Lines: A Brief History

What do walking, weaving, observing, singing, storytelling, drawing, and writing have in common? The answer lies in the fact that all these processes occur along lines. In this unusual book, British anthropologist Tim Ingold imagines a world in which everything consists of intertwined or interconnected lines and lays the foundations for a new discipline: comparative anthropology of the line. Ingold's research takes readers from the music of Ancient Greece to the music of modern Japan, from Siberian labyrinths to the weaving of Native Americans, from the songlines of Australian Aboriginals to Roman roads, and from Chinese calligraphy to the printed alphabet, forging a path between antiquity and modernity. Drawing on a multitude of disciplines — archaeology, classical philology, art history, linguistics, psychology, musicology, philosophy, and many others — and featuring over seventy illustrations, this work takes us on an exciting intellectual journey that will change our perspective on the world and how we live in it.