Download or read book Nok written by Peter Breunig and published by Africa Magna Verlag. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides insights into the archaeological context of the Nok Culture in Nigeria (West Africa). It was first published in German accompanying the same-titled exhibition “Nok – Ein Ursprung afrikanischer Skulptur” at the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt (30th October 2013 – 23rd March 2014) and has now been translated into English. A team of archaeologists from the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main has been researching the Nok Culture since 2005. The results are now presented to the public. The Nok Culture existed for about 1500 years – from around the mid-second millennium BCE to the turn of the Common Era. It is mainly known by the elaborate terracotta sculptures which were likewise the focus of the exhibition. The research of the archaeologists from Frankfurt, however, not only concerns the terracotta figures. They investigate the Nok Culture from a holistic perspective and put it into the larger context of the search for universal developments in the history of mankind. Such a development – important because it initiated a new era of the past – is the transition from small groups of hunters and gatherers to large communities with complex forms of human co-existence. This process took place almost everywhere in the world in the last 10,000 years, although in very different ways. The Nok Culture represents an African variant of that process. It belongs to a group of archaeological cultures or human groups, who in part subsisted on the crops they were growing and lived in mostly small but permanent settlements in the savanna regions south of the Sahara from the second millennium BCE onwards. The discovery of metallurgy is the next turning point in the development of the first farming cultures. In Africa the first metal used was not copper or bronze as in the Near East and Europe, but iron. The people of the Nok Culture were among the first that produced iron south of the Sahara. This happened in the first millennium BCE – about 1000 years after the agricultural beginning. While iron metallurgy spread rapidly across sub-Saharan Africa, the terracotta sculptures remained a cultural monopoly of the Nok Culture. Nothing comparable existed in Africa outside of Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean coast. The oldest, securely dated clay figures date back to the early first millennium BCE. Currently, it seems as if they appeared in the Nok Culture before iron metallurgy, reaching their peak in the following centuries. At the end of the first millennium BCE they disappeared from the scene. There is hardly any doubt about the ritual character of the Nok sculptures. Yet, central questions remain unanswered: Why did such an apparently complex world of ritual practices develop in an early farming culture just before or at the beginning of the momentous invention of iron production? Why were the elaborate sculptures – as excavations show – intentionally destroyed? And why did they disappear as suddenly as they emerged?
Download or read book Aspects of the Nok Culture written by J. F. Jemkur and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Nok Culture written by Gert Chesi and published by Prestel Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This publication is the first comprehensive overview of Nok terra cotta sculptures, discovered in an area of modern-day Nigeria known as the cradle of Africa's monumental sculpture. Excavations over the last fifteen years have uncovered many hundred terra cottas and fragments which were central to rites performed in the Nok civilisation 2,500 years ago: the oldest known figurative sculptures south of the Sahara." "About one hundred authenticated Nok figures, the majority published here for the first time, are included in this lavishly illustrated publication, accompanied by two essays that take a closer look at the mysteries of this enigmatic culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Birth of Art in Africa written by Bernard de Grunne and published by Vilo Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book presents sculptures from the Nok, Sokoto and Katsina cultures of Nigeria in fascinating detail. The terra-cotta statues, which date from 600BC to 300AD, are the oldest traces of the remarkable tradition of sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa. Varying in size from four-inch miniature amulets to monumental seated and kneeling sculptures, often of kings, priests or soothsayers, the statues also display the very rich variety of headdresses, beads, necklaces and bracelets that existed within these cultures. This book brings is a synthesis of the discoveries made since the groundbreaking 1977 study by Bernard Fagg. An essay on dating methods -- carbon dating and thermoluminescence -- provides the most recent results, as well as detailing new cross-dating techniques. A classification of poses common to the sculptures, and parallel photographic evidence of the continuing decorative tradition, enhance the academic value of this definitive work.
Download or read book A Fistful of Shells written by Toby Green and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 651 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time the “Scramble for Africa” among European colonial powers began in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for centuries. Its gold had fueled the economies of Europe and the Islamic world for nearly a millennium, and the sophisticated kingdoms spanning its west coast had traded with Europeans since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies—most importantly, cowrie shells imported from the Maldives and nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. But, as the slave trade grew, African kingdoms began to lose prominence in the growing global economy. We have been living with the effects of this shift ever since. With A Fistful of Shells, Toby Green transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa by reconstructing the world of these kingdoms, which revolved around trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, and the production of art. Green shows how the slave trade led to economic disparities that caused African kingdoms to lose relative political and economic power. The concentration of money in the hands of Atlantic elites in and outside these kingdoms brought about a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa, parallel to the upheavals then taking place in Europe and America. Yet political fragmentation following the fall of African aristocracies produced radically different results as European colonization took hold. Drawing not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, art, oral history, archaeology, and letters, Green lays bare the transformations that have shaped world politics and the global economy since the fifteenth century and paints a new and masterful portrait of West Africa, past and present.
Download or read book Abina and the Important Men written by Trevor R. Getz and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The main scenes of the story take place in the courtroom, where Abina strives to convince a series of "important men"--A British judge, two Euro-African attorneys, a wealthy African country "gentleman," and a jury of local leaders --that her rights matter.--Publisher description.
Download or read book African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present written by Anne Haour and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2010-07-10 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present considers ethnographic, museological and archaeological approaches to pottery-decorating tools called roulettes, that is to say, short lengths of fibre or wood that are rolled over the surface of a vessel for decoration. This book sets out, for the first time, a solid typology for the classification of African pottery decorated with such tools, and forges a consensus on common methodology and standards. It gives an overview of history of research into roulette decoration in Africa and elsewhere Jomon Japan, Neolithic Europe, Siberia, and New York among others; outlines the contemporary distribution of roulette usage in sub-Saharan African today, a 'success story' from Senegal to Tanzania; and proposes methodologies for the identification of selected roulette decoration types in the archaeological record. By achieving standardisation in pottery analysis, this book will help researchers make meaningful comparisons between different sites of West Africa, and thus guide further research on the West African past. As roulette decoration has been such a global phenomenon in the past, the book will also be of interest to all researchers with an interest in ceramics from different parts of the world.
