Art 326: Material Worlds:
Skilled Craftsmanship and Symbolic Technologies in