Tribal arts

Perhaps the most iconic of all Indonesian textiles is the double red ship
palepai of the Paminggir people, from the royal community of Kalianda in
the Lampung District of southern Sumatra. Thomas Murray introduces an
outstanding example in the collection of New York’s Cooper Hewitt Museum

This paper explores the ethics of ethnomusicology through a case study into Ida Halpern's recordings of First Nations music. The paper develops a performative model of First Nations music as a mnemonic device in law, and explores moral rights to the use of the music based on an argument first developed by Kant in relation to publishing. The paper was later extensively rewritten with Rosemary J. Combe, and published as “A Broken Record: Subjecting ‘Music’ to Cultural rights” by Elizabeth Burns Coleman and  Rosemary J. Coombe with Fiona MacArailt,  in Conrad Bunk and James O. Young (eds.), The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation, Blackwell, 2009.

Agaria is an indigenous iron smelters and craftsmen tribal community. They live in the adjoining areas of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The major population of Agaria tribe lives in the Mandala, Dindori, Balaghat and Sidhi districts of Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur, Kawardha and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh (Elwin L942; Russell and Hira Lal 1916; Mehta 2004; Singh 1992). According to census 2001, their total population in Chhattisgarh was 54,574 including 27,192 males and27,382 females (sex ratio - 1007). As per the census 2OLL, their total population in Chhattisgarh is 67,196 including 33,384 males and 33,812 females (sex ratio - 1013). Most of their population live in rural areas (64112- Census 2011). Their main occupation is Iron metal smelting and craftwork. They have indigenous technique of iron smelting and craft work developed long back by their forefathers. They produce iron from locally available iron ore and make artifacts and agricultural implements, etc. and sale in the local market. They built their house on the outskirts of village. The Agaria have very dispersed population due to their traditional occupational constraints. Usually, only one Agaria family is found in one village. Only few villages have Agaria hamlets with few families.

The inhabitants of the Pre-Columbian world created numerous religious belief systems, many of which included huge pantheons of deities, human sacrifice, and state controlled worship.  The Andeans, and the Incas in particular, had a unique world view in which natural features -- mountains, springs, rivers, and hills -- were sacred.  The entire universe was considered "an animate being, a living entity," created by higher powers that exercised continual control. (Jones, p.124, 2010)
The Inca "worshiped their ancestors and features of the landscape;" weather and natural phenomena were logical foci of prayers and offerings.

Dr Shirodkar's volume on rock art in Goa is an encyclopedic and pioneering venture in rock art studies in India. It has placed the petroglyphs of Usgalimal and Kajur in the background of the history of geological formation, biological evolution, megalithism, mother goddess and fertility cults in India and the world . it has put the faunal, human and geometrical designs on laterite rocks in the backdrop of hunting ,gathering and foraging communities in the river valleys of Goa.

Anthropologists of ethnographic museums have neglected to study how the items in their collections have been altered. I here investigate one telling variant: the loinclothing or emasculation of male figures, by whom, when, where, why, to what consequence. The results of my survey indicate that especially curators had complex relationships with their objects. Yet they have tended to remain silent about these changes. I discuss internal reasons for the neglect of this topic and for this silence, which uncovers a broader, previously neglected side to museum studies yet to be illuminated.
Published online as ASAOnline No. 8, August 2013

La identificación de las falsificaciones en el arte tradicional africano es una cuestión que despierta múltiples inquietudes en el ámbito de los museos, las galerías especializadas y el coleccionismo privado que es necesario resolver.

The identification of fakes in traditional African art is a question that wakes up multiple worries in the area of the museums, the specialized galleries and the private collecting that is necessary to resolve.

There have been few surveys of single artforms for any Pacific country, and none that I know of even approaches this  combination of regional comprehensiveness, technical detail and social analysis. Part of the secret is its co-authorship by a practising artist-potter (Tuckson) who could both understand and talk artist-to-artist about technical and aesthetic detail, and an art historian (May), who was able to provide a theoretical and analytical framework for the information.

This paper analyses the constituent elements of a popular sculptural grouping from the Iatmul/Sawos repertoire of wood-carvings (Middle Sepik, Papua New Guinea). From top to bottom, the grouping typically consists of a bird, fish, woman, crocodile and mound; however, it exists in many variations and not all elements need to be present. One aim is to understand the template in terms of the underpinning mythology, i.e., in relation to the relevant ancestral narratives. Another aim is to trace the evolution of the design over time and to establish the range of expressions available to the component motifs, whether alone or in combination.

