*Art Is Not What You Think It Is* utilizes original research to present a series of critical incursions into the current state of debate on the idea of art, making manifest what has been largely missing or unsaid in those discussions. * Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have structurally functioned in a variety of contexts * Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth * Addresses relations between European notions about art and artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous cultural traditions