Up to Our Chins in Sensate

“Drawing their data from encyclopedias, histories of art, and museum catalogs, from art journals, scholarly monographs, and other reference sources, the researchers listed art works by the scores of thousands. They classified each item according to its traits, whether ideational, integral, or sensate. Then Sorokin compared changes in the arts to the changes of cultural mentality he perceived over the ages. The two moved in unison, and he had no trouble identifying the three main types of art. Just as phases of culture have distinctive traits, so the arts they produce possess different forms and purposes” (B.G. Brander, Staring Into Chaos, p. 268).