstrates a consistency in patterns of human artifacts across time and geography. It's more based on images than text, but what it does say , speaks volumes (this work is in fact a single-volume condensation of a much larger project.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in symbolism, art, drawing, Tribal Art, and all Ancient art and the patterns in our clothing, tatoos...this book exhibits a comprehensive theory and evidence for the connections and interpretations of some of these designs.