Result of the research : 'tradition'
Study on the sacred
Introduction
The sacred: the real paradigm
The flaw in the anthropological research of the sacred
The position of the African researcher
The inconsistency of the true-false paradigm of the irrational
The crucial importance of the event
Ancestor worship: in search of a definition
The premier event: the phenomenon agrarian
Biological Bases
The neurobiological underpinnings
Astronomical Foundations
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Welcome to this site dedicated to refuting the paradigm of the irrational use explicit about the facts of sacred archaic or traditional societies, and especially African societies.
As a member of these societies, the systematic use of the irrational as ultimate explanation of these facts is offensive and we might seem a lack of rigor in research.
In the approach to ethnology-anthropology there is always explicitly or implicitly begging the question that traditional societies through their culture could not produce something intellectually coherent. This profession of faith explains the systematic irrationality as an explanation of the ultimate sacred facts.
By irrational, what is heard is indeed something wrong, incoherent, that defies logic, in
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THE WAY OF THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE
Text from the "diplomatic world" in October 1998
In economic terms, Africa figure of poor and marginalized continent. Since the end of the Cold War, it appears as an area that declassified no longer a geopolitical and diplomatic challenge for the major powers. Outside of emergencies that require humanitarian intervention, nobody is really interested in the fate of 700 million men and women who live in this part of the world. "Bankruptcy of development"? "Retard"? Or, rather, strength of African societies, refusing to be trapped neoliberal, and the emergence of alternatives to the Western model of development?
Few studies of the continent really leave room for hope: it keeps repeating that it "Africa sinks" and becomes "a repository of humanity's ills." The image of a "continent wrecked," repeated ad nauseam, seems to summarize all the perceptions of Africa that tend to be synonymous with poverty, corruption and fraud would be the home of violence, conflict and genocide. Images are projected onto Apocalypse "an impoverished Africa in the spiral of conflict." In the late twentieth century, "no continent offers such a spectacle of desolation, war and famine as Africa. (...) Slowly, the place is going to drift. "
The paradigm of "bankruptcy" is the same analytical framework of economic and social
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VIE ET MORT DES OBJETS DE SURFACE
" Ce que les Noirs adorent, ce n'est pas la pierre, l'arbre, la rivière,
mais l'esprit qu'ils croient y résider. "
(J. THEILHARD DE CHARDIN La Guinée supérieure et ses missions)
Vie des objets de surface
Les objets rituels, masques, statues, mobilier, utilisés en surf ace, jouent dans la société africaine traditionnelle, m rôle bien plus important que les objets funéraires, destinés à'être enterrés. Il faut leur adjoindre une petite quantité de pièces au double emploi (parures, mobilier sacré) qui accompagnent le mort dans sa tombe, comme à Igbo-Ukwu au Nigeria, ou certains objets funéraires trouvés fortuitement et réutilisés en surface, comme chez les Kissi en Guinée, ceux de la culture nok ou de celle d'Owo au Nigeria.
En Afrique, les esprits sont partout présents. Un homme devient souvent plus important après sa mort que pendant sa vie. Les signes de surface fonctionnent par ensembles et sous-ensembles, dans un rapport étroit entre le rôle qu'ils jouent et celui de leurs manipulateurs ; il existe des objets collectifs (souvent les masques), semi-collectifs (de nouveau les masques et une petite partie de la statuaire) et ceux
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L’ARTISTE AFRICAIN
" Pour le sculpteur noir, le meilleur masque, dit-on, est le plus efficace ;
d'où vient son efficacité, sinon de la plénitude de son style ? "
A. MALRAUX
L'artiste africain, pour nous, est resté longtemps anonyme. Et pourtant, il joue un rôle essentiel entre le visible et l'invisible ; il participe à la cohésion et à l'évolution de son propre groupe culturel ; éventuellement, à travers sa création, il peut toucher des communautés voisines.
