Anthropology of art 17 come along with the cash. This literature also tends to focus on the sources and effects of inequality in the holy trinity of class, race and gender, showing in most cases that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the powerless remain so, and that this is unfair(for example, Dubin, 2001; Mullin, 2001) An enduring interest of anthropology is to show how particular social chaviours encode local meaning and defend local culture from external forces(for example, Morphy, 1991, for Australian Aboriginal bark paint ings: Glassie, 1997, for Bangladeshi potters). An interesting line of work uses concepts of globalization theory to show that African artists and art vendors create productive lives across two continents through trade in art objects(Steiner, 1994; Stoller, 1996: 1999) Another stream of research looks at art worlds in the West and asks how art as a commodity and means of self-expression fits into modern capitalist society. Halle's unique study (1993)reports on the art objects in 160 homes in the New York City area. He reports on the personal meaning of the art to the lives of this sample of wealthy, middle-and working-class families. The study hallenges the influential cultural capital theory of Bourdieu(1984)and Bourdieu and Darbel (1990). The theory holds that high art is a piece of cul tural capital that the elite use to mark their status and limit access by the non elite. Halle's meticulous empirical work shows that high art(for example, a taste for abstract art)is pretty rare among the elite as well as the lower classes, so it is difficult to explain its function as being that of status marker. Plattner(1996)examines an art world in an average, non-elite city of the JSA. This ethnographic study shows how artists, dealers and collectors in a local art market in St louis Missouri make economic decisions about these strange objects that are both personal expression and commodity. The book illustrates the lived reality of abstract concepts such as the social con- struction of value and the impact of asymmetric information. Another pub- lication offers a generalizable model of local art markets as existing where producers of psychic value operate in markets with asymmetric informa- tion, and highlights the paradoxical nature of art markets(Plattner, 1998). Other anthropologists define art very broadly, stressing the importance of the expressive aspects of behaviour. Anderson(2000, p. 8)chooses to look at behaviour which involves(in his schema) artifacts of human creation created through the exercise of exceptional skill, ntended to affect the senses, and seen to share stylistic conventions with other works. Anderson devotes his book to the ethnography of 64 artists identified by these criteria, including a body tattoo specialist, a car repair man, a gar- dener, a preacher, as well as a painter, a silversmith and others. His point is that art, by his definition, is widespread, embedded and significant income along with the cash. This literature also tends to focus on the sources and effects of inequality in the holy trinity of class, race and gender, showing in most cases that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the powerless remain so, and that this is unfair (for example, Dubin, 2001; Mullin, 2001). An enduring interest of anthropology is to show how particular social behaviours encode local meaning and defend local culture from external forces (for example, Morphy, 1991, for Australian Aboriginal bark paint￾ings; Glassie, 1997, for Bangladeshi potters). An interesting line of work uses concepts of globalization theory to show that African artists and art vendors create productive lives across two continents through trade in art objects (Steiner, 1994; Stoller, 1996; 1999). Another stream of research looks at art worlds in the West and asks how art as a commodity and means of self-expression fits into modern capitalist society. Halle’s unique study (1993) reports on the art objects in 160 homes in the New York City area. He reports on the personal meaning of the art to the lives of this sample of wealthy, middle- and working-class families. The study challenges the influential cultural capital theory of Bourdieu (1984) and Bourdieu and Darbel (1990). The theory holds that high art is a piece of cul￾tural capital that the elite use to mark their status and limit access by the non￾elite. Halle’s meticulous empirical work shows that high art (for example, a taste for abstract art) is pretty rare among the elite as well as the lower classes, so it is difficult to explain its function as being that of status marker. Plattner (1996) examines an art world in an average, non-elite city of the USA. This ethnographic study shows how artists, dealers and collectors in a local art market in St Louis, Missouri make economic decisions about these strange objects that are both personal expression and commodity. The book illustrates the lived reality of abstract concepts such as the social con￾struction of value and the impact of asymmetric information. Another pub￾lication offers a generalizable model of local art markets as existing where producers of psychic value operate in markets with asymmetric informa￾tion, and highlights the paradoxical nature of art markets (Plattner, 1998). Other anthropologists define art very broadly, stressing the importance of the expressive aspects of behaviour. Anderson (2000, p.8) chooses to look at behaviour which involves (in his schema): ● artifacts of human creation, ● created through the exercise of exceptional skill, ● produced in a public medium, ● intended to affect the senses, and ● seen to share stylistic conventions with other works. Anderson devotes his book to the ethnography of 64 artists identified by these criteria, including a body tattoo specialist, a car repair man, a gar￾dener, a preacher, as well as a painter, a silversmith and others. His point is that art, by his definition, is widespread, embedded and significant in Anthropology of art 17