Abstract
In this chapter a clinical/analytical research model is presented. It emerged from my clinical fieldwork data and my own crafting experiences (a) in 10 years of fieldwork in psychiatric occupational therapy with young men, (b) in several projects in vocational training and (c) from being born into a blacksmith’s family traditions and being an artisan myself. The model’s claim is that it has roots, and embeds us, in our humanization past. The perspective taken in theorizing is a combined cross-cultural-comparative and cybernetic system perspective.
As an artisan-anthropologist, I (field) worked as a group therapist in a creative expressive occupational therapy setting of a psychiatric department of a military hospital in the Netherlands, Europe. The fieldwork spanned 10 years (1983–1993), based in a metal workshop (a separate building on the premises of the hospital), the number of guided young men was about five hundred, and only five of them could not be motivated to make an artifact. Diversity within the total group of young men was composed by class, regional, religious, ethnic and national loyalties.
In my discussion I use conceptual ideas from a range of anthropologists, such as Tim Ingold, Diederick Raven, Franz Boas and Gregory Bateson, to find/test ‘experience-near’ concepts to explain our data in the case vignettes. I use in particular Bateson’s ‘cybernetic systemic’ conceptualizations to readdress crafting and arts practices as self-correcting learning processes of exchanging information and bring about, in individual and collectives of humans, experiences of gratification, well-being, beauty and grace (Bateson, Style, grace and information in primitive art. In Steps to an ecology of mind, Gregory Bateson, 1987/1972, 128–152, 1967; see Sennett, The craftsman. London: Allen Lane 2008; Krause 2012). The Batesonian approach overlaps a phenomenological perspective (Morris 1970; Whitehead, Poiesis and artmaking: A way of letting-be. In Contemporary aesthetics vol. 1. Retrieved 15 Apr 2016. http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=216, 2003). These processes are repressed and ‘hidden’ by the dominant psychologized (individualized) discourses, such as separating individuals from family-society and mind from body-soul. In daily arts and crafting practices and in occupational therapy, these European-bound dualisms do not manifest themselves as leading and as inescapable. I represented this idea without words in an art piece of MiBoSo and found words afterwards (see Appendix I).
This paper presents three case vignettes. Both Abdelkarim’s and Feisal’s exemplary cases demonstrate this bridging of intersectional boundaries (Crenshaw, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299, 1991) and their potential in arts and crafting. The third example is about my father’s, and my own personal, arts and crafting practices. With these case vignettes, I outline my reflected-recursive observations on human arts and crafting in different contexts related to crafting in the world. I weave together theoretical ideas with the data gathered from the case vignettes. These reflections strongly suggest the human universality of socially (group-minded) rooted, pleasurable and mentally stabilizing/integrating experiences of well-being and grace. Creating beauty and making special things are active ingredients in arts and crafting.
In the conclusion I propose the concept, and suggest the existence, of an ‘Arts and Craft Impulse’ (ACI) in humans to redress and understand the patterns of communication with the young men in crafting therapy. The model has three levels, functionality, aesthetics and symbolic, and aims at bridging of client-therapist and of crafting experiences/interactions in different clinical professions and academic research practices.
Tao is eternal and not to be spoken of in words (Lao Tzu, sixth-century BC China)
Art without Craft is Cruelty (John Ruskin, nineteenth-century UK)
In this paper I follow the US ‘artifact’ instead of the British spelling ‘artefact’. This makes the concept etymologically more congruent with the terms artisan and artisanal. In these terms human faculties of arts and crafts are (still) together. I introduce concepts like ‘arts and crafting’ and ‘arts and crafts impulse’ (ACI) to overcome the European-bound dualism between ‘artists’, ‘artisans’ and ‘craftsmen’. This is also to denote the ancient continuity of the ‘contextual universality’ of this human faculty.
The names and cases of the real persons are changed to respect and protect their privacy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The experience of grace is coined by Bateson as restoring ‘our interrelated membership of the community of living organisms on this planet’ (Charlton 2008, 1). It can also be described as a pleasurable, temporarily conjoint awareness (conscious) and feeling (unconscious) of ‘being in the world’ in humbling co-dependence with all living systems (Bateson 1987/1972; Bateson and Donaldson 1991; Charlton 2008, 101–158).