Download or read book Africa written by Peter Stepan and published by Prestel Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 50 mesterværker - fra arkæologiske fund over middelalderen til det 20. århundredes kunst
Download or read book Culture and Human Development written by Jaan Valsiner and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2000-02-02 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major new textbook by Jaan Valsiner focuses on the interface between cultural psychology and developmental psychology. Intended for students from undergraduate level upwards, the book provides a wide-ranging overview of the cultural perspective on human development, with illustrations from pre-natal development to adulthood. A key feature is the broad coverage of theoretical and methodological issues which have relevance to this truly interdisciplinary field of enquiry encompassing developmental psychology, cultural anthropology and comparative sociology. The text is organized into five coherent parts: Part 1: Developmental theory and methodology; Part 2: Analysis of environments for human development Part 3:
Download or read book When Pigs Fly written by Jane Killion and published by Dogwise Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Do you have an impossible dog? ... You may not know it but there are certain breeds that were developed to work independently. Those breeds, and mixes, include Hounds, Terriers, Northern Breeds, and Livestock Guardian dogs. If you have a Pigs Fly kind of dog you need to work with her independent nature not against it to get good manners and even high level performance." --Amazon.com.
Download or read book Culture and Customs of Zambia written by Scott D. Taylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-10-30 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zambia stands out in Africa as one of the continent's most peaceful countries. In its early years as an independent state, Zambia became a regional bulwark against imperialism and colonial domination and South African apartheid. Today, it stands out as an important example of Africa's recent democratization, experiencing both incredible success as well as some notable setbacks. The country is also one of the most urbanized in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result of this urban influx, Zambia's diverse ethno-linguistic groups interact regularly. Moreover, many contemporary Zambian households, especially those in cities, are also exposed to the media, technology, and influences of western urbanized cultures, from Internet cafes to hip hop music. The interesting ways that tradition and modernity conflict and combine in contemporary Zambia are prime considerations in this book. This book explores Zambia's culture, with an eye toward its historical experiences and its particular endowments. It focuses on how traditional and modern interact, and sometimes collide, in the country through topics such as religion, gender roles and family, cuisine, the arts, literature, and more. The major groups are examined to give the reader an idea about how many Zambians live.
Download or read book Art Appreciation written by Deborah Gustlin and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-18 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creative Art: Methods and Materials educates readers about a variety of art methods and the ways different civilizations have used them in artistic expression. Each of the fourteen chapters is designed around a specific art method and material, and includes examples of art works and the artists who created them. Students learn about bronze casting, stone carving, clay sculpture, woodcuts and posters, glass work, and installation art. Each method is matched to artists both ancient and modern. Rather than adhering to a standard approach that focuses on white, male, European artists, the book broadens the student's perspective by including often overlooked female artists. Global in approach and comprehensive in coverage of arts forms, representations, and styles throughout history, Creative Art has been developed for sixteen-week courses in art appreciation, or introductory survey courses in art history.
Download or read book The Art of Africa written by Christa Clarke and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2006 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A CD-ROM and DVD set extracted from the 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators.' The CD-ROM "contains a PDF of 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators, ' which features forty traditional works of African art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes a brief overview of the Metropolitan's collection of African art; a short introduction and history of Africa; an explanation of the role of visual expression in the continent; descriptions of the featured works of art and background about the materials and techniques that were used to created them ... The DVD, 'Ci Wara Invocation, ' "presents the highlights of a dozen ci wara performances in Bamana communities in present-day Mali that were recorded by five different observers between 1970-2002. Among the Bamana, oral traditions credit a mythical being named Ci Wara, a divine being half mortal and half antelope, with the introduction of agriculture to the Bamana. The ci wara performances are part of biannual celebrations that either launch or conclude the farming season."--Container
Download or read book The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present written by Aribidesi Usman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-04 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich and accessible account of Yoruba history, society and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present.
Download or read book The Origins of Iron Metallurgy in Africa written by Hamady Bocoum and published by Unesco. This book was released on 2004 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of specialists archaeologists, historians, ethnologists, metallographs and sociologists gathered in this volume show the vitality of research being carried out on iron processing in Africa since as early as the third millennium B.C.
Download or read book Introduction to the History of African Civilization Precolonial Africa written by C. Magbaily Fyle and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1999 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to the History of African Civilization explores the major issues dominating African Civilization from the earliest recorded period to the eve of colonial conquest of the continent. C. Magbaily Fyle begins with a discussion of the myths and prejudices underlying most analyses of African issues, and moves into a discussion of the origin of humanity; the similarities between the classical Nile valley civilizations of Egypt, Nubia, Kush, and Axum; and the spread of Islam through African societies. He portrays the systems of precolonial government and society, including the role of women in governance, as well as traditional trade and agricultural patterns. Fyle provides a new perspective on the Islamic Jihads, shifting focus from Sokoto and Macina to the Senegambia and the Upper Guinea region, and a revised interpretation of the Atlantic slave trade, which includes the importance of African objectors to this process. He also discusses important cultural features such as the traditional African food, architecture, and typical structures of towns.
Download or read book Dynasty and Divinity written by Henry John Drewal and published by National Museum of African Art. This book was released on 2009 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a major part of the extraordinary corpus of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries.
