Comparison's

Linguist Staff Finials are from the Akon people. They are constructed of wood and gold leaf wrapped around the carved figures. The finial tops are carved visual motifs that have meanings. One common example is two men sitting at table this visual evokes the proverb "food is for it's owner not for the man who is hungry." Many other staffs represent other attributes such as power or wisdom.

Diviner's staffs are made by the Bwa. These staffs are made of wood, iron, leather, wire, cowries, and organic material. These staffs are used usually carried by young men in field dances following the harvest. These figures are spirits that guarentee rich harvests. These staffs show men, birds, chameleon on them.

Each of these objects have representative figures on them although they have completely different meanings to them are both of high importance. The Linguist Staff being carried by important figures and representing specific attributes about the person wielding it. It shows importance of that person. While the Diviner's staff is a more spiritual staff intended for the use after harvest with depictions of important figures. Each staff has a powerful meaning behind it one being a spiritual object which is very influential to the people and the other being a object symbolizing power or a state of office and representing that persons qualities.

Masquerades

This week we talked about masks and masquerades. I found Herbert Cole's essay to be interesting as well as informative. In the essay it begin discussing about the myths of these masks in Africa and they all have one common theme to them. Women were the first to have the secrets of the masks and also the first dancers until men took over both entirely. From these myths conclusions were made that it was males fears of female power and reproductive capacities. the article goes on to explain that men avenged this power by forming secret associations and taking control of cults. at the begining of the week we learned about these associations in the bamana. The men had secret societies in which they made offerings to these clay Bolis using bload seman, fingernails, and other things to activate them. The article went on to talk about the spirits of the masks that are made and many of these masks have different functions. One particular mask is called "gods power" this mask is produced to promote crop growth. Other masks are made for entertainment reasons and to educate the young. Also the article discussed the spiritual embodiment during these dancers which we have been discussing over the last couple weeks.
The article also discussed how when masks are displayed in museums they are taken out of there culture and treated as independent sculptures and they loose the meaning behind them. I know in the past I would see pictures of them or a display and had know clue that there was a deeper meaning behind it.
One of the last things that I got from the article was the part of the article that discussed change in sculpting and that is it doesn't change very quickly they tend to stay with there original style that they learn first most change that occurs is towards the borders where the cultures start to mix styles. There was an example in the video we watched Thursday where one tribe had a giant masks depicting the serpent and one of the neighboring peoples wanted to create a larger masks so they added a meter to it. This article we looked at ties in with the three particular groups we looked at this week the Bamana, Bwa, and the Baule. The most common thing that all of these groups have in common in the sense of masks are they serve several functions. I believe we were talking about the Bamana and how they use there masks to educate the young and these dances they preform are for different stages in life ones for learning purposes and another is for initiation into adulthood. I never would have thought that these masks were so diverse and played so many different roles in each group of peoples even colors have different meanings among them. The more and more we study these cultures the more I find myself contrasting and comparing them to our culture.

Thoughts for the week

This week we took a look at an article called "Radiance of the king"  The article opens up discussing cross-cultural pollination and how Obama has become the new super hero of the world. As I look through these painting I can understand the idea of these painting being a narrative through the eyes of the artist.  On the first page we see Obama on a motorcycle and McCain on a horse, and on the motorcycle it reads change that we can believe in. Not only is it cleverly done but, it's expressing how the artists and others feel. You can get a feel for how much it meant that he was elected president. He's depicted with some of the most prominent figures in history, George Washington, Martin Luther King. He was even shown as super man. I do think that when he was first elected it was a culture shock to some in the United States, but over all I feel that it was seen as Republican and Democrat like any other election. I never thought to think what kind of an impact it would have made in other cultures, and these paintings are a good example of  it. So I do think these painting are an ambassadors of cross cultural pollination. It's pretty safe to say that us electing an African American president was a huge deal to them and they are showing it. In the article it was referred to as positive globalization.
On Thursday we took a look at some coffins from Ghana and those were really interesting. The coffins were shaped and formed to become an image of what they did. For example we saw one shaped into a cocoa bean this person was more than likely involved with that process. We also saw one that was shaped into a fish. More than likely that persons occupation was a fisherman. This idea of burying the dead has come out from Christianity which has made it's way through Ghana. This is another example of cross cultural pollination. Perhaps we will begin to see these types of caskets or ideas in western civilization with caskets looking like fish or some other kind of narrative not that we don't have forms of it already but it's just not a common practice. Our funerals tend to have a nice traditional casket. I also noticed a relation between there culture and ours. There mourning colors are black and red. although we don't necessarily wear these colors all the time to funerals we do associate black with funerals as well.

