In a small community called Akan Ainu Kotan （Akan Ainu village） located in the east part of Hokkaido, I manage a souvenir shop and also work on creative activities. As a member of indigenous people Ainu, I learn about our cultural traditions from the elders and practice them. As a manager, I select the merchandises according to the needs of customers, also as a creator, I produce the works according to my own desire for expression and creation through self-questioning； “What is Ainu art?” , “Is this a work of art or a commodity?”, “Am l an artist or a craftsman?”, and even “Am l a director on Ainu art?” The concept of art includes various fields； fine arts, oral literature, performing arts, music, design, fashion and movies. Even cuisine may be considered as an art. This article aims to seek and present a new angle from the view point of sharing common consciousness of contemporary Ainu art. The Ainu word “cotkep” in the title means “finely chopping disparate items with a keen edged knife, and mix them until they become sticky”.

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I was born and grew up in a small village Nibutani, Biratori-cho, Hokkaido where the Ainu descents account for 70 percent of the residents. Now l am working as a freelance designer in Sapporo. Though l had opportunities to learn the Ainu language and traditional games from Childhood, as l grew up l would hide my identity as the Ainu since I was teased for being an Ainu or was prejudiced against my relationships to the Ainu culture. However, I changed as I aspired to become a designer. I began to think l could set the stage to eliminate discrimination and to abolish prejudice thorough designing new modern style patterns by arranging the traditional Ainu pattern. In this paper l would like to express my view through my experiences and works．

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A variety of artworks produced by people from Africa has actively been exhibited in and outside Africa since 1990s. Having overcome the essentialized ｉdeas of “primitive art” and “those who are falling behind”, it has been approached as works of contemporary artists like those in the rest of the world. On the other hand, it is also noteworthy that various activities of visual art in the process of production and reception of artworks in Africa can hardly be shown in the exhibitions and their catalogues. While some African artists step into the limelight of international art worlds, the other still remain there in Africa in the shadow of the light. Although artists are diversely active in contemporary society, only a few prominent artists represent African art and they have been making their presence mainly in the international art worlds. Taking the cases of artists based in Nigeria, one in active overseas while the others stay within domestic cities, this paper observes kaleidoscopic reality of art. It will then consider African art as a reality in which artist's ways of life are hybrid. The cases are not directly to do with indigenous people. Whether indigenous or African, however, focusing on various activities of artists this paper will attempt to discuss what on earth art is in contemporary society．

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The majority of the Australian Aboriginal population is now living in urban and semi-urban settings. Through colonization by immigrants from England beginning in 1788, they have been dispossessed of their languages, traditions and land. They are mostly mix-blooded, living a lifestyle not so different from mainstream Australians, and are called ‘Urban Aborigines’．Many urban Aborigines are actively producing art which contributed substantially to the improvement of their social situation since 1960s. In this paper, I will focus on examples of urban Aboriginal art to investigate the struggle around identity and resistance. Art for urban Aborigines is clearly an important and effective measure to reclaim their rights in society．

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Art of Indigenous people has constantly been undermining the modern concept of ‘Art’ based on the European aesthetic ideology. However, anthropology has not necessarily succeeded in relativizing the concept though some of contemporary anthropologists often focus on the power structure underlying modern ‘Art’ concept, such as the colonial ‘Art and Culture System’ revealed by James Clifford. This is partly because the following fundamental questions about art have been left unresolved. Is an artistic activity universal among humankind? If so, what is the fundamental and universal basis of artistic activities? Can we establish more fundamental and comprehensive definition of art including even the modern ‘Art’ concept? Unless these questions are resolved, the modern concept of ‘Art’ would not be relativized in the true sense of the word. It was these questions that Franz Boas tackled in his book “Primitive Art”（1927）almost a century ago. Based on his study of ‘primitive art’ all over the world, he revealed that artistic activity is universal among humankind and it is universally based on the development of virtuosity in most highly developed industry in each human group. He found, therefore, the most fundamental and universal basis of art in the consciousness of the artist of having mastered great difficulties, that is, the satisfaction of the virtuoso. In other words, he defined art not as expressions of assumed universal aesthetic value，on which the modern concept of ‘Art’ is based, but as products of highly developed virtuosity achieved by the artists who are driven by pleasure of mastering difficult techniques and enchanted with achievements of their own virtuosity. In this paper, I will reexamine the definition and theory of art presented by Boas，and revitalize his art theory by introducing into his theory the idea of ‘art as technology of enchantment’ presented by Alfred Gell. Based on this reexamination, I shall attempt to propose that art is one of the arts of social intercourse, with which artists try to tempt others into participating in their social intercourse. Placing the modern concept oｆ ‘Art’ in the concept of art defined more widely, I shall therefore attempt to relativize the modern concept.

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