Synopses & Reviews
This book is about the expeditions from Europe and North America to collect African art objects at the turn of the century.
Review
"With an excellent introduction which creates a tight framework for what follows, the book adds up to an important contribution to our knowledge of early encounters between Africans and Westerners mediated through art. Each article enriches our knowledge of the subject and of the various subtexts--racial, colonial, economic--that underlay these encounters." Journal of Anthropological Research"With an excellent introduction which creates a tight framework for what follows, the book adds up to an important contribution to our knowledge of early encounters between Africans and Westerners mediated through art. Each article enriches our knowledge of the subject and of the various subtexts--racial, colonial, economic--that underlay these encounters." Journal of Anthropological Research"A collection with unusual unity, thanks to articles that were carefully selected and edited." American Anthropologist
Synopsis
The contributors to this volume trace the life history of artifacts that were brought to Europe and America from Congo toward the end of the nineteenth century, and became the subjects of museum displays. They also present fascinating case studies of the pioneering collectors, including such major figures as Frobenius and Torday, discuss the complex and sensitive issues involved in the business of collecting, and consider how these objects were used in the invention of Africa by the West.
Table of Contents
1. Objects and agendas: re-collecting the Congo Enid Schildkrout; 2. 'Enlightened but in darkness': interpretations of Kuba art and culture at the turn of the century Curtis A. Keim; 3. Kuba art and the birth of ethnography David A. Binkley; 4. Curios and curiosity: notes on reading Torday and Frobenius Patricia J. Darish; 5. Artes Africanae: the western discovery of art in northeastern Zaire John Mack; 6. Nineteenth-century images of the Mangbetu in the explorers' accounts Johannes Fabian; 7. Personal styles and disciplinary paradigms Christraud M. Geary; 8. Where art and ethnology met: the Ward African collection at the Smithsonian Mary Jo Arnoldi; 9. 'Magic, or as we usually say, art': a framework for comparing European and African art Wyatt MacGaffrey.