Aesthetic Analysis of Proofs of the Binomial Theorem
The anthropology of aesthetics as I see it, then, consists in the comparative study
of valued perceptual experience in different societies. While our common human
physiology no doubt results in our having universal, generalized responses to certain
stimuli, perception is an active and cognitive process in which cultural factors play a
dominant role. Perceptions are cultural phenomena. Forge touched on this some twenty
years ago when he wrote (1970: 282) concerning the visual art of the Abelam of New
Guinea:
What do the Abelam see? Quite obviously there can be no absolute answer to this
question:...