So this is my second attempt at this post this week...I apologize if some of you already saw the original and are getting repeated information...
Anyhow, this week in class we were assigned a couple of very interesting readings about art adaptation in African arts. I found the article, "Imaging Otherness" to be very interesting. A majority of the time in history courses, especially as children, we are taught how to the newcomers interpret a new foreign place but not so much how the native people perceive it. The Portuguese arrived in Africa and to the peoples Beni, Kongo and Sapi there was an uncanny resemblance between their personal beliefs and the actuality of the Portuguese.
Images of pale skinned, long-haired individuals are evident on many of the ivory carvings. Pronounced cheek bones and elongated noses distinguish the portuguese from typical African styled figures. I would not have initially thought much of these images of the portuguese on salt cellars but it actually serves as an accurate way for them to document their arrival. I was argued that it is impossible for us to know what and when much of these events occurred, but its fairly easy to know simply from looking at the reliefs carved on these pieces.
Today, the concepts of adaption and assimilation are the ones we push on ourselves to be more open minded. The arrival of the portuguese introduced a totally new world to these peoples and in doing so initiated a different kind of art making. Images of Olukun, the god of the sea were used to refer to these new foreign people as well as the mud fish because of their ability to dwell in two places (both land and water).
Overall I thought it was pretty fascinating to see how so early on people were adapting and assimilating. I feel like a lot of people today pride themselves on their ability to welcome change with open arms but in reality thats how we've survived over the centuries. The ability to change and evolve on all levels is what has brought us to the point we are at now. More or less I suppose we can look back and appreciate it a little more.
I find it to be really interesting how African and even South American spirituality played a major part in how native people perceived Europeans upon their arrival. It's really interesting to me that some of the West Africans believed the Europeans were from the land of the dead so they could be considered the living dead. This is funny to me because we learned about this around halloween.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting of what they thought of the Europeans and how they saw them as spiritual figures that came from the other world. It is strange they saw them that way. It makes sense though because that was their belief of what they thought the other people looked like and they just matched the description perfectly. But I would have to agree with you, it is pretty interesting to see adaption going on so early in time but like you said it's our way of surviving and our ability to change to what is needed by the world and the society. If we didn't adapt then we wouldn't have or be the world we are today.
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