ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE ARTIST

Dadson, Samira and Agyeman, Kafui Kwesi

Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

ABSTRACT

Most artist have unique characteristics that are misinterpreted as abnormal by society. This paper aims to bring to light how various factors contribute to how artist behave. Artist are people who are known to exhibit certain traits which are abnormal and because of this they are often written off by society. This led to the convenient sampling of the various traits artist are known to exhibit and what factors that have been scientifically proven to contribute to the way the artist act. The cognitive analysis was used to draw a conclusion from the information which was gathered through the interviews and internet research.

The information gotten agreed with the researchers notion that artist indeed are weird people but understanding what makes them act the way they do is important in knowing how to work and live with them..

INTRODUCTION

Anthropology is the study of various aspect of humans within past and present societies. This research is focused on how artist have been seen by society and aims to bring to the understanding of people that there are pertinent factors which affect how an artist behaves... An artist is one who is skilled at creating art. Studies have shown that artist behave a bit abnormal than the normal. Society often write them off as the dreamers in society. Even the artist themselves find it hard to understand why they act the way they do, in Japan an artist called Yayoi Kusama admitted herself in a mental institute because she thought she was going crazy due to her long hours of day dreaming. The traits that have been associated with artist are as follows,

• People watchers - this trait is often characterized by the artist when they sit at crowded places and just observe people. This is a common trait of visual artist, they pick up their ideas from people and develop it into their masterpieces.
• Day dreamers – the artist is known to drift off into mental dreamland. They can do this for hours. They are believed to find solutions to their art problems and develop their
• Observant- they take in the minute details about people and places that most people would normally not notice.
• Seek for solitude- they like to go off on their own to work on their ideas, this makes most people see the artist as loners.
• Explorers – artist are known to seek out new places to explore and have new experiences.
• Passionate- they are known to be so involved in their work and often get lost in their work. They are intrinsically motivated and work as it comes to them making them seem lazy to routinely people.
• Sensitive- they attach a lot of emotions to their work.
• Self-satisfaction- they are self-satisfied with their work and often find it hard to accept corrections from others concerning their work.
• Resilience – they don’t give up easily and keep going even when everyone believes the odds are against them.
• Curious- they are interested in how everything comes into being, this brings about question asking which most people find irritating about the artist. (Gregoire, 2014)

These behaviors has made it quite hard for people to accept artist as full functioning members of society, people don’t know that artist have different characters due to the pertinent factors that make who they are. For this reason they are more often than not seen as abnormal. Based on observation and research, the need for people to understand artist is very important because artist contribute to change in the society and understanding them is part of being able to accept and relate with them in society.

This study aims to investigate into the factors that contribute to the behavior of the artist. The study investigates into what pertinent factors contribute to how the artist act. Questions addressed include what are the factors that contribute to the behavior of artist. The study focused on the verbal and the visual artist.

The various blood group

There are different types of blood groups and they are the A, B, AB and O. These blood groups have RH factors that can either be present to make the blood negative or absent to make the blood positive. (american red cross, 2017). It is believed that the each blood group exhibit unique characteristics that makes up their personalities.

This belief is so strongly believed by the Japanese and their day to day lives have been shaped around this phenomenon. Even though the system was discovered by the Austrian scientist Karl Landsteiner in 1901, it was adopted by the Japanese military in 1930 to train their soldiers to be better based on their blood types. During World War two the Imperial Army formed their armies based on the blood groups. (Evans, 2012)

Blood group A- the best traits of this group are patient, responsible, punctual and calm. Their worst traits is that they are obsessive, sensitive, self-conscious and stubborn.

Blood group B- creative, flexible, free spirited, passionate, and optimistic are the best traits of this group. The worst traits with this group is forgetful, irresponsible and self-centered

Blood group AB- best traits are their highly organized and empathic. The worst traits are that aloof, critical and indecisive.

