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ISBN-10: 0226058603
ISBN-13: 9780226058603
Edition: 1994
List price: $56.00
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Description:
Beads, bones, rags, straw, leather, pottery, fur, feathers and blood—these are the raw materials ofvodunartworks. The power of these images lies not only in their aesthetic, and counter-aesthetic, appeal but also in their psychological and emotional effect. As objects of fury and force, these works are intended to protect and empower people and cultures that have long been oppressed. In this first major study of its kind, Suzanne Preston Blier examines the artworks of the contemporaryvoduncultures of southern Benin and Togo in West Africa as well as the relatedvoudoutraditions of Haiti, New Orleans, and historic Salem, Massachusetts. Blier employs a variety of theoretically sophisticated… psychological, anthropological, and art historical approaches to explore the contrasts inherent in thevodunarts—commoners versus royalty, popular versus elite, "low" art versus "high." She examines the relation between art and the slave trade, the psychological dynamics of artistic expression, the significance of the body in sculptural expression, and indigenous perceptions of the psyche. Throughout, Blier pushes African art history to a new height of cultural awareness that recognizes the complexity of traditional African societies as it acknowledges the role of social power in shaping aesthetics and meaning generally. This book will be of critical importance not only to those concerned with African, African American, and Caribbean art, but also to anthropologists, African diaspora scholars, students of comparative religion and comparative psychology, and anyone fascinated by the traditions ofvoudouandvodun. "An extraordinary tour de force."—Choice "Extraordinarily detailed....Blier's examination of the entire, often mysterious history of vodun is...in a word, definitive."—Booklist "A serious study that concentrates on the hidden power of objects and the meaning behind that potency is long overdue. Welcome Susan Blier'sAfrican Vodun....Certainly a must for...those concerned with the psychology of art."—Janet L. Stanley,Art Documentation "[Blier] is usually sensitive to the need to resist imposing Western artistic values and academic methodologies inappropriately upon such art. But she offers the reader a gift even more precious; she offers rare insights into how various art forms—sculpture and home architecture in particular—yield meanings for the Africanusersof such art.—Norman Weinstein,Boston Book Review