Survey of African Art
ANTH 457-010
ARTH 457-010
SPRING, 2013
Instructor: Prof. Peter M. Weil
Office Hours:
108 Munroe Hall
Monday 12:30-3:30; Wednesday 12:30-2:00; other hours by appointment
E-Mail and Phone:
pmweil@udel.edu; 831-1858
Required Reading: [NOTE: Course and test based on these editions only, not
earlier ones]
Kasfir, Sidney L. and Till Forster 2013 African Art and Agency in the Workshop.
[K&F] Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [PAPER]
McNaughton, Patrick R. 1988 The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power, and
Art in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press [PAPER]
Ottenberg, Simon and David A. Binkley. [O&B] 2006 Playful Performers: African
Children's Masquerades. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Visona, Monica Blackmun et al. 2008 [2nd Edition] A History of Art in Africa. Upper
Saddle River (NJ) and New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. [PAPER]
On-Line
Roy, Christopher D. 1987 The Spread of Mask Styles
in the Black Volta Basin. African Arts 20 (4): 39-47 and
89-90.
http://www.udel.edu/anthro/pmweil/Spread%20of%20Mask%20Styles.pdf
Weil, Peter M. 1998 “Women’s Masks and the Power of Gender in Mande History,”
African Arts, 31:2 (Spring): 28-37, 88-91, 95-96.
http://www.udel.edu/anthro/pmweil/women's%20masks.pdf
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Weil, Peter M. and Bala Saho 2005 "Masking for Money: The Commodification of
Kankurang and Simba Mask Performances in Urban Gambia." In Money and
Modernity in West Africa: Ethnographic Perspectives on Commercialization in
the Mande Regions. Stephen Wooten and Jan Jansen, eds. Munster
(Germany): Verlag Lit. Pp. 162-177.
http://www.udel.edu/anthro/pmweil/maskingformoney.pdf
http://www.udel.edu/anthro/pmweil/simbabak1999.pdf
http://www.udel.edu/anthro/pmweil/simbaserr1999.pdf
McKee. Yates 2006 “The Politics of the Plane: On Fatimah Tuggar's Working
Woman, Visual Anthropology, Published in cooperation with the Commission on
Visual Anthropology, 19:5, 417-422
Murray, Soroya 2002 “Africaine: Candice Breitz Wangechi Mutu Tracey Rose
Fatimah Tuggar,” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, no. 16-17,
pp. 88-93
Course Requirements:
1.
One two-hour essay exam that counts 45% of your grade
[Exam: Wednesday, April 25th]
2.
One research paper [12 page minimum text] and seminar presentation
that together count 45% of your grade [please see Research Assignment]
3.
Timely reading of assignments and coming to class prepared to discuss
them. This includes bringing two specific written questions from the
assigned reading to each class. A great emphasis will be placed on
demonstrating your being prepared for comments at fellow student
presentations near the end of the course.(10% of grade)
4.
Class attendance is required: Attendance will be taken via a signature
sheet at each class. There are only 13 class meetings, one of which is
used for testing. Thus absence from only one class (or even a portion of a
class) involves missing a significant proportion of the total number. Each
unexcused absence will result in the deduction of 15 points from your
total grade.
Grading:
Plus-Minus: 0-2 = minus; 3-5 = letter grade; 6-9 = plus; for example, 85 =
B
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Helpful Reminder: Classes, exams, and grades for this course are governed by
University policies described in the current Student Guide to Policies. For additional
discussion of these and related Anthropology Department policies, see attached
sheet.
ASSIGNMENTS
I.
Introduction
Read:
Tape:
II.
2/6
Visona et al.
O&B
Pp. 10-19
Hlavacova
Ch. 7
Textile Trade and Masquerade among the Kalabari [Ijo] of
Nigeria
African Art and Sociocultural Processes
A.
Sociocultural Context as a Source of Meaning 2/13
Read:
K&F
Sidney L. Kasfir and Till Förster Preface – The Contributions to the Book
Till Förster and Sidney L. Kasfir Introduction – Rethinking the Workshop
Chika Okeke-Agulu Rethinking Mbari Mbayo: Osogbo Workshops in the
Nineteen-sixties (Nigeria)
Christine Scherer Working on the Small Difference: Notes on the
Making of Sculpture in Tengenenge (Zimbabwe)
Jessica Gerschultz Navigating Nairobi: Artists in a Workshop System
(Kenya)
O&B:
Tape:
pp 1-46
Through African Eyes
B . Art, Gender, and Meaning in African Societies
Read:
2/20
Weil 1998 All
K&F
Brenda Schmahmann Stitched-up women – Pinneddown men: Gender Politics in Weya and Mapula
Needlework (Zimbabwe and South Africa)
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O&B
Slides:
III.