Blood group O- outgoing, self-confident, natural leaders and goal oriented. Their worst traits are arrogance, vain, ruthless and jealous. (Lutz, 2012)

The temperaments

Over 2000 years ago the Greek Hippocrates developed the personality theory which was ones inborn tendency to react to certain ways emotionally ad behaviorally. There are four main types of temperaments. Sanguine, choleric, melancholy, phlegmatic. (temperament quiz, 2017) Each person is believed to fall under at least one of these groups. Some individuals are known to have a predominant humor and a secondary one. Meaning that someone can be a sanguine-choleric, the individual falls under two temperaments but the predominant is the sanguine. (psychologia, 2017)

Zodiac signs

The zodiacs is a Greek term used to describe the twelve 30 degrees divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the path of the sun. It was by the early cultures of Mesopotamia as a tool of celestial navigation. (wisdom, 2017). The most popular modern zodiac signs was created by a famous Greek astronomer who lived in the second century named Ptolemy. The signs are represented by animals. They are grouped under four elements air, earth, water and fire. (reference, 2017)

These are the astrological signs according to the date you were born. There are 12 zodiac signs

Leo (July 23^rd - august 22^rd ), Pisces(February 19^th- march 20^th), Capricorn(December 22^rd – January 19^th ), Virgo(august 23^rd – September 22^nd ), Taurus(April 20^th – may 20^th ), Scorpio(October 23^rd- November 21^st ), Aquarius(January 20^th – February 18^th), Libra( September 23^rd – October 22^nd ), Gemini(may 21^st – June 20^th ), Aries(march 21^st – April 19^th ), Sagittarius(November 22^nd – December 21^st ), cancer(June 21^st- July 22^nd) (zodiac sign, 2017)

(Stanley, 2014)

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The materials the researcher got access to for this research were quite vast but scattered because as it seems the topics are not in relations and couldn’t be found at one source even though this should have acted as a discouraging factor to the researcher it rather served as a motivator because the researcher realized the need for her research, which was to bring all the information concerning this topic into one document. The materials that were mostly used were the internet.

The artists were graded from their blood group, zodiac signs and temperament. If the artist belonged to creative blood group like the A, B, AB and found himself amongst the artistic zodiac signs like the Leo while he also happened to be in the creative temperament of sanguine he would be categorized as a person with a more artistic personality than one who didn’t find himself in all three artistic categories under the 3 determining factors.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

What are the factors that contribute to the behavior of the artist?

There are three main contributing factors to the behavior of the artist. The researcher gathered that they are the temperaments, the zodiac signs and the blood groups all play a role in the peculiar behavior of the artist.

Blood groups

There are four main blood types or groups. Type A, B, AB and O. (american red cross, 2017) There are certain characteristics that are associated with being in each of the blood groups. Out of these four there are known to be the most artistic. They are A, B and AB.

With blood type A they are known to be the most artistic of the groups, they are also known to have a high standard of perfection making it quite difficult to work with them because they don’t settle for anything other than perfection due to this they are also patient. The down side of being in this blood group is the individuals found in this group are weak under stress (RecipeApart, 2009). They become tensed and unable to sleep when they are under stress, they are also known to bottle their emotions because they are very sensitive. (lindin, 2012)

Blood type B is also known to be creative, wild in character, optimistic even when everything seems to go wrong while they are working, passionate about their work and are detail oriented. They are strong at heart. The down side with this blood type is that the individuals found in this group are they are forgetful, irresponsible and can be self-centered.

With group AB they don’t like to be confined and like to play by their own rules, they make great initiators. (crace, 2011)

Zodiac sign

Studies show that the most creative of the signs are Leo, Pisces, Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo.

Pisces are known for being imaginative, often found daydreaming. They make great actors and writers. The down side to this kind of artist is they give up easily. Artist in this group need to be placed in an environment of constant encouragement and appraisal to enable the, to produce their works.

Leos are known for creating something out of nothing and like to leave individual touch on their work. Meaning after creating their art work they personalize it by leaving a touch that show that they created it.

Taurus are known for creating quality and luxurious thing. They are also noted for being great interior decorators and creators of great master pieces. They are very patient and can wait for months or even years till the work is done.

Capricorns are hard workers and like to take on the impossible, they like to take more than one approach to their works and go at their works no matter how long it takes. They are also identified as people with great strength of mind.