References
Aiken, N. (2013). Aesthetics and evolution, Aisthesis. Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi Dell’Estetico, 6(2), 61–73.
Bateson, G. (1967). Style, grace and information in primitive art. In Steps to an ecology of mind, Gregory Bateson, 1987/1972, 128–152.
Bateson, G. (1987/1972). Steps to an ecology of mind, collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. In Jason Aronson inc. London: Northvale, New Jersey.
Bateson, G., et al. (1976). The case against the pathology of mind/body dualism. CoEvolution Quarterly, Winter 1976-77, 94–95.
Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary Unity. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Bateson, G., & Bateson, M. C. (1987). Angels fear: Towards an epistemology of the sacred. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Bateson, G., & Donaldson, R. E. (Eds.). (1991). Sacred Unity: Further steps to an ecology of mind. San Francisco: Harper.
Bateson, G., & Mead, M. (1942). Balinese character: A Photographic Analysis. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Bateson, G., & Nora. B. (2010). An Ecology of Mind: a Daughter’s portrait of Gregory Bateson. http://www.anecologyofmind.com/. Retrieved 15 Oct 2014.
Benjamin, W. (1986/1933). On the mimetic faculty. In Reflections. New York: Schocken Books.
Bergland, C. (2007). The Athlete’s way: Sweat and the biology of bliss. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Boas, F. (1955/1927). Primitive Art. New York: Dover Publications.
Bollier, D., & Helfrich, S. (Eds.). (2012). The wealth of the commons: A world beyond market and state. Levellers Press: Amherst.
Böszörményi -Nagy, I., & Spark, G. M. (1984). Invisible loyalties: Reciprocity in intergenerational family therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Boyd, B. (2005). Evolutionary theories of art. In J. Gottschall & D. S. Wilson (Eds.), The literary animal: Evolution and the nature of narrative (pp. 147–176). Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.
Burt, E. L., & Atkinson, J. (2012). The relationship between quilting and wellbeing. Journal of Public Health 34(1), 54–59. http://jpubhealth.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/06/05/pubmed.fdr041.full.pdf. Retrieved 12th May 2015.
Carpendale, M. (2002). Getting to the underbelly: Phenomenology & art therapy supervision. Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 15(2), 2–6.
Charlton, N. G. (2008). Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, beauty, and the sacred earth. New York: The State University of New York.
Chavers, R. E. (1972). Dialektik als Wissenschaftsbegriff. Berlin (Dissertation): Freie Universität.
Chavers, R. E. (1985). Kinematic conversion: A study guide in energy-transformations. Utrecht: DIES-Cooperative Publishers.
Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Crain, C. (2001). The artistic animal, Lingua Franca, October 2001. http://www.steamthing.com/artistic1. Retrieved 12th May 2015.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Darrell, A. (2013). Traditions of systems theory: Major figures and contemporary developments. London: Routledge.
De Dreu, C. K. W. (2012). Oxytocin modulates cooperation within and competition between groups: An integrative review and research agenda. Hormones and Behavior, 61(3), 419–428.
DeFehr, J., Adan, O., Barros, C., Rodriquez, S., & Wai, S. B. (2012). ‘Not-Knowing’ and ‘assumption’ in Canadian social services for refugees and immigrants: A conversational inquiry into practitioner stance. International Journal of Collaborative Practices, 3(1), 75–88. http://ijcp.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/defer_final_english-not-knowing_new.pdf. Retrieved 12th May 2015.
Devereux, G. (1967). From anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences. The Hague: Mouton & Co.
Dissanayake, E. (1980). Art as a human behavior: Toward an ethological view of art. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 38(4), 397–404.
Dissanayake, E. (1992). Homo Aestheticus: Where art comes from and why. New York: Free Press.
Dissanayake, E. (1995). The pleasure of making. Summary: A talk presented at the Great Lakes Regional Symposium on Craft at Detroit Institute of Arts.
Dissanayake, E. (2000). Art and intimacy: How the arts began. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Dissanayake, E. (2013). Art as a human universal: An adaptationist view. In A. W. Geertz (Ed.), Origins of religion, cognition and culture (pp. 121–139). Durham: Acumen.