Week 2

This week in class not only did we receive a lot of information through readings and lecture, but were able to get a hands on experience as well. Tuesday in class we talked about textiles and discussed John Picton's essay concerning "tradition" and textiles.
In class Tuesday we discussed what this idea of traditional was. In Picton's essay he goes on to explain the notion of contrasting the traditional with the contemporary. During the discussion we began to discuss what exactly makes something traditional compared to contemporary. When I think about this notion of traditional first thing that comes to mind is how was it done first and does that make it the only traditional way. Is it possible that as different cultures adapt specific things from other cultures and make it there own does it then become traditional to them or a contemporary form? As we discussed this in class many good points were made about this notion, but to me I'm not sure that I still have a clear idea of what this is.
Thursday in class we explored batiking with Nani Agbeli which was an awesome experience. We began the process with picking out symbols that we wanted to use for our design on our cloths. Most of the symbols that we chose from had a specific meaning behind them that in a way told a story. Just like in one of the reading it talked about textile patterns and colors to portray a meaning. This also came up during Nadi's workshop when he was wearing the different colored fabrics around his waist. Once we found the symbols we wanted stamping on our designs using wax so that when we dyed them the wax would resist the dye showing the patterns. During the time we spent talking with Nadi a question was asked about batiking for tourists versus someone that they knew, and he explained that the outcome would be very different. This brought me back to one of the first weeks of class when I believe we were talking about Dogon and how things change for tourism. I just find that to be a very interesting concept.
One final thing that went on this week was Nadi's workshop which was very insightful to the culture, and I actually got more out of it then I thought. First we got a cultural experience when he performed the dance and also played the drum, but when he began explaining the meanings behind some of the things he was doing it was eye opening. Like the noises he was making while beating the drum was him feeling the power and him reacting to it. One last thing as it relates to what we've been talking about. While at the workshop I heard the word traditional again. He was talking about the dance and costume that he was wearing. He was doing a stage dance rather then a traditional dance. He went on to explain the difference and why they don't do the traditional dance for tourists because of the spiritual energy that is given out and only the performers could handle it.

First Thoughts

When I started this course I wasn't sure what to expect having almost no knowledge of the subject. We began the semester off with a few readings, lectures, and videos. Instantly I became surprised at how complex the culture in Africa is. We have been looking at many aspects of there cultures such as their architecture, sculpture, and other types of art.

This week we studied two groups of people the Dogon and the Asante. While studying both of these groups we took a look at several different things. These included architecture, sculpture, and others forms of art. What I enjoyed most though was looking at the sculptural objects made by both groups. The works that the Dogon created were the wooden figures. I found these to be fascinating because they made them very abstract and emphasized certain body parts for example the elongated heads. The Asante people have just as sculpture as well. Some of their pieces that really stood out were the brass-cast gold weights used to when weighing gold. I also found the stools they made to be an intriguing part of the culture as well. everyone has a stool and once they die it's blackened and then used for ancestral purposes. This in a way reminds me of American culture in a way. We don't necessary have stools that belonged to our ancestors, but often we have something that has been passed down from generation to generation that reminds us of them.

A few issues that have been addressed in the readings as well in class are the influence of Western culture and interpretations. One of the first days of class we were discussing about the Dogon and how they wear specific masks for tourists, because they are the most appealing to them. Then they wear different ones when they are performing within there culture. I think this adds to the idea of the misconceptions of African art. We as viewers are interpreting there work in our own meaning rather than what they intended it on being.