FORMATION
En Afrique, dès l'enfance, il existe une éducation collective par "classes d'âge". Après les toutes premières années, au moment du passage de l'adolescence à l'âge adulte, (excision, circoncision), donc à la séparation des sexes, le jeune homme -car en Afrique, c'est uniquement l'homme qui peut devenir artiste- sera en principe dirigé par les sages, selon ses dons, vers différents secteurs de la vie sociale : la chasse, la parole, le chant ou la musique, la sculpture sur bois ou le travail de la forge. Alors il recevra un enseignement sur
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Texte de présentation extrait de l'ouvrage:
J. Kerchache, J-L. Paudrat, L. Stephan, L'Art Africain Jacques Kerchache, Citadelles, 1988
Sans méthode préalable, la passion de l'Afrique m'a propulsé au cœur du Gabon, m'a porté du Congo en Guinée équatoriale, de la Côte-d'Ivoire au Libéria, m'a conduit du Burkina Faso au Mali, de l'Éthiopie au Bénin, du Nigeria au Cameroun et de la Tanzanie au Zaïre. De ces expériences parfois difficiles, physiques certes, mais surtout intellectuelles et spirituelles, de ma participation à certaines cérémonies et à diverses manipulations d'objets, de mon immersion temporaire mais effective dans les cultes de l'ancienne Côte des Esclaves, je ne puis restituer aujourd'hui que des sensations, des impressions et je me garderai de toute affirmation.
Cependant, devant la sculpture africaine, il faut cesser d'avoir peur d'être profane et se laisser envahir par elle ; il faut s'en approcher, la fréquenter, se l'approprier, l'aimer. Lui offrir son temps, lui ouvrir sa sexualité, ses rêves, lui livrer sa mort, ses inhibitions, redécouvrir autre chose en soi. Sans lâcheté, ne pas hésiter à désacraliser, sans les rejeter, ses sources culturelles. Ne plus avoir cette taie sur l'œil et se laisser aller à la jouissance, se laisser gagner par la magie.
Même si nous ne pouvons contempler cette sculpture que par fragments, ceux-ci
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Maurice Delafosse
Maurice Delafosse (1870-1926) est un administrateur colonial français, africaniste, ethnologue, linguiste, enseignant et essayiste prolifique.
Biographie
Détail de la carte linguistique de Delafosse (1904) montrant la région où l'on parle le nafaanra (Nafana) à la frontière de la Côte d'Ivoire et du Ghana
Cette section est vide, pas assez détaillée ou incomplète. Votre aide est la bienvenue !
Ernest François Maurice Delafosse naît le 20 décembre 1870 à Sancergues dans le Cher, dans une famille catholique. Après une scolarité secondaire brillante, il entreprend d'abord des études de médecine à Paris. Très vite intéressé par les questions coloniales, il s'inscrit en 1890 à l'École spéciale des langues orientales et suit des cours d'arabe.
Un an plus tard, il interrompt ses études pour rejoindre en Algérie l'Institut des Frères armés du Sahara, organisme fondé par le cardinal Charles Lavigerie pour notamment combattre la traite des Noirs dans le Sahara. Il n'y reste que quelques mois, revient à Paris pour terminer son diplôme aux Langues
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Work of art
A work of art, artwork, work or art object is a creation, such as an art object, design, architectural piece, musical work, literary composition, performance, film, conceptual art piece, or even computer program that is made and or valued primarily for an "artistic" rather than practical function. This article is concerned with the concept in the visual arts rather than music or literature, although similar issues arise in those fields.
Traditional media for visual works of art include: calligraphy, photography, carvings, gardens, ceramics, painting, prints, sculpture, drawings, photography or buildings. Since modernism, the field of fine art has expanded to include film, performance art, conceptual art, and video art.
What is perceived as a work of art differs between cultures and eras and by the meaning of the term "art" itself. From the Renaissance until the twentieth century, and to some extent still, Western art critics and the general western public tended not to define applied art or decorative art as works of art, or at least to accord them lower status than works, like paintings, with no practical use, according to the hierarchy of genres. Other cultures, for example Chinese and Islamic art have not made this distinction so strongly.
