Making. Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Arquitecture

177 Pages·2016·4.24 MB·English

by  Tim Ingold

MAKING
Making creates knowledge, builds environments and transforms lives. Anthropology,
archaeology, art and architecture are all ways of making. In this exciting book, Tim
Ingold ties the four disciplines together in a way that has never been attempted before.
Instead of treating art and architecture as compendia of objects for anthropological or
archaeological analysis, Ingold advocates a way of thinking through making in which
sentient practitioners and active materials continually answer to, or ‘correspond’, with
one another in the generation of form.
Making offers a series of profound reflections on what it means to create things, on
materials and form, the meaning of design, landscape perception, animate life, personal
knowledge and the work of the hand. It draws on examples and experiments ranging
from prehistoric stone tool-making to the building of medieval cathedrals, from round
mounds to monuments, from flying kites to winding string, from drawing to writing.
Tim Ingold is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, UK.
His books for Routledge include Lines, The Perception of the Environment and Being Alive.
‘In his latest book, Tim Ingold persuasively argues for anthropology’s transformational
capacity and promotes serious reflection on the need for anthropologists to correspond
with the world. His focus on handwork in art, building, and the making of tools
beautifully illustrates “thinking through making” and learning by doing. This accessible
book makes an excellent and timely contribution to a core area of anthropological
research, and invites the reader to engage with the fascinating work emerging from it.’
Trevor Marchand, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
‘Ingold is a joy to read. With Making, he continues to enliven the social sciences with
his distinctively compelling and critical reflections on anthropological, archaeological,
architectural and artistic practices. This volume will be useful to all who are striving to
integrate art and research, making and thinking, practice and theory.’
Ian Alden Russell, David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, USA
‘For architects it is an absolute must to discover and absorb the work of this friendly
outsider whose ideas touch the heart of what we do.’
Lars Spuybroek, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
‘Unafraid to ask bold questions and propose daring answers, Tim Ingold has developed
a distinctive voice. In the process, he has staked out an increasingly influential position
that touches on a wide range of disciplines.’
Webb Keane, University of Michigan, USA
MAKING
Anthropology, archaeology, art and
architecture
Tim Ingold
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Tim Ingold
The right of Tim Ingold to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-56722-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-56723-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-55905-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by HWA Text and Data Management, London
For Anna

CONTENTS
List of figures viii
Preface and acknowledgements x
1 Knowing from the inside 1
2 The materials of life 17
3 On making a handaxe 33
4 On building a house 47
5 The sighted watchmaker 61
6 Round mound and earth sky 75
7 Bodies on the run 91
8 Telling by hand 109
9 Drawing the line 125
Notes 143
References 149
Index 159
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 An assortment of objects on the floor: from the 4 As class 18
2.2 Smearing materials onto boards covered with paste: from the 4 As class 19
2.3 Consciousness, materials, image, object: the diagram 21
2.4 Making baskets in the sand, near Aberdeen beach in north-east Scotland 23
2.5 A near-complete basket 24
2.6 A brick maker at work under a thatched shelter, his wheelbarrow beside
him 26
3.1 Replica Acheulean handaxe, made by John Lord, face up 34
3.2 The same handaxe, edge up 34
3.3 Successive stages in the reduction of a flaked stone scraper 40
3.4 A stone recovered from a beach in north-east Scotland, in broad profile 42
3.5 The same stone, in narrow profile 42
4.1 A page from the portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt 53
4.2 The west facade of Chartres Cathedral 58
5.1 The watchmaker at work 68
6.1 ‘The Machine of the World’ (Máquina do Mundo), an installation by the
artist Laura Vinci 76
6.2 Becoming earth: a nest of forest ants, photographed on the shore of
Lake Pielinen in eastern Finland 77
6.3 The mound mounding 79
6.4 A window on the landscape 87
6.5 Trees growing together: a wind’s eye view of the wood 88
7.1 Warrior with Shield by Henry Moore 92
7.2 Simon Starling, Infestation Piece (Musselled Moore) 93
7.3 La Candelaria-style ceramic vessel showing biomorphic ‘protrusions’,
Northwest Argentina, first millennium AD 95
7.4 The kite in flight 99
7.5 The dance of agency 100
7.6 Lasso and toggle 101
List of figures ix
7.7 Transduction and perdurance 103
7.8 ‘Is it madness. Is it beauty.’ Close-up of installation by artist Clare
Twomey 104
7.9 A bundle of sticks thrown in the air, on the shore of Lake Pielinen in
eastern Finland 105
7.10 Interaction and correspondence 107
8.1 Hand movements in making string 119
8.2 A length of string wound from palm-leaf fibres 120
9.1 Slug trails, photographed in the early morning on an Aberdeen pavement 133
9.2 Abstract lines 136