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Dr Paolo Fortis' Outputs (10)

'Too many meanings': Reading Piro Designs (2022)
Journal Article
Fortis, P., & Margiotti, M. (2022). 'Too many meanings': Reading Piro Designs. Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 19(1), 31-38

The aesthetics of 'time-reckoning': a Guna chromatic history (2019)
Journal Article
Fortis, P. (2019). The aesthetics of 'time-reckoning': a Guna chromatic history. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 25(3), 441-466. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13077

This is a study of time and aesthetics through an ethnographic analysis of an indigenous visual system. Looking at historical changes in women's clothing and village patterns among Guna people (Panama), the article shows that images and artefacts are... Read More about The aesthetics of 'time-reckoning': a Guna chromatic history.

General MacArthur among the Guna: The Aesthetics of Power and Alterity in an Amerindian Society (2016)
Journal Article
Fortis, P. (2016). General MacArthur among the Guna: The Aesthetics of Power and Alterity in an Amerindian Society. Current Anthropology, 57(4), 430-451. https://doi.org/10.1086/687112

This article deals with issues surrounding the study of indigenous appropriations of symbols of military power. It focuses on the case of Guna people from the San Blas Archipelago of Panama who, in the 1940s, carved some wooden figures in the likenes... Read More about General MacArthur among the Guna: The Aesthetics of Power and Alterity in an Amerindian Society.

O Nascimento do Desenho: uma Teoria Kuna do Corpo e da Pessoa (2013)
Journal Article
Fortis, P. (2013). O Nascimento do Desenho: uma Teoria Kuna do Corpo e da Pessoa. Revista Enfoques (Rio de Janeiro), 12(1), 66-93

O artigo explora o conceito de ‘desenho’ (narmakkalet) encontrado entre os Kuna do Panamá. Demonstra que o conceito nativo de desenho, e sua relação com o corpo humano, é central para a noção de pessoa mantida pelos Kuna. O principal argumento é que... Read More about O Nascimento do Desenho: uma Teoria Kuna do Corpo e da Pessoa.

Images of person in an Amerindian society. An ethnographic account of Kuna woodcarving (2012)
Journal Article
Fortis, P. (2012). Images of person in an Amerindian society. An ethnographic account of Kuna woodcarving. Journal de la Société des américanistes (En ligne), 98(1), 7-37. https://doi.org/10.4000/jsa.12119

Images of person in an Amerindian society. An ethnographic account of Kuna woodcarving. The long debated problem of representation in Amerindian art discussed by Boas, Kroeber and Lévi-Strauss is reconsidered in this article through an ethnographic a... Read More about Images of person in an Amerindian society. An ethnographic account of Kuna woodcarving.

The Birth of Design: a Kuna Theory of Body and Personhood (2010)
Journal Article
Fortis, P. (2010). The Birth of Design: a Kuna Theory of Body and Personhood. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16(3), 480-495. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2010.01635.x

This article explores the concept of ‘design’ (narmakkalet) held by the Kuna people of Panamá. It demonstrates that the native concept of design and its relation to the human body is central to Kuna ideas concerning personhood. The main argument is t... Read More about The Birth of Design: a Kuna Theory of Body and Personhood.