The related terms artwork and art object, used especially in American English, came into use in the 20th century, especially to describe modern and post-modern art, especially in works without significant skill or craft in creating the physical object. Some contemporary
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Art premier Voir art premiersLes expressions art premier ou art primitif (primitive art en anglais) sont employées pour désigner les productions artistiques des sociétés dites « traditionnelles », « sans écriture » ou « primitives ».Elles sont controversées dans la mesure où elles traduisent une conception évolutionniste et ethnocentriste des sociétés humaines : les sociétés occidentales produiraient un « art abouti » s'opposant aux « arts premiers », qui seraient l'œuvre des peuples restés proches d'un état archaïque de l'humanité.Si cette vision est largement remise en cause aujourd'hui, les expressions subsistent notamment dans les pays anglo-saxons. L'appellation « Musée des arts premiers », initialement envisagée, a été abandonnée pour désigner le Musée du quai Branly.Les expressions « art sauvage » ou « art traditionnel » sont également utilisées, sans être entièrement satisfaisantes non plus.See the continuation... ]
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Anthropologie religieuse
L'anthropologie religieuse est le domaine de l'anthropologie qui étudie le fait religieux, c'est-à-dire non seulement les pratiques ou les rites mais aussi les corpus théologiques savants ou non (mythes, textes sacrés, doctrine) propres à chaque tradition religieuse.
Indépendamment de la pratique religieuse, cette carte du monde représente la proportion de la population de chaque pays déclarant la religion comme quelque chose de « très important » pour elle : de 20% (en bleu) à 90% en rouge foncé ; en gris, pas de sondage disponible.
Essai de définition anthropologique du fait religieux
* Tylor,1871 : C'est une croyance en des êtres spirituels. Avec Frazer, Tylor fait partie de l'« école » évolutionniste qui soutient le passage du fait religieux par trois stades : la magie, la religion, la science.
* Durkheim : La religion est une émanation de la société et une célébration de la société par elle-même. Il fait partie de l'« école sociologique française » et tend comme Mauss et Weber à souligner l'importance du lien entre fait religieux et société.
* Mauss : Ensemble de
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Mythology
The term "mythology" sometimes refers to the study of myths and sometimes refers to a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;[4][5] however, the academic use of the term generally does not refer to truth or falsity.In the field of folkloristics, a myth is conventionally defined as a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form.Many scholars in other academic fields use the term "myth" in somewhat different ways. In a very broad sense, the term can refer to any traditional story.
Nature of myths
Typical characteristics
The main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural heroes. As sacred stories, myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion. In the society in which it is told, a myth is usually regarded as a true account of the remote past.[14][17][18][15] In fact, many societies have two categories of traditional narrative—(1) "true stories", or myths, and (2) "false stories", or fables.Myths generally take place in a primordial age, when the world had not yet achieved its current form.[14] They explain how the world gained its current form and how customs, institutions, and taboos were established.
Related
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Tradition
La tradition désigne la transmission continue d'un contenu culturel à travers l'histoire depuis un événement fondateur ou un passé immémorial (du latin traditio, tradere, de trans « à travers » et dare « donner », « faire passer à un autre, remettre »). Cet héritage immatériel peut constituer le vecteur d'identité d'une communauté humaine. Dans son sens absolu, la tradition est une mémoire et un projet, en un mot une conscience collective : le souvenir de ce qui a été, avec le devoir de le transmettre et de l'enrichir. Avec l'article indéfini, une tradition peut désigner un mouvement religieux par ce qui l'anime, ou plus couramment, une pratique symbolique particulière, comme par exemple les traditions populaires.
Religion
* judaïsme : la tradition des prophètes
* Dans le bouddhisme, une tradition désigne, par extension, l'ensemble des pratiques, des idées et des connaissances d'une école du bouddhisme.
Article détaillé : tradition bouddhiste.
* Islam : généalogie de Mahomet
* Dans le catholicisme, la
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Culture
Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")[1] is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:
* excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
* an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
* the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.
When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it connoted a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity.
In the twentieth century, "culture" emerged as a concept central to anthropology, encompassing all human phenomena that are not purely results of human genetics.
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Anthropologie de l'art
L'anthropologie de l'art est une science sociale qui s'attachait historiquement à étudier les productions plastiques et picturales des sociétés humaines dites « traditionnelles », « sans écriture » ou « primitives ». À l'instar des autres disciplines connexes ou relevant de l'anthropologie (comme l'ethnologie et la sociologie), on assiste ces dernières décennies à un élargissement de son champ d'étude, et elle correspond plutôt aujourd'hui à une analyse culturelle et symbolique de la production artistique sous toutes ses formes.
