Tribal arts

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

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

.... the most amazing thing,  is the burial mode: convinced that bury in the ground push away him from reunification with Ancestral Spirits, the Igorot still placed the coffins in caves or, very often, suspended overlooking the mountain ridge.

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.

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 .