Do you know the legend of Ci Wara? Ci Wara is a mythical creature that has the feature of half-human and half-antelope, who first introduced humanity how to cultivate the earth. The education of agriculture from Ci Wara brought great influence to a Mande people living in West African of Mali who were called Bamana people during 17th Century. Bamana people are well known as the best of agricultural society who still practice their traditional ritual. One of the significant creation of art works from Bamana people, is headdresses those were also called Ci Wara. Bamana people used headdresses for ceremony during the harvesting period in order to praise completion of agriculture. The headdresses and the ceremonial performance symbolize the spiritual belief of Bamana people who think all objects including animals, plants and non-imagery objects lived among sprits. In this research paper, the significant roles of the headdresses, Ci Wara, and impact of the creature, Ci Wara, to Bamana people will be explained through their the traditional and cultural value of art works. So here is the legend and the story of Ci Wara.
Before, Ci Wara, the creature, introduced agriculture to Bamana people, humanity traveled and hunted for foods to place to place to find without having permanent residence. The mythical creature, Ci Wara, meaning farming wild beast, felt deep sympathy from humanity for struggling to hunt for foods. Ci Wara thought Bamana people the proper way of
Summary: Mike Lupica’s book True Legend takes place in Agoura Hills, Southern California. The main character Drew “True” Robinson a 16 year old basketball phenom at Oakley Academy, he has some troubles along the way, a little romance and makes some new friends. He would love to to go to the NBA.
Native American culture was a great influence on newly introduced western art when settlers first came to North America. Not only did Native Americans have their own style of art, sculpture, basket weaving, and other fine arts. Their artistic styles helped influence some European art and gave them a different outlook on not only art itself, but a brand new culture that they have not seen before. This paper will talk about the different styles of Native American art and compare it to European art styles and artist, as well as going into detail about how their culture influenced artistic styles.
Thirdly, “Messenger to the Rain Gods (Heheya) Kachina” is a small art “doll” composed mainly of “wood, paint and string” which was originated in Hopi, Arizona around 1900 (Heheya). This Native American doll is one of many other Native American dolls that are designed for a specific task or religious purposes. For instance, “Heheya Kachina” is designed to be a messenger for the rain of Gods. According to MFAH, we can distinguish it from other dolls by “the zigzag stripes of yellow and red on his cheeks, his prominent red brows, nose, mouth and tab ears, as well as the red chili peppers attached to the top of his head” (Heheya). It’s interesting to know that Native Americans had small dolls to depict their religious believe and cultural values.
A group called the benin artists created a masterpiece that symbolizes royal authority and power. It’s a sculpture of 2 leopards designed as water vessels, used for when the oba washes his hands before ceremonies.
Throughout history, many different cultures illustrate their history and their beliefs through various artistic objects that they create. These artifacts allow historians to better gage their lifestyle, their beliefs, and how their society operated. One example of this is the “Drum Beater” sculpting created by Karoo Ashevak that is especially famous for its illustrations of the shamans and the spirits. In this research paper, Karoo Ashevak’s “drum beater” will be dissected and analysed; from the Inuit culture itself, to the physical features of the sculpting, as well as the significance and symbolism of the sculpting as it relates to the Inuit culture.
The Nok heads and sculptures of Nigeria are made hallow, life-sized terra-cotta figures with a coiling technique commonly used to make pottery vessels (Thames & Hudson, 2015, pg.451). Nok heads were made with clay and although clay is very durable it is also breakable. However, very few sculpture have been found undamaged. The head of the figures was larger than the bodies because the artists wanted to emphasize the association between the head with knowledge and identity. The Nok head below is from Rafin Kura, sculpted in c. 500 BCE-200 CE. Like many Nok heads, this sculpture has a unique hairstyle, with three buns on top. It also has triangular- shaped eyes with holes in the pupils, nostrils, mouth, and
Throughout history, societies have defined and transformed themselves through their art. When looking at works of art today, a person sees not only the work of art itself, but also the world from which it came from. The same is true for this transformation mask, which reflects the works of art and beliefs of the Northwest Coast Tribes.
The Nacirema is a North America group who lives around the area of Canadian Cree, the Yaqui, Tarahumare of Mexico, the Carib, and Arawak of Antilles. The ritual activity is a big part in the Nacirema's lives. They spend a considerable amount of time performing a secretive ceremonies and posses a great amount of tolerance. Their focus is on the human body appearance and health. It is to their believe that human body is viewed as ''ugly'' and ''debility and disease.” Hoping to eliminate those undesirable characteristic traits, the Nacirema's only hope is to do so through ritual activities hence the shrine is built inside of every house.