L'anthropologie de l'art se distingue de la sociologie de l'art en ce sens qu'elle privilégie non pas la dimension économique, politique ou médiatique des productions artistiques, mais qu'elle étudie plutôt la signification que celles-ci peuvent prendre dans leur culture d'origine; elles ne sont pas non plus étudiées pour leur valeur intrinsèque, comme ce serait le cas dans une critique d'art.
La question de l'objet
L'anthropologie de l'art se trouve dès ses fondements confrontée à une question épistémologique simple : Qu'est ce que l'art ?
Après de nombreuses tentatives pour résoudre cette question, c'est Erwin Panofsky qui a finalement
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Ethnology
Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit, custom, convention") is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.
Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct contact with the culture, ethnology takes the research that ethnographers have compiled and then compares and contrasts different cultures. The term ethnology is credited to Adam Franz Kollár who used and defined it in his Historiae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published in Vienna in 1783. Kollár's interest in linguistic and cultural diversity was aroused by the situation in his native multi-lingual Kingdom of Hungary and his roots among its Slovaks, and by the shifts that began to emerge after the gradual retreat of the Ottoman Empire in the more distant Balkans.
Among the goals of ethnology have been the reconstruction of human history, and the formulation of cultural invariants, such as the incest taboo and culture change, and the formulation of generalizations about "human nature", a concept which has been criticized since the 19th century by various philosophers (Hegel, Marx, structuralism, etc.). In some parts of the world ethnology has developed along independent paths of investigation and pedagogical doctrine, with cultural anthropology becoming dominant especially in the United States, and social anthropology in Great Britain. The distinction between the three terms is increasingly blurry. Ethnology has been
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Primitive arts: political nomenclature or singular art?
Eugene Berg
Diplomat, former ambassador to Namibia, Botswana and Fiji. Author of 'Non-alignment and
New World Order '(PUF, 1980),' The International Politics since 1955 '(Economica, 1990) and' Chronology
internati''o''nale: 1945-1997 '(PUF, "Que sais-je?", 4th ed, 1997). Works since No. 19-20 to review work
made in the journal 'The Banquet'.
The inauguration of the Musée du Quai Branly, just as the opening
second France-Oceania summit, was a highlight of the cultural
quinquennium of Jacques Chirac. He will no doubt what would have been the Centre
Beaubourg Georges Pompidou, Musée d'Orsay for Valery Giscard
d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand National Library for. Expresses this
place that has done since its opening subject to real and sustained enthusiasm
People and challenges no less significant part of the community
scientific and museum? As written immediately Berenice
Geoffroy-Schneiter, this is "no accident that our west in search of
Spirituality landmarks and turns to these desperate travelers
the invisible. "
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“Africa Remix” featured the work of over 100 African artists in a
2,200-sq.m exhibition space. With paintings by Chéri Samba,
installations by Barthélémy Toguo, drawings by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
and photographs by Guy Tillim, “Africa Remix” revealed the varied
facets of Africa’s contemporary arts scene.
The
exhibition examined contemporary African art not only from an aesthetic
angle but also from historical, political and ideological perspectives.
- Total pledges support for African art with the ”Africa Remix” exhibition in Paris -
So
near, and yet so far: Africa is an enigma that continues to exert a
strange fascination for many. “Africa Remix” was an invitation to
reflect on what Africa really means – to explore and rediscover it by
straying from the beaten path of commonplace ideas and platitudes. As
Total has a strong presence in Africa, we are all too aware of the
difficulties affecting the continent, but we’re also committed to
bringing African culture the recognition it deserves.
Africa Remix
Under the artistic direction of Simon Njami (photo), an international team of curators (see dates and facts as well as the photo) has assembled this overview of the artistic production in Africa and the African diaspora. 88 artists show works from the last 10 years, among them several specially
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African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.
* Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure has always been a the primary subject matter for most African art, and this emphasis even influenced certain European traditions. For example in the fifteenth century Portugal traded with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs, most notably in the addition of the human figure (the human figure typically did not appear in Portuguese saltcellars). The human figure may symbolize the living or the dead, may reference chiefs, dancers, or various trades such as drummers or hunters, or even may be an anthropomorphic representation of a god or have other votive function. Another common theme is the inter-morphosis of human and animal.
Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D.