With the Virgo they are known for being precise and detail oriented. Most people don’t like working with them because they are so conscious of the minute things ordinarily be overlooked by others. (Nat, 2015)

The temperament

There are four temperaments. The choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy. They each exhibit unique characteristic that make up their personality.

The sanguine is known to be very social and very creative, enthusiastic but easily bored making it hard for them to work at one thing for a long time. The melancholy is analytical and quiet but extreme perfectionist, this trait makes it hard for people to work with this group because they don’t settle for mediocre things. Choleric are known to be goal oriented but irritable. Phlegmatic are relaxed but keep feelings bottled up, this makes it hard for them to control their emotions when they open up.

All these factors are known to affect how an artist behaves. The artist who finds himself in blood group A, sanguine and a Pisces would be someone who is highly artistic and imaginative but due to their Pisces factor they give up easily and find it hard to work at one thing for a long time. Someone like this would be seen by society as a dreamer and attributed to laziness because they never bring their work to completion, here the problem is fully exhibited. Understanding such a person would mean that an environment of encouragement should be created to propel the artist to stick at one thing and complete their work.

CONCLUSION

We cannot expect everyone to fit in the mold that society has made for people. Artist are in a different group, a little off the lines of what society is used to but they break monotony in society. In conclusion, it’s not in the right place to expect artist to conform. The good is that they bring about change and without them our society would not be dynamic.

RECOMMENDATION

The researcher recommends that the above stated discoveries are taken into consideration when dealing with creative minds.

The researcher also recommends that these characteristics are sort on recruitment forms of agencies. This will ensure that the right pegs would be put into the right holes. This would enable the managers of agencies know who to place at certain task. Example with a blood group AB and Leo would not be good working with a lot of rules placed on him and also wouldn’t like creating something with the group because he would not be able to leave his individual touch on the work.

The researcher also recommends that teachers and lecturers educate themselves on these findings and help the students identify their places. This would make it easier to place the students in places where their strong suits would be emphasized and also work on their weaker sides.

References

american red cross. (2017). Retrieved from m.redcross.org: http://m.redcross.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types

crace, j. (2011, july 5th). the guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com: http://www.google.com.gh/amp/s/amp.thegardian.com/world/2011/jul/05/blood-type-says-about-you

Evans, R. (2012, November 5th). BBCnews. Retrieved from www.bbc.com: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20170787

Gregoire, C. (2014, April 3rd). Huffpost. Retrieved from www.huffpost.com: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4859769

lindin, k. (2012, january 27th). the fw. Retrieved from thefw.com: http://thefw.com/blood-type-personality/

Lutz, A. (2012, july 5th). Business Insider. Retrieved from www.businessinsider.com: http://www.businessinsider.com/graphic-find-out-what-your-blood-type-says-about-your-personality-according-to-japanese-tradition-2012-7?IR=T

Nat, m. (2015, september 17th). thehoroscope.org. Retrieved from www.thehoroscope.org: http://thehoroscop.org/articles/5-most-creative-zodiac-signs

psychologia. (2017). Psychologia. Retrieved from www.psychologia.com: http://psychologia.co/four=temperament

RecipeApart. (2009, july 21sr). Recipe Apart. Retrieved from www.recipeapart.com: http//www.recioeapart.com/blood-type-reveals-personality

reference. (2017). Reference. Retrieved from www.reference.com: http://www.references.com/world-view/meanings-zodiac-signs-48b1b04ed5a1cbe8?qo=contentSimilarQuestions

Stanley, E. L. (2014, december 12). What are the positive and negative traits of your zodiac signs. Retrieved from www.medium.com: http://mediums.com/@evestanley/what-are-the-positive-and-negative-traits-of-your-zodiac-signse2d515536a.m3nke5bh9

temperament quiz. (2017). Temperament quiz. Retrieved from www.temperamentquiz.com: http://www.temperamentquz.com/history

wisdom, A. (2017). Ancient-wisdom. Retrieved from www.ancient-wisdom.com: http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/zodiac.htm

zodiac sign. (2017). Retrieved from www.astrology-odiac-signs.com: http://www.astrology-zodiac-signs.com/