Ojo
Ch. 3
Yoshida
Ch. 12
Cameron and Jordan Ch. 13
Mande Women’s Masks
African Art and Historical Processes
A.
Introduction 2/27
Read:
B.
K&F
Till Förster Work and
Workshop: The iteration of style and
genre in two workshop settings (Côte
d’Ivoire and Cameroon)
Nicolas Argenti Follow the
wood: Carving and political cosmology
in Oku (Cameroon)
Masks (and other Objects) as Cultural and Historical Processes 2/27
Read:
Visona et al.
Ch 5: pp 153-165
Roy, Christopher D. 1987 The Spread of Mask Styles
in the Black Volta Basin {online}
O&B
Hinkley
Ch. 5
K&F
Norma H. Wolff
“A Matter of
Must”: Continuities and Change in the
Adugbologe Woodcarving Workshop in
Abeokuta (Nigeria)
Tapes:
IV.
Dance of the Spirits
Yaaba Soore: The Path of the Ancestors
Contemporary African Art and Globalization
Read:
Visona et al.
3/6
Ch .15
K&F Elizabeth Morton Grace Dieu Mission in South
Africa: Defining the Modern Art Workshop in Africa.
Alex Bortolot
Artesãos da Nossa Pátria:
Makonde Blackwood Sculptors, Cooperatives, and
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the Art of Socialist Revolution in Mozambique.
Murray
Mkee
All
All
Meeting at 2:30 at Gallery, Mechanical Hall with Fatimah Tuggar in relation to
her gallery exhibit “In/Visible Seams.” See:
http://www.udel.edu/museums/mechanicalhall.html
V.
The Culture of Creation and the Creation of Culture: The Western Sudan as
Example
A.
Introduction
Read :
3/13
Visona et al.
K&F
Ch. 5: pp 130-153 and Ch. 4
Sidney L. Kasfir Apprentices and Entrepreneurs:
the Workshop and Style Uniformity in Subsaharan
Africa (reprinted from Iowa Studies in African Art)
Coda: Apprentices and Entrepreneurs Revisited:
Twenty Years of Workshop Changes, 1987–2007
Tapes:
African Carving: a Dogon Kanaga Mask
THURSDAY, MARCH 14: SIDNEY KASFIR PRESENTATION, “Can This Patient Be
Saved? Schism and Generational Shift in the Field of
African Art History,” 127 MEMORIAL HALL, 5:30 P.M.
Attendance is required
B.
The Creation of Mande Persons, Culture, and Art
Read
Tapes:
NOTE:
VI.
McNaughton
Yeelen
Tree of Iron
ALL
No class March 27 because of Spring Break
Western Guinea Coast
A.
Art, Masquerades, and Secrecy
5
4/10
3/20-4/3
Read:
B.
Visona
Ch 6
West African Urban Art and Globalization
4/17
Read:
Weil and Saho {online} ALL
Visona et al.
Ch. 15
O&B
Cannizo Ch. 9
Barcelos et al. and Ottenberg
Ch.10
Tape:
Film:
Simba Performance in Serrekunda, The Gambia
In and Out of Africa
------------------------------------------------EXAM
Wednesday, April 25
------------------------------------------------Exam Make-Up Policy: Only extreme circumstances, such as the death of a close
family member or a medically-certified student illness, will be accepted as justification
for missing an exam and being allowed to take a make-up exam. Requests to the
instructor for permission to take a make-up exam must be accompanied by
justification in writing from an authority other than the student. The justification must
be signed and dated by the authority and include the authority’s telephone number. A
missed scheduled exam that is not made up is graded as a zero.
VII.
Seminar Presentations
5/1-5/8
Missing a Presentation Policy: Only extreme circumstances, such as the death of a
close family member or a medically-certified student illness, will be accepted as
justification for missing. Written applications for excuse must be submitted to the
instructor for consideration and must include a justification in writing from an authority
other than the student. The justification must be signed and dated by the authority
and include the authority’s telephone number. A missed presentation by a class
member other than you that is not excused subtracts 30 points from your
presentation. An unexcused miss from your own presentation results in a zero for the
presentation.
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