* Visual abstraction: African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation. This is because many African artworks generalize stylistic norms. Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted.
* Emphasis on sculpture: African artists
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Art contemporain africainL’Art contemporain africain est très dynamique. Il s'inspire aussi bien des traditions du continent que, et c'est de plus en plus le cas, des réalités urbaines contemporaines d'une Afrique en mutation, qui se cherche encore une identité. Les techniques et les supports sont variés, allant de la simple peinture aux installations avec projection vidéo, en passant par des sculptures faites en matériaux de récupération...En 1989, l'exposition « Les magiciens de la terre » (Centre Pompidou, 1989) présentait des œuvres d'art africain contemporain (d'artistes vivants) pour la première fois en Europe, mode de monstration mettant en valeur un certain primitiviste et exotique. En 2005, l’exposition « Africa Remix » qui a été présentée en Allemagne, en Angleterre, en France et au Japon peut être considérée comme la première à présenter un panorama important de l'art contemporain spécifiquement africain, montrant surtout la richesse de l'art africain sub-saharien. Mais l'Afrique elle-même s'est dotée de centres d'art contemporain, de festivals ou biennales sont régulièrement organisés sur le continent pour mettre en valeur le talent des artistes d'aujourd'hui. Quelques artistesAfrique du Sud
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Africa, Oceania and the Indigenous Americas | |
The Department oversees four separate collection segments: the arts of
Africa, Egypt, the South Pacific and the Indigenous Americas.
Reflecting current scholarship and geography, Egyptian art is now a
sub-section of this department. African art thus consists of works from
the rest of Africa other than Egypt.
 African ArtThe
DIA’s African art collection ranks among the finest in the United
States. It comprises some rare world-class works from nearly one
hundred African cultures, predominantly from regions south of the
Sahara desert. A diverse collection, ranging from sculpture to textiles
to exquisite utilitarian wares, religious paraphernalia and bodily
ornaments, it is heavily weighted toward the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. African art collecting is
inextricably tied to the founding of the Detroit Institute of Arts at
the turn of 20th century and remains one of the institution’s important
hallmarks. From the late 1800s through the 1930s, generous
contributions from some of Detroit’s first collectors, such as
Frederick Stearns and Robert Tannahill, helped to develop the core
collection. This included priceless works, such as several Benin royal
brass sculptures, an exquisite 16th century Kongo Afro-Portuguese ivory
knife container, a 17th century Owo ivory bracelet, a Kongo steatite
funerary figure (ntadi) and a finely crafted Asante royal gold
soul-washer’s badge recovered from the chamber of the nineteenth
century Asante King, Kofi Karikari. Support from the City of Detroit
has since aided the purchase of additional works of |
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Masks
The viewing of masks is often restricted to certain peoples or places,
even when used in performance, or masquerade. African masks manifest
spirits of ancestors or nature as well as characters that are spiritual
and social forces. During a masquerade, which is performed during
ceremonial occasions such as agricultural, initiation, leadership and
funerary rites, the mask becomes the otherworld being. When collected
by Western cultures, masks are often displayed without their costume
ensemble and lack the words, music and movement, or dance, that are
integral to the context of African masquerades.
Visually, masks are often a combination of human and animal traits.
They can be made of wood, natural or man-made fibers, cloth and animal
skin. Masks are usually worn with costumes and can, to some extent, be
categorized by form, which includes face masks, crest masks, cap masks,
helmet masks, shoulder masks, and fiber and body masks. Maskettes,
which are shaped like masks, are smaller and are not worn on or over
the face. They may be worn on an individual’s arm or hip or hung on a
fence or other structure near the performance area.
Sculpture
The cultures of Africa have created a world-renowned tradition of
three-dimensional and relief sculpture. Everyday and ceremonial works
of great delicacy and surface detail are fashioned by artists using
carving, modeling, smithing and casting techniques. Masks, figures,
musical instruments, containers, furniture, tools and equipment are all
part of the sculptor’s repertoire.
The human figure is perhaps the most prominent sculptural form in
Africa, as it has been for millennia. Male and female images in wood,
ivory, bone, stone, earth, fired clay, iron and copper alloy embody
cultural values, depict the ideal and represent spirits, ancestors and
deities. Used in a broad range of contexts--initiation, healing,
divination,
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