Examining Cultural Drifts in Landscape Artwork Throughout History and Development

• Author / Creator

  Nand, Kristina

• Research on cultural products suggest that there are substantial cultural variations between East Asian and Western landscape masterpieces from the 15th to 19th centuries and contemporary members’ landscape artwork (Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, & Nisbett, 2008), and that these cultural differences in drawing styles emerge around the age of 8 (Senzaki, Masuda, & Nand, 2014). However, culture is not static. To explore the dynamics of cultural change, research should be conducted from both historical and ontogenetic perspectives (Tomasello, 1999; Vygotsky, 1978). In this thesis, I examined (1) 17th to 20th century Japanese and Western landscape masterpieces, and (2) adolescent data in landscape artworks alongside findings from Senzaki et al.’s (2014) research on elementary school-aged children. The results demonstrated cultural variations in artworks and masterpieces, and “cultural drifts” (Herskovits, 1941; 1948) where at certain time periods cultural tendencies deviated from default cultural patterns but occasionally returned to its previous state. The bidirectional influence of culture and implications for furthering the discipline of cultural psychology will be discussed.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Cultural differences
  • Cultural change
  • Cultural products
  • Analytic
  • Holistic

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3D50G43B

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.