Douglas, M. (1986). How institutions think. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Durkheim, É. (1912). The elementary forms of the religious life. New York: Free Press.
Dylan, B. (2001/1963). The Times they are A-Changin’. In Giller, D. and Lozano, E. (Eds), The definitive Bob Dylan Songbook. (p. 668). New York: Amsco Publications.
Eysenck, M., & Keane, M. T. (2010). Cognitive psychology: A student’s handbook (6th ed.). New York: Psychology Press.
Fabian, J. (1983). Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fiori, A. L., José Agnello Alves Dias de Andrade, Adriana Queiróz Testa, & Yuri Bassichetto Tambucci. (2012). Wayfaring thoughts: Life, movement and anthropology, interview with Professor T. Ingold. Porbo Urbe, 6. Electronic document, http://www.pontourbe.net/edicao11-entrevista/268-interview-with-tim-ingold. Retrieved 15 Oct 2014.
Gardner, H. (2011/1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Garner, L. (2015). Creative expression: Effectiveness of a weekly craft group with women who have experienced trauma. Open Journal of Nursing, 5, 96–103.
Gebauer, G., & Wulf, C. (1995). Mimesis: Culture, art, society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Geertz, C. (1993/1983). From the Native’s point of view’. In Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. London: Fontana Press.
Gutman, S. A., & Schindler, V. P. (2007). The neurological basis of occupation. Occupational Therapy International, 14(2), 71–85.
Harries-Jones, P. (2010). Bioentropy, aesthetics and meta-dualism: The Transdisciplinary ecology of Gregory Bateson. Entropy, 12(12), 2359–2385.
Hendrick, I. (1943). Work and the pleasure principle. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2, 311–329.
Hoffmeyer, J. (Ed.). (2008). A legacy of living systems: Gregory Bateson as a precursor to biosemiotics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Henry, J. (1965). Pathways to madness. New York: Random House.
Henry, J. (1963/1972). Culture against man. New York: Random House.
Horvath, A., & Thomassen, B. (2008). Mimetic errors in liminal schismogenesis: On the political anthropology of the trickster. International Political Anthropology, 1(1), 3–24.
Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.
Ingold, T. (2003/1994). Humanity and animality. In T. Ingold (Ed.), Companion encyclopedia of anthropology humanity culture and social life. (pp. 3-13). London: Routledge.
Ingold, T. (2007). Materials against materiality. Archaeological Dialogues, 14(1), 1–16.
Ingold, T. (2010). Bringing things to life: Creative entanglements in a world of materials. Working Paper #15, University of Aberdeen, http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/realities/publications/workingpapers/15-2010-07-realities-bringing-things-to-life.pdf. Retrieved 15th Oct 2014..
Ingold, T. (2013). Making: Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. London: Routledge.
Ishizu, T., & Zeki, S. (2013). The brain’s specialized systems for aesthetic and perceptual judgment. The European Journal of Neuroscience, 37(9), 1413–1420.
Keeney, B. (2010). Bushman way of tracking God. New York: Atria Books/Beyond Words.
Keats, B. (2014). Recovery through creative expression: how art breaks down the barriers of mental illness.http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2014-10-09/recovery-through-creative-expression-how-art-breaks-down-the-barriers-of-mental-illness/1377231. Retrieved 12th May 2015.
Krause, I.-B. (Ed.). (2012). Culture and reflexivity in systemic psychotherapy: Mutual perspectives. London: Karnac.
Lemke, J. (1997). Cognition, context, and learning: A social semiotic perspective. In D. Kirshner & A. Whitson (Eds.), Situated cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives (pp. 37–55). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1962a). The savage mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1962b). Totemism. Tr. by R. Needham with a foreword of Roger Poole. Boston: Beacon Press.
Lovelock, J. (1968). Planetary atmospheres: Compositional and other changes associated with the presence of life. Advances in the Astronautical Sciences, 25(1969), 179–193.
Marx, K. (1844). ‘Estranged Labor’ in: Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. Retrieved 22th Oct 2014. www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/footnote.htm#fn20
Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1972). Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Dordrecht: Springer.