This paper is an analysis of the single cultural artifact that best represents the culture in which I live in today. The paper will provide a detailed analysis of the artifact and how it relates to the values and beliefs of the culture. Additionally, it will address the deep cultural roots of the artifact, the historical roots of the artifact, what allowed it to come into being and who was affected by its development. This information will come as someone trained from the humanities.
Modern figurines of art stem directly from the hands of the ancient’s. The organic forms of modernly sculpted artifacts can most likely be directly referenced to the movements of prehistoric artworks. There seems to be an ongoing transition on how cultures no matter how stretched apart through time, contrasted by ethnicity or religious views; can all be somewhat related to each other by the methods or principles portrayed through their artworks. In fact, I saw that very transition; within two works in which are extremely different in meaning, craftsmanship, time, culture and so on. However, I was still able to find similarities within the artifacts. In this paper I will examine Venus of Willendorf, a Paleolithic carving in limestone; which can fit in the palm of one’s hand. As well as, The Sacrifice of Chacmool, which are a plethora of Mesoamerican statues emulating rituals of sacrifice.
The author begins the article by preparing the audience what is about to come. Telling the audience that cultures around the world have unusual customs and an anthropologist would even seek out a culture that has one when everyone seems to agree. He then talks about the Nacirema tribe and the extremities of their practices.
This paper describes the Sea Bear Transformation Mask, created by Don Svanvik in 2000, and how it reflects Northwest Coast Indian art and culture, specific to the Kwakiutl tribe. A transformation mask is a large mask with hinged shutters that, when open, reveal another mask. Audrey and Alan Bleviss gave this mask to the Montclair Art Museum in 2005. The medium consists of red cedar, cedar bark, copper, pigment, and string. In the Montclair Art Museum, the mask is displayed in its open form.
The sculptures and paint show details how society viewed and interpreted women body, sexuality, and maternity. In addition, revealed that these women were protected from threats around them with ornaments. Civilizations since early times, believed that we were in permanent threat from forces we do not see or cannot explain and because of it, we protected ourselves with artificial elements in a form of jewelry, crowns or caps. This idea has been continue from one generation to the next to the point that in modern societies some of us still use this type of protection in our bodies (e.g., small cross, divine images, tattoos, etc.).These pieces of art also indicate that humans believed in gods with superpowers and they are looking over us constantly. Humanity also believes in dark forces or demons trying to makes us do things that would upset the good gods. Some of the differences between these sculptures and paint are the material in which each one of them were created. The first figure, the Woman of Willendorf was carved in limestone, the second piece, the portrait of Queen Tiye was carved in wood and the last piece, the Virgin and Child Icon was created of tempera on a wood. You can also notice how the details on their faces and bodies changes throughout the time and years. The woman of Willendorf figurine offers details of a voluptuous nude women’s body but there is not face, or feet. Queen Tiye statue shows the face of a woman in detail closed to the gods but without any body parts and lastly The Virgin and Child Icon, is an expression of divinity of the views, reflections and beliefs from the gospel. Because communities started to innovate on the art of carving and painting, populations began to discover and/or create art with the objective of expressing different purposes of our daily lives, such as the beauty of a woman’s body, or to commemorate an ancient
Masks are one of the most spiritually important art forms developed in Africa. Among the masks many uses were; communicating with spirits and ancestors, serving as teaching aids in gender specific initiation ceremonies, tools for maintaining order, enhancements for reenacted stories and myths, symbols of rank and power, and a record for past leaders. I will be focussing on masks from the first three categories. The masks, which are all Helmet style masks from West and Central Africa, illustrate how artists from different tribes approached symbolism and visual storytelling. They also show what was considered ideally beautiful for each clan.
African art has played an important role in the culture of the world. The sculpture is the most common traditional culture expression for the African art. The different sculptures are shown by their local styles and they serve for the specific functions, such as religion. From some of these old art pieces, we figure out this kind of traditional culture expression already existed in the African for such a long time. In this paper, the art piece I am going to analyze is the Female Figure with Child and it made by Akan-Asante people. The Akan people of Ghana have been recognized for their various and attractive culture and it located in what are today Ivory Coast and the republic of Ghana in Western African. The Akan people are combined by different groups, such as the Anyi, Akawpim, Akyem, Aowin and Asante, and these people have their own dialect, but they share a lingua franca, which called Twi. The sculpture I choose could effectively reflect its own distinctive culture, because of the social connection reflect on the royalty, the comparison with other local art pieces, like Akuaba fertility dolls and its specific art form.