Rock‐art in the form pictographs and modern painting tradition vogue amongst the Kurumba tribe was reported from Vellarikombi located in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu in the year 1984. Since then, some writings on the rock art as well modern painting tradition have emerged.  However, a comprehensive study on the rock‐art was lacking. Hence, Vellarikombi was visited to understand the pristine rock‐art and modern painting tradition. This article is a reappraisal of the rock‐art and the
modern painting tradition from Vellarikombi.

After half a century at the forefront of scholarship, the topic of artistic creativity in sub-Saharan Africa has lost much of its glamour. In light of her apprenticeship to a basket maker in northwest Zambia the author revisits the work of several scholars who have written on the topic, arguing that visualism and logocentrism are ultimately detrimental to the understanding of the creative process. Creativity, she argues, blossoms in art making when the artist’s mind and skillful body coalesce in engagement with materials. Consequently, a theoretical and methodological reorientation to the study of creativity is in order, one in which, together with observation and interviewing, the experiential methodology of apprenticeship is uniquely promising.

En la cultura yoruba, en África Occidental, se da un elevado número de nacimientos de gemelos, que los sitúa a la cabeza de la población mundial, aunque vaya acompañada de un alto riesgo de mortalidad, especialmente elevada en el pasado. La creencia en la inmortalidad del alma y de que los gemelos comparten la misma alma, dio origen a las representaciones sagradas (ere) de los gemelos (ibeji) en pequeñas esculturas, masculinas o femeninas, que personifican, generalmente, a los recién nacidos fallecidos. La función de los ibeji era asegurar la supervivencia del que continúa vivo combatiendo la amenaza a un equilibrio natural. Los ibeji son parte de un lenguaje visual que los escultores africanos daban forma para satisfacer las necesidades culturales de una costumbre ampliamente arraigada en el siglo XIX y principios del XX, cuyos orígenes se remontan al siglo XVIII, cuando un acontecimiento para la celebración pasaba a ser motivo de duelo por la muerte de uno o ambos recién nacidos.

In the Yoruba culture in West Africa, there is a high number of births of twins, placing them at the head of the world’s population, even if accompanied by a high risk of mortality, particularly high in the past. The belief in the immortality of the soul and that the twins share the same soul, gave origin to the sacred representations (ere) of the twins (ibeji) in small sculptures, male or female, which they usually personify, to the deceased newborns. The role of the ibeji was to ensure the survival of the one who continues to live by fighting the threat of natural equilibrium. The ibeji are part of a visual language that African sculptors shaped to meet the cultural needs of a custom widely rooted in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the origins of which date back to the eighteenth century, when an event for the celebration became a cause of mourning for the death of one or both newborns.

Las figuras bitéki están entre las creaciones más reconocidas del arte bembe. Tradicionalmente asentados entre la R.D. y la R.P. del  Congo, el culto a los antepasados establecía la vía de comunicación entre los fallecidos en un mundo invisible y el mundo visible de los vivos. Las figuras bitéki, de pequeñas dimensiones, servían para invocar a los antepasados, hombres o mujeres, con el fin de obtener su protección en ocasiones de importancia para la vida de la comunidad (la enfermedad, los fallecimientos, las guerras, los enlaces matrimoniales o los viajes). Las orbitas de los ojos en blanco, señaladas con la colocación de trozos de loza, eran la prueba de haber alcanzado el estado de éxtasis.

Los bembe se dividen en diferentes subgrupos distribuidos en localizaciones dispersas donde se reconocen diferentes estilos y formas artísticas. En la localidad de Mouyondzi se localizaban los principales centros de producción, siendo reconocida por los bembe como su capital regional. El escultor ejecutaba una representación idealizada del antepasado para lo que era necesario obtener suficiente información del personaje a representar. De esa forma, las figuras bitéki podrían transmitir la identidad cultural de la persona representada, su estado civil y su posición dentro del clan.

