Masquerades in African Society

Masquerades in African Society PDF Author: Walter E. A. Van Beek
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847013430
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Explores the dynamics of African masquerades and mask performances on the continent, linking performative expressions to societal characteristics. What is the meaning of masks and masquerades in African traditions and how can we understand their role in rituals and performances? Why do we find masks in some African regions and not in others, and what does this 'mask habitat' say about the general dynamics of masquerades in Africa? Though masks are among the most famous art icons of Africa, exploration of their uses and the way in which they articulate social characteristics of African societies has been underexamined. This book takes an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of masquerades on the African continent to show how mask rituals are an integral part of African indigenous religions and societies, and are informed by and linked to specific types of social and ecological conditions. Having established the commonalities of mask rituals and a mask typology, the authors look at the varieties of mask performances and the types of rituals in which masks function in rites of passage and in rituals of gender, power, and identity. The following chapters focus on different types of rituals featuring masks, from initiation and death ceremonies to secrecy, kingship, law and war. With its broad examination of the use of masks on the continent, from Angola to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, this well illustrated book will stand as an authoritative study of the use of masks, of interest not only to those in African Studies but to anthropologists and ethnographers worldwide.

Masquerades in African Society

Masquerades in African Society PDF Author: Walter E. A. Van Beek
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847013430
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores the dynamics of African masquerades and mask performances on the continent, linking performative expressions to societal characteristics. What is the meaning of masks and masquerades in African traditions and how can we understand their role in rituals and performances? Why do we find masks in some African regions and not in others, and what does this 'mask habitat' say about the general dynamics of masquerades in Africa? Though masks are among the most famous art icons of Africa, exploration of their uses and the way in which they articulate social characteristics of African societies has been underexamined. This book takes an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of masquerades on the African continent to show how mask rituals are an integral part of African indigenous religions and societies, and are informed by and linked to specific types of social and ecological conditions. Having established the commonalities of mask rituals and a mask typology, the authors look at the varieties of mask performances and the types of rituals in which masks function in rites of passage and in rituals of gender, power, and identity. The following chapters focus on different types of rituals featuring masks, from initiation and death ceremonies to secrecy, kingship, law and war. With its broad examination of the use of masks on the continent, from Angola to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, this well illustrated book will stand as an authoritative study of the use of masks, of interest not only to those in African Studies but to anthropologists and ethnographers worldwide.

West African Masking Traditions and Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals

West African Masking Traditions and Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals PDF Author: Raphael Chijioke Njoku
Publisher: Rochester Studies in African H
ISBN: 9781580469845
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
A revisionist account of African masquerade carnivals in transnational context that offers readers a unique perspective on the connecting threads between African cultural trends and African American cultural artifacts

African Material Culture

African Material Culture PDF Author: Mary Jo Arnoldi
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253116635
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"This volume has much to recommend it -- providing fascinating and stimulating insights into many arenas of material culture, many of which still remain only superficially explored in the archaeological literature." -- Archaeological Review "... a vivid introduction to the topic.... A glimpse into the unique and changing identities in an ever-changing world." -- Come-All-Ye Fourteen interdisciplinary essays open new perspectives for understanding African societies and cultures through the contextualized study of objects, treating everything from the production of material objects to the meaning of sticks, masquerades, household tools, clothing, and the television set in the contemporary repertoire of African material culture.

Masquerades of Modernity

Masquerades of Modernity PDF Author: Ferdinand De Jong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780748633210
Category : Casamance (Senegal)
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalisation? This title demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as locality.

Can You Spot the Leopard?

Can You Spot the Leopard? PDF Author: Christine Stelzig
Publisher: Prestel Junior
ISBN: 9783791318745
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Describes different types of ceremonial African masks, how and why they are made, and how they reflect the culture of their ethnic groups.

Deformity Masks and Their Role in African Cultures

Deformity Masks and Their Role in African Cultures PDF Author: Ann Goerdt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781936658404
Category : Abnormalities, Human, in art
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Representing Woman

Representing Woman PDF Author: Ruth Bliss Phillips
Publisher: University of California Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description


Voice of the Leopard

Voice of the Leopard PDF Author: Ivor L. Miller
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1604738146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba, Ivor L. Miller shows how African migrants and their political fraternities played a formative role in the history of Cuba. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no large kingdoms controlled Nigeria and Cameroon's multilingual Cross River basin. Instead, each settlement had its own lodge of the initiation society called Ékpè, or “leopard,” which was the highest indigenous authority. Ékpè lodges ruled local communities while also managing regional and long-distance trade. Cross River Africans, enslaved and forcibly brought to colonial Cuba, reorganized their Ékpè clubs covertly in Havana and Matanzas into a mutual-aid society called Abakuá, which became foundational to Cuba's urban life and music. Miller's extensive fieldwork in Cuba and West Africa documents ritual languages and practices that survived the Middle Passage and evolved into a unifying charter for transplanted slaves and their successors. To gain deeper understanding of the material, Miller underwent Ékpè initiation rites in Nigeria after ten years' collaboration with Abakuá initiates in Cuba and the United States. He argues that Cuban music, art, and even politics rely on complexities of these African-inspired codes of conduct and leadership. Voice of the Leopard is an unprecedented tracing of an African title-society to its Caribbean incarnation, which has deeply influenced Cuba's creative energy and popular consciousness.

Genesis

Genesis PDF Author: Alisa LaGamma
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588390748
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
The seventy-five masterpieces presented here, drawn from public and private American collections, are among the most celebrated icons of African art, works that are superb artistic creations as well as expressions of a society's most profound conceptions about its beginnings. All are reproduced in color and are accompanied by entries that illuminate the distinctive cultural contexts that inspired their creation and informed their appreciation."--BOOK JACKET.

Being and Becoming

Being and Becoming PDF Author: Ukpokolo, Chinyere
Publisher: Spears Media Press
ISBN: 1942876076
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This book illuminates the complex and constantly shifting social and cultural dynamics that shape people's identity. Specifically, the volume focuses on the intersections of gender with, culture and identity, and at different historical epochs; on the way men and women define themselves and are defined by diverse peoples and cultures across time and space in sub-Saharan Africa. The discussions presented in this anthology primarily focus on 'being' as 'a state' or 'condition', defined by sex identity, and how this identity shifts, and hence 'becoming', assuming diverse meanings in disparate societies, contexts, and time. The discourse, therefore, moves from how the perception of the self in cultural and historical contexts has informed actions and at some other times shaped interpretations given to historical facts, to how changing economic realities also shape the definitions and constructions of social and relational issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. The historical trajectories of Islamic religion, colonialism and Christian missionary activities in sub-Saharan Africa have shaped the worlds of the peoples of the region and impacted on gender relations.