艺术史家和人类学家的目的，都是从艺术品的创作者和使用者的视角对作品进行研究，并且基于功能、意义和审美三个方面进行分析。人类学家的经验和调查结果告诉我们，首先，西方的审美范畴通常不适用于非西方艺术。其次，许多作品的语义和审美的属性在很大程度上依赖于它们所使用的材料的属性，而且据观察，未处理过的材料本身可能有重要的象征意义和美学价值。第三，一件艺术品不可能脱离它的环境而去研究它。在某些情况下，一件艺术品的周围环境与作品本身同样重要，并且促成了作品的意义。“,”The aim of both art historians and anthropologists is the study of art objects from the perspective of their producers and users, and to analyze them under the three aspects of function,meaning,and aesthetics. The experience and findings of ethnologists tell us,first of all,Western aesthetic categories are generally nonapplicable to non-Western art. Second,semantic and aesthetic properties of many objects depend to a large extent on the nature of the material in which they are made;it has also been observed that unworked materials per se may have a considerable symbolic and aesthetic value.Third,an art object cannot be studied out of its context. There are cases where the surroundings of an object are as important as the object itself and contribute strongly to its meaning.