The American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904-1969), discovered a set of patterns designed by ancient peoples to illustrate their ideas about kinship. They tattooed and painted such "statements" on their bodies and clothing, and carved them on tools, game boards, pots, ceremonial objects, coins and other items, and carried these with them wherever they went. Through broad comparative study, Schuster decoded this iconography, which lasted over 10,000 years, crossed continents, and outlived most of the cultures that sheltered it. Having spent more than three decades gathering evidence for his study, Schuster delayed publication while he searched for more. This book, by his colleague Edmund Carpenter, distils his research to a single volume.
- ISBN10 0810963264
- ISBN13 9780810963269
- Publish Date 1 September 1996
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 19 June 2009
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Abrams
- Imprint Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 313
- Language English