December 4, 2008
FINAL EXAM REVIEW
Tuesday, December 9, 11:30am, in class
Part I: Essay Question (take home)
3 pages
don‟t need footnotes, but you should cite the authors you are using
try to leave quotations out
Part II: Slide Comparisons
10 pairs of slides, 4 minutes each
Readings
Benin
- Blier
- Geary – role of photography in Benin; how it helped transform British popular
perception of a city that had once been held in high esteem as a place of
royalty to a place of blood and savagery; thanks to the Punitive Expedition
- Film: Artist Unknown --- brass pendant mask found in London and the search
to find the artist
- Intricate intertwining of global economic transformation at the end of the 15th
century to the 16th century; marked in the bronze art
Bamum/ Kom
Dogon
- McCusky --- arts of Camaroon in many different contexts (museum,
royal, transformation); to whom do objects belong?
- Geary --- close look at an object (King Njoya‟s gift); moment of mutual
respect as an object standing for a symbol of that bond;
iconography of the materials and the emblems that are attached to
this object
- Blier --- history of the arts of this area set in a royal context
- Van Beek --- speaks about the men‟s meeting house in one town; gendering of
materials; neat binary that is brought into question
- Huet --- how certain frameworks structure the people that are being studied
Tourist Art
- Steiner --- transportation of objects
- Film: In and Out of Africa --- „old‟ things that are meant to satisfy a
„Western‟ desire for old, traditional Africa
Exhibiting Africa
- Hodier --- if the rest of the world is progressing forward with
technology, Africa is brought into the World‟s far as object lessons
(people are transformed into objects/ Africa is a circular culture,
never progressing)
Mande
- McClusky --- power in secret societies; hunter‟s shirts; arts for each group in
society
- Rovine --- bogolanfini and bogolon; original intentions in women‟s society and
how in recent times, this traditional cloth has come to stand for more
(national, pan- African identity, transatlantic national identity)
- film: Living Memory --- sets Tyi Wara into place
Photo in Mali
- McClusky --- Keita and Sidibe
- Diawara --- author was a young adult in the 1960s; speaks about
photography in terms of his own history and also social and
political context (liberation from colonialism but then the pressing
in of other forms of restrictions); youth‟s association with culture
from other parts of the world to find their own place
Benin (Edo) Keywords
- Oba --- chief/king
- Iyoba --- mother of the king/ queen mother
- Uhumwelo --- brass heads; commissioned by an Oba to commemorate a past Oba (a
lineage)
o Progression of style ---- thin to thicker casting, elongated neck, elaborate details
o Thicker brass = conspicuous display of wealth
o Movement away from naturalistic depictions, become more architectural and
more face- like
o Representation of wealth through representation of coral on the headdress
 Begins to take over the face and transforms the king from a person into a
kind of mudfish; fins on the head; explosion of wealth and power
- Ikenobo --- an altar to the hand to ones‟ self
- Urhoto --- miniature queen mother altar; tableau that depicts the queen with her
entourage
- Olokun --- god/lord of the sea
- Osun --- lord of leaves and medicine
- Ododua --- ultimate ancestor of the Obas; said to come from Ife where the Yoruba say the
world began
QuickTime™and a
decompressor
are needed to see this pi cture.
Quick Time™ an d a
d eco mp res sor
ar e n eed ed to s ee this pic ture .
- both depict the power of the Oba by bringing in
attributes of power in animal form (leopards = royalty,
frogs = wisdom, live on land and water – transition
between the two worlds [sea and land], king as Olokun)
- legs transformed into mudfish --- they live in two
worlds, shocking power
- coral ---- thing from the ocean, brought to Benin
through trade with Europe
Dogon Keywords
- Tellem --- people before the Dogon who left traces but not much else
- Nommo --- people who came from the heavens to earth to bring civilization and ideas to
earth, brought culture and agriculture, industry, art
o Represented by figures with raised arms
-
Binu --- place for divination; movement back and forth between times regarded as a
watery, feminine thing
Ginna --- male structure associated with lineage ancestors
o Checkerboard construction --- male and female relations
Togu na --- men‟s meeting house; “house of words”
o Posts are female that hold up the male thatched roof
Dama --- masked funerary festival
Sigi so --- secret spirit of the bush, spoken only by male members of the Awa society
Emna ---- masquerade
o Emna anyara --- mask of a foreigner
Yasigine/ Satimbe --- “sister on the head”; one image of a woman that performs in Dama
because no women participate in it or view it
Kanaga --- mask that represents a female spirit
Sirige ---- the “great mask”
Bamum/Kom Keywords
- Fon --- the king
- Mpelet --- royal headdress
o King chose their representative of emblematic animals
- mbuum --- money
- Queen mother figure --- associated directly with the throne
- Afo-a-kom --- using an object as a pretext to get other political entities to act to your will
Exhibiting Africa
- transforming a people‟s civilization to the opposite of European‟s own perception of
their own culture
o this comes to the fore at the World‟s Fairs
Mande Keywords
QuickTime™ and a
decompres sor
are needed to see thi s pic ture.