Assignment:
Art History 149A (Fall 2018)
Undergraduate paper assignment
In 1975, the late Virginia C. Kane published her pioneering article "The Independent Bronze Industries in the South of China Contemporary with the Shangand Western Chou [=Zhou] Dynasties" (Archives of Asian Art28 (1974/1975): 77-107), in which she attempted for the first time to define the characteristics of regional Bronze Age cultures in the Yangzi River Basin. In your paper, please provide a critical discussion of Kane's arguments in light of the new evidence now available, which we have been discussing in the seminar.
In particular, you will want to consider the following questions:
(1) What is Kane's approach, and what is her methodology?
(2) What positions does she take issue with?
(3) What new evidence do we know now that allows us to understand the regional Bronze Age cultures of the Yangzi River Basin more clearly than Kane was able to do in the 1970s?
(4) What is the nature of the data now available, and how do they differ from the materials Kane had at her disposal?
(5) How does Kane's approach compare to those of the other authors you have been reading in this class?
You need not answer all of these questions; but keep them in mind as you read Kane and relate what she writes to what you have learned in your assigned readings.
Kane's article has been placed the CCLE under Week 6. In discussing it, you need not go beyond the readings assigned for the seminar-you will find there sufficient information to enable you to do a good job completing this assignment.
Readings:
The Independent Bronze Industries in the South of China Contemporary with the Shang and Western Chou Dynasties
By Virginia C. Kane