Mendoza Straffon, L. (2014). Art in the making: The evolutionary origins of visual art as a communication signal. In PhD thesis. Lucas: Leiden University.
Meyer, A. (1977/1922). The philosophy of occupation therapy. Reprinted from the archives of occupational therapy, 1, 1-10. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 31(10), 639–642.
Morris, R. (1970). Some notes on the phenomenology of making: The search for the motivated, Continuous project altered daily: The writings of Robert Morris, Cambridge (Mass.)/London, MIT Press, 1993, 71-93.. Retrieved 5 Apr 2016. https://sculptureatpratt.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/robert-morris-continuous-project-altered-daily-the-writings-of-robert-morris-1.pdf.
Naess, A. (1973). The shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement: A summary. Inquiry, 16, 1–4.
Perry, J. W. (1953). The self in psychotic process: Its symbolization in schizophrenia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Perry, J. W. (1974). The far side of madness. A Spectrum book. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Pröpper, M. (2015). Shifting patterns, zooming layers, focusing processes. Art and anthropology in a transforming and translucent world, Ethnoscripts, 17(1), 5–22.
Ramsden, H., Milling, J., Phillimore, J., McCabe, A., Fyfe, H., & Simpson (2011). The role of grassroots arts activities in communities: A scoping study. Third Sector Research Centre Working Paper 68. Hosted by University of Birmingham and University of Southampton, England.
Raven, D. (2013). Artisanal knowledge. Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum, 1(1), 5–34.
Reynolds, D., & Reason, M. (Eds.). (2012). Kinesthetic empathy in creative and cultural practices. Bristol: Intellect Ltd..
Ruesch, J., & Bateson, G. (1951). Communication: The social matrix of psychiatry. New York: W. W. Norton.
Salice, A., & Schmid, H. B. (Eds.). (2016). The phenomenological approach to social reality: History, concepts, problems. Cham: Springer.
Sennett, R. (2008). The craftsman. London: Allen Lane.
Sennett, R. (2012). Together: The rituals, pleasures and politics. London: Penguin Books.
Stein, B. E., Stanford, T. R., & Rowland, B. A. (2009). The neural basis of multisensory integration in the midbrain: Its organization and maturation. Hearing Research, 258(1-2), 4–15.
Stroeken, K. (2014). Questioning cognitive and interpretive takes on ritual. Anthropological Theory, 11(3), 355–372.
Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and alterity: A particular history of the senses. New York and London: Routledge.
Turner, E. (2012). Communitas: The anthropology of collective joy. New York: Edith Turner. Palgrave Macmillan.
Van Bekkum, D. (1988). Craftsmanship and occupation building in Inuit and ancient Egyptian culture, an orientation on the importance of traditional technology for educating indigenous and foreign ethnic adolescents. MA Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen.
Van Bekkum, D. (1993). Human beings as contemporary toolmakers: Ancient faculties as basis for educational and therapeutic work. Paper presented at Pithecanthropus Centennial ‘Human Evolution in its Ecological Context’, June 1st, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Van Bekkum, D. (1994). Adolescence and ethnicity: An interdisciplinary model in occupational therapy and vocational training. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 4(1), 253–269.
Van Bekkum, D. (1998a). Leisure, play and work in urban settings: Search for liminal experiences in male adolescents. In S. Scraton (Ed.), Leisure, time and space: Meanings and values in people’s lives (Special Issue Leisure Studies Association, Vol. 57). Bath: Leisure Studies Association.
Van Bekkum, D. (1998b). Rite de passage, supporting structures in coming of age. Justitiële Verkenningen, 24(6), 74–81.
Van Bekkum, D. (1999). To belong and to be different: Balancing national and ethnic loyalties in male adolescents. In J. Mucha (Ed.), Dominant culture as a foreign culture: Dominant groups in the eyes of minorities (E. E. Monographs). New York: Columbia University Press.
Van Bekkum, D. (2001). Transitions and inner conflicts in adolescents: A clinical anthropological addition to psychotherapeutic praxis. Tijdschrift voor Kinder en Jeugdpsychotherapie, 28(3), 79–92.
Van Bekkum, D. (2006). Secrets of vocational learning, methods of crafting skills in Werkartaal. Amsterdam. (in Dutch): SWP.