Bitéki figures are among the most recognized creations of bembe art. Traditional settled between the R.D. and the R.P. of the Congo, the cult of the ancestors established the way of communication between the deceased, in an invisible world and the visible world of the living. The small bitéki figures served to invoke the ancestors, men or women, in order to obtain their protection at times of importance for the life of the community (illness, death, war, marriage, …). The orbit of the eyes, marked with the placement of white pieces of earthenware, was proof of having reached the state of ecstasy.

The bembe people are divided into different subgroups distributed in scattered locations where different styles and artistic forms are recognized. In the locality of Mouyondzi the main production centers were located, being recognized by the bembe as their regional capital. The sculptor executed an idealized a representation of the ancestor for which it was necessary to obtain sufficient information of the character to represent. In this way, the Bitéki figures could transmit the cultural identity of the person represented, their marital status and their position within the clan.

This article is divided into two parts: first a reflexion on the concept of classical art as applied to African sculpture, and second a brief analysis of Fang statuary, and how it might relate to the polyphonic structure of Pygmy music and bark paintings.

Indian ritual objects displayed in museum environments cannot provide the complete idea of their functionality and the purpose unless they are embedded in that particular ceremonial occasion they were created for. Observing a ritual object in its totality means to examine it in linkage with the performer, associated narrative, sequences of the ritual performances and the context from which its existence came out. The importance of specific time and space essential for that particular ceremony also cannot be ignored altogether. These objects not only serve as a complementary factor in accomplishment of the related event, but they are also viewed as the charged reservoirs of potential metaphysical elements. Due to advent of modern ways of life and the growing global inter-cultural influences many prevailing customs and practices are becoming obsolete and the associated ritual objects have become the dead museum specimens. Though, there have been attempts to contextualize these specimens by the supplements of texts and various other audio-visual elements in the contemporary museums yet the viewers’ receptivity and the arousal of necessary empathy has remained insufficient. This paper through some representative examples aims to question the present reconstructed identities of the ritual objects when placed in museum environment as compared to their emic interpretations. It also draws our attention towards the restoration of true spiritual symbolism and functionality of the ritual objects by contemplating upon solutions to this contextual crisis.

The volume brings the reader closer to indigenous perspectives of performance practice(s) which for them are not so much a matter of art as an analienable part of life. It brings home how the interlocking of the two itself is the most essential element of 'being indigenous'. Comparing an enormous range of scholarship across disciplines and an array of emthodological approaches, the book depicts the imaginative transactions evident in the interface of identity and cultural transformation, raising the issue of cultural rights of these marginalized communities.

English and Italian text about Washkok Panels:..The matter is simple and essential , but not trivialized . There is always a highlight in the metaphorical aesthetic choice , and I do not think it's a case the scarcity of straight lines , or rather the triumph of curved and irregular graphics that recall the course of the Sepik River . Using in fact the theories of Gestalt Psychology Kwoma people evoke through the reproduction of the form all that remains imprinted in their minds, to govern the positive energy , whether those forms make reference to the strength of the Ancestors or Nature .

The market value of tribal art has implications for the risk of looting in Africa. Consequent trafficking in tribal art compromises security on the continent by eroding cultural identity, fostering public-sector corruption, and providing a source of revenue for insurgents. This paper examines auction sales of African tribal art for the continent as a whole and by individual nations of origin. Graphical analysis of sales data from the past nine years identifies distinct market trends for temporal comparison with security in nations from which the artworks originate. The analysis suggests that collecting trends in “market nations” may reflect perceptions of security in “source nations”.

The divination baskets of south Central Africa are woven for a specific purpose. The divination baskets, known as lipele, contain sixty or so small articles, from seeds, claws, and minuscule horns to wooden carvings. Each article has its own name and symbolic meaning, and collectively they are known as jipelo. For the Luvale and related peoples, the lipele is more than a container of souvenirs; it is a tool, a source of crucial information from the ancestral past and advice for the future. In Along an African Border, anthropologist Sónia Silva examines how the  Angolan refugees living in Zambia during the Angolan civil war used these divination baskets to cope with daily life in a new land. Silva documents the special processes involved in weaving the baskets and transforming them into oracles--the process of personification of these objects and their transformation into fetishes. She speaks with diviners who make their living interpreting lipele messages and speaks also with their knowledge-seeking clients. To many people, these baskets are capable of thinking, hearing, judging, and responding. They communicate by means of jipelo articles drawn in configurations, interact with persons and other objects, punish wrongdoers, assist people in need, and, much like humans, go through a life course that is marked with an initiation ceremony and a special burial. The lipele functions in a state between object and person, being often described as a fetish or a personified object. Notably absent from lipele divination is any discussion or representation in the form of symbolic objects of the violence in Angola or the struggles of living in exile—instead, the consultation focuses on age-old personal issues of illness, reproduction, and death. Through basket divination, people in Zambia and Angola maintain their links to kin and tradition in a world of transience and uncertainty.

