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An Empirical Approach to the Evolutionary Aesthetics of Ellen Dissanayake

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An Empirical Approach to the Evolutionary Aesthetics of Ellen Dissanayake Does Art bring us together? An Empirical Approach to the Evolutionary Aesthetics of Ellen Dissanayake by Brady Fullerton A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Brady Fullerton, August, 2016 ABSTRACT Does Art bring us together? An Empirical Approach to the Evolutionary Aesthetics of Ellen Dissanayake Brady Fullerton Advisor: University of Guelph, 2016 Professor D. Dedrick This thesis examines criticism of Ellen Dissanyake’s evolutionary account of art. In addition to offering theoretical responses to criticism leveled against her, an alternative formulation of her position is developed and subjected to empirical analysis. The implicit claim that “Ritual art promotes group cohesion” is subjected to a cross cultural analysis. A theoretical definition of ritual art is developed and a coding practice is proposed and tested using the database of SCCS cases in the eHRAF. Theoretical arguments are developed for understanding group cohesion in certain variables. These proxies are then correlated with ritual art. When all proxies for group cohesion are considered results are mixed. However, numerous variables that measure internal violence indicate significant correlations supportive of Dissanayake’s position. Ultimately, the statistical results, along with theoretical arguments, call for a reassessment of Dissanayake’s work. Furthermore, the project exposes important weaknesses in use of the term “group cohesion.” iii For my family. iv Acknowledgements For the completion of this project I am deeply indebted to many who offered their time, encouragement, resources, and advice. I am grateful for my advisor, Dr. Don Dedrick, without whom this project would have been an impossibility. Your advice, guidance, and many loaned books were invaluable in keeping me on track. It was a course in aesthetics that you taught that served as the impetus for this project and redirected my entire philosophical focus. Thank you. To Dr. Stefan Linquist, I am grateful for the immense encouragement and interest you took in this project early on. You have consistently gone above and beyond to provide me with the resources to venture out into something I had never tried. Thank you for always being open to the possibilities that this project had, and even seeing some that I missed. To Dr. Karen Houle, who took on this project when it was nothing more than undirected passion, thank you. You helped to shape this project into something manageable, while remaining sensitive to my personal investments. Thank you for reminding me that we need to be conscious of the baggage we bring to our discipline, and that everything is wasted if we are not bettered as individuals. Thank you for being there for me when I was at my lowest. v Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 - Introduction to Dissanayake and Methodology ........................................................ 1 1.1 Ellen Dissanayake on Art as “Making Special” .................................................................. 1 1.2. Reformulating Dissanayake ............................................................................................. 7 1.3. Clarification of terms .......................................................................................................10 1.3.1 Ritual Art ...................................................................................................................10 1.3.2 Function ....................................................................................................................11 1.3.3 Group Cohesion ........................................................................................................13 1.3.4 Group Selection ........................................................................................................15 1.4. Proposals for the testing of H2 ........................................................................................19 1.4.1 Anthropological Analysis ...........................................................................................19 1.4.2 Phylogenetic accounts of cultural evolution ...............................................................21 1.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................23 Chapter 2 - Developing a Theoretical Definition of Ritual Art .....................................................24 2.1 John Dewey - Art as Experience ......................................................................................29 2.2 Anthropological Examples ...............................................................................................33 Chapter 3 - Operationalizing and Coding for Ritual Art ..............................................................38 3.1 Theoretical Definition .......................................................................................................38 3.2 Operational Definition ......................................................................................................39 3.3 Coding Instructions ..........................................................................................................40 3.4 Pre-Testing the measure .................................................................................................41 Chapter 4 - Group Cohesion .....................................................................................................55 4.1 Some Notes on Methodology ...........................................................................................55 4.2 Group Cohesion ..............................................................................................................56 4.3 Ecological Conditions ......................................................................................................58 4.4 Proxies for Group Cohesion.............................................................................................60 4.4.1 Individual-group ........................................................................................................63 4.4.2 Task-Social ...............................................................................................................66 4.4.3 Normative views and/or norms of behavior ................................................................70 4.4.4 Resistance to disruptive forces ..................................................................................73 4.4.5 Vertical relations (superiors-subordinates) ................................................................74 vi 4.5 Some Concluding Remarks .............................................................................................77 Chapter 5 - Results and Discussion ..........................................................................................79 5.1 Results ............................................................................................................................80 5.2 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 116 Chapter 6 - Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 120 6.1 Review of Methodology ................................................................................................. 120 6.2 Results .......................................................................................................................... 121 6.3 Possible Problems with Methodology ............................................................................ 124 6.4 Implications for the Philosophy of Art ............................................................................. 125 6.5 Where to go from here? ................................................................................................. 126 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 128 vii List of Tables Table 1: Probability Sample File Pre-Test Results ...................................................................................................... 42 Table 2: SCCS Cases in eHRAF Coding Results ........................................................................................................ 50 Table 3: Correlation between Ritual Art and v892 ...................................................................................................... 86 Table 4: Correlation between Ritual Art and v893 ...................................................................................................... 88 Table 5: Correlation between Ritual Art and v768 ...................................................................................................... 90 Table 6: Correlation between Ritual Art and v891 ...................................................................................................... 92 Table 7: Correlation between Ritual Art and v1748 .................................................................................................... 94 Table 8: Correlation between Ritual Art and v1749 ...................................................................................................
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