Van Bekkum, D. (2015). Family and community continuity: Co-creating transitional spaces for permanence in change. Paper presented in the symposium entitled Permanence and transition/transitoriness: anthropological perspectives. Annual Conference, Anthropological Association of Ireland. University of Cork, Ireland.
Van Bekkum, D., Djie, K. T. A., Helberg, G., & Zwaan, I. (2010). Rituals & Protective Wrapping. In Handboek Culturele psychiatrie en psychotherapie. Utrecht. Joop de Jong & Sjoerd Colijn (red.) de Tijdstroom.
Van Bekkum, D. (2017). Young Men as Whistleblowers: An Anthropological Gaze Upon Failing. Institutions and Transitional Spaces, Aspekt, Soesterberg, The Netherlands. (in Dutch).
Van der Drift, H. (1959). Aspects of labour and occupational Therapy in a mental hospital. Slaterus: Arnhem. (in Dutch).
Weber, A. (2016). The biology of wonder: Aliveness, feeling and the metamorphosis of science. Gabriola: New Society Publishers.
Welsch, W. (2004). Animal Aesthetics. Contemporary Aesthetics, 2, Forum: Science in Aesthetics?
Whitehead, D. H. (2003). Poiesis and art-making: A way of letting-be. In Contemporary aesthetics vol. 1. Retrieved 15 Apr 2016. www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=216
Young, R. P. (1996). The acute effects of exercise on mood state. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 40(2), 123–141.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Clare Burke and Suzanne Spencer-Wood for their persistent editing crafting my ‘Dutch-English-Male’ text on such a complex theme and for their efforts to get this book published. Special thanks to Theresia Bernet, my wife and partner in our professional quests, and to her ‘big listening ears all those years’.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix I
Appendix I
Lost Powers Returning
MiBoSo: An Ancient-New Sacred Trinity
Reuniting Mind-Body-Soul
Whenever, in Western-socialized persons, mind unites with body and soul, something extraordinary happens. In whatever situation, awakening from a night’s sleep, at a dance party, being together in a peergroup, during a delicious dinner, in an erotic sexual encounter, while dancing, sporting or drugged, the experience is overwhelming. This, however, is not extraordinary because for thousands of years humans from cultures all over the world have had/have been having mind-body-soul (MiBoSo) fusions. Many peoples all over the world have names for this individual and collective experience: Satori (Zen), Inner Light (Quakers), Samadhi (Yogic), Khum (San) and Communitas (see Edith Turner 2012). What ís peculiar in Western (modern) cultures is the isolation you are thrown in after an individual mind-body-soul fusion experience.
Western Christian-Nation-State-rooted culture does not seem to offer a cultural framework in which the individually experienced fusion can be linked to religious, educational, political, occupational, gender and age realms. This is the source of many (family) dramas, (mental) illnesses, violent encounters, misunderstandings, etc.
The pictured object is a standing lamp and a manifestation of my shamanistic awareness that we are in the middle of a macro-process of bridging the gaps between individual, social and cultural levels of the mind-body-soul fusion experience. It is also a time-location bound (Utrecht-The Netherlands; 1990–1996) representation of the maker’s life plan and in that sense a strategy and blueprint for action.
The lamp has a height of 1.86 m., and the carrying rods are brass 13 m.m. ø which are forged into their spiralling form with blazing torch and my hands.
The base is made from Dutch Elmtree wood and the bouncing bodies from American Cherry tree. The halogen bulb is fuelled from the electric mains and a 220/12 volt transformer. The top light can be softened by a dimmer switch in the base. The Lotus leaves are hammered brass sheet 0.5 mm. The light spreads a lotus form to the ceiling. The imagination crafting took 6 years (1990–1996) of my artisan development. The complete meaning and narrative of the artifact emerged in the last 2 years of manufacturing (Fig. 6.8).
Standing lamp. Lost powers returning: reuniting mind-body-soul
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Bekkum, D. (2019). Beauty and Grace in Making Artifacts: An Anthropological Gaze Upon Crafting in the World. In: Burke, C., Spencer-Wood, S.M. (eds) Crafting in the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65088-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65088-3_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65087-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65088-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)