"Silva's close study makes a valuable addition to the growing repertoire of ethnographic accounts of divination in Africa and the peoples who continue to invoke it as a pivotal cultural institution. . . . It is a tightly woven work that parallels the craftsmanship that Silva details in her study of divinatory baskets."—History of Religions

"With great originality, [Silva] accesses the life stories of these human subjects through the material objects with which they (inter-)relate. . . . Silva provides a stimulating model for any researcher hoping to partner with individuals in their efforts to confront the myriad ways they are objectified, whether by circumstances, by the state, or by scholarship."—Journal of Religion in Africa

"In addition to a useful debate between the economics and business awareness approach, or the personification of ritual, this book contains very useful and detailed descriptions of basket divination rituals and Angolan basket weaving techniques that will be useful to the general reader and students of African studies."—Journal of American Academy of Religion

"A thought-provoking study of the dynamics of divination in a refugee population seeking stability in a disrupted world through an ancient and effective 'way of knowing.' Using the frame of a divination basket's life history from birth to adulthood, Silva provides a rich contextual study of the various paths to understanding presented by the core cultural institution of divination: material culture and art, economic theory, gender relations, the nature of knowledge, ethnography, jurisprudence, and personhood."—Philip M. Peek, Drew University

Nel vasto serraglio italiano dell'arte africana che contempla molti collezionisti, molti faccendieri e pochi studiosi (spesso presunti tali) Djidji l'africain (il riminese Gigi Pezzoli) appartiene ad una specie ormai unica, a rischio d'estinzione. Dato per vero che tendiamo a valutare gli altri sulla base delle affinità (culturali, in questo campo), il caso del suddetto 'esemplare' fa da subito eccezione. In una frequentazione non costante ma quasi trentennale abbiamo sfiorato più volte la rissa ( verbale per fortuna!) sui temi della post-tribalità che Djidji ha meditato nelle prolungate frequentazioni dell'Africa contemporanea o su quello, più interiore, della sua indifferenza nei confronti del divenire del collezionismo d'arte africana (che, per contro, mi ha sempre affascinato). Mi sono però costantemente trovato a vedere in lui una capacità di valutazione, di analisi e di scelta così entusiasta da spingerlo a pronunciare quella frase " è bellissimo" che nessun collezionista si lascerebbe sfuggire prima di un acquisto.

Bamana, la linea assoluta ... la forma sublime nell'arte africana. di Beppe Berna Figura femminile. H. cm. 42,5. Prov.: vecchia collezione privata francese. Galerie Ratton Hourdé, Paris. Pubblicata a pag. 69 di "Sculptures de l'ancien Soudan", Galerie Ratton-Hourdé, Paris, 2008. L'opera nel contesto tribale. Le rare sculture bamana di questo tipo, riconducibili all'ambito cultuale Jomooni (della società iniziatica maschile Jo) od a quello Gwandenw (della società femminile Gwan, integrata nella Jo), appaiono caratterizzate, in contrapposizione a quelle Jonyeleni, da una maggiore morbidezza di linee e soprattutto dall'essere di norma colte nel compimento di un'azione o, come in questo caso, dalla presenza di un oggetto stretto tra le mani. La morfologia di questo attributo appare però di non facile interpretazione in quanto, escludendo generici amuleti o contenitori magici, esso sembra più direttamente identificabile come lo strumento musicale detto kenyen, ('grattugia' o 'racle' francese) largamente utilizzato a livello cerimoniale. Questa prerogativa indicata in letteratura come di stretta pertinenza maschile ("Bamana, un art et un savoir-vivre au Mali", [*1]) potrebbe trovare qui giustificazione (nella raffigurazione femminile) in ragione della grande arcaicità, come in una sorta di archetipo androgino.