Yoruba art and language : seeking the African in African art / Rowland Abiodun.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : what is African in African art studies? -- Orí : no òrìṣà blesses a person without the consent of his/her orí -- Àṣẹ : the empowered word must come to pass -- Ọṣun : the corpulent woman whose waist two arms cannot encompass -- Òrúnmìlà : henceforth, Ifá priests will ride horses -- We greet aso before we greet its wearer -- Àkó : re/minding is the antidote for forgetfulness -- Ilé-ifè : the place where the day dawns -- Yorùbá aesthetics : ìwà, ìwà is what we are searching for, ìwà -- Tomorrow, today's elder sibling.

The Yorùbá was one of the most important civilizations of sub-Saharan Africa. While the high quality and range of its artistic and material production have long been recognized, the art of the Yorùbá has been judged primarly according to the standards and principles of Western aesthetics. In this book, which merges the methods of art history, archaeology, and anthropology, Rowland Abiodun offers new insights into Yoruba art and material culture by examining them within the context of the civilization's cultural norms and values and, above all, the Yoruba language. He begins by establishing the importance of the concepts of oríkì, the verbal and visual performances that animate ritual and domestic objects, such as cloth, sculpture, and dance; and às̤e, the energy that structures existence and that transforms and controls the physical world. Both concepts served as the guiding principles of Yoruba artistic production. Through analyses of representative objects, Abiodun demonstrates how material culture expresses the key philosophical notions at the heart of the Yoruba worldview. Aboidun draws on his fluency and prodigious knowledge of Yoruba culture and language to dramatically enrich our understanding of Yoruba civilization and its arts.

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