Chapter 6 Color in anthropology and folklore
volume 1 of \AZimuth\, North-Holland, (1998)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1387-6783(98)80009-3
Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter contains an outline of the archaeological evidence concerning the earliest uses of color, then considers color within the context of anthropology and folklore. For 300,000 years Homo sapiens and their predecessors have used color in ceremony and art. In particular, they used the colors black, white and red, a triad familiar to 20th century anthropologists and folklorists. In archaeology, color is a fossil indicator of human behavior, but for more recent times it achieves a greater understanding. The inheritance of color vision has been exploited and color now forms a highly significant part of modern life. Cosmetics, clothing, household pets, food, decoration inside and outside the house, landscape architecture are all deliberately colored and patterned in attempts to satisfy personal tastes and apparent needs for colorful surroundings. Examples of this essential nature of color and appearance are abundant in anthropology and folklore. It is discussed in the chapter the ways colors, designs, and pictures provide pleasure, or means of communication among people. Body decoration such as tattooing is one such example.