Abstract
The authors have published texts and studies documenting the procedure for and application of the use of plane pattern symmetries to classify cultural patterns. This chapter contrasts the difference in cultural insights gained between pattern studies that simply describe patterns by motif type and shape and those that describe the way motifs are repeated by plane pattern symmetries. Culturally produced patterns can be described in many ways, each useful for different purposes. We describe how early pattern studies aimed at designers of textiles and wallpapers created classificatory groupings that were descriptively idiosyncratic, grouping patterns by motif similarities that are arranged by very different symmetries. We then cite several recent studies that illustrate how a symmetry rather than a motif similarity grouping reveals new insights from continuities, changes and preferential symmetry use that can enhance our understanding and interpretation of the material.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Sources
Christie, A. H. (1969). Pattern design: An introduction to the study of formal ornament. Reprinted 1929 (2nd ed.). New York: Dover.
Fenn, A. (1920). Abstract design: A practical manual on the making of patterns for the use of students teachers designers and craftsmen. New York: Scribner’s Sons.
Gerdes, P. (1998). Women, art and geometry in Southern Africa. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Hargittai, I. (Ed.). (1986). Symmetry: unifying human understanding. New York: Pergamon Press.
Hargittai, I., & Laurent, T. C. (Eds.) (2002). Symmetry 2000 (parts 1 and 2). London: Portland Press.
Henry, N. F. M., & Lonsdale, K. (1952). International tables for X-Ray crystallography I. Birmingham: Kynoch Press.
Lister, R. H., & Lister, F. C. (1969). The Earl H. Morris memorial pottery collection, Series in Anthropology (p. 16). Boulder: University of Colorado.
Mera, H. P. (1939). Style trends of Pueblo pottery 1500–1840, Memoirs, Laboratory of Anthropology (Vol. 3). Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico.
O’Neale, L. M. (1932). Yurok-Karok basket weavers. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 32:1. Berkeley: University of California.
Wace, A. J. B., & Thompson, M. S. (1912). Prehistoric thessaly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Washburn, D. K. (1983). Symmetry analysis of ceramic design: Two tests of the method on Neolithic material from Greece and the Aegean. In D. K. Washburn (Ed.), Structure and cognition in art (pp. 138–164). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Washburn, D. K. (1984). Dealers and collectors of indian baskets at the turn of the century in California: Their effect on the ethnographic sample. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 2(1), 51–74.
Washburn, D. K. (1986). Symmetry analysis of Yurok, Karok, and Hupa Indian basket designs. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 4(1), 19–45.
Washburn, D. K. (1999). Perceptual anthropology: The cultural salience of symmetry. American Anthropologist, 101(3), 547–562.
Washburn, D. K. (Ed.). (2004). Embedded symmetries: Natural and cultural. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Washburn, D. K., & Crowe, D. W. (1988). Symmetries of culture: Theory and practice of plane pattern analysis. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Washburn, D. K., & Crowe, D. W. (Eds.). (2004). Symmetry comes of age: The role of pattern in culture. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Washburn, D. K., Crowe, D. W., & Ahlstrom, R. V. N. (2010). A symmetry analysis of design structure: 1000 years of continuity and change in Puebloan ceramic design. American Antiquity, 75(4), 743–772.
Zervos, C. (1962). Naissance de la Civilisation en Grèce. Part I and II. Paris: Editions Cahieres D’Art.
Acknowledgements
The previous version of this article has been published in Bridges Donostia, Conference proceeding of Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science held 24–27 July 2007 in San Sebastian, Spain, edited by Reza Sarhangi and Javier Barrallo, pp. 19–24. Phoenix: Tessellations Publishing, 2007.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Washburn, D.K., Crowe, D.W. (2017). Cultural Insights from Pattern Symmetries. In: Fenyvesi, K., Lähdesmäki, T. (eds) Aesthetics of Interdisciplinarity: Art and Mathematics. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57259-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57259-8_9
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57257-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57259-8
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)