Art questions help?

Can you help me with Anthropology and Art study questions?

• what perspectives can anthropology lend to the study of art? Are there universal rules of aesthetics? Is there authentic versus not authentic art? (what makes something authentic?) What are the purposes of art? (I would really like to specific examples because I get the gist of it) These are just study questions to help us prepare for the next test, so don't think I'm just posting my hw. :D I can't find the answers in the text and I tried googleing it, but nothing too specific. If you can help me understand the concept, that would be too great. thanks.

• Answer:

  Well, it's hard to answer these questions. If you had asked me a month ago I would have said that NO there is no universal rules of aesthetics; however, I have recently started to question that. The second question is more philosophical than anthropological (although anthropology is partly philosophical anyway); however, I'd say anthropologically speaking, nothing is authentic really as everything is developed out of something else and nothing exists disconnected from its context. So authenticity is more of an illusion, like the idea of freedom. (Many) anthropologists would tell you "all arts are political". That's a quote from George Orwell, but anthropologists say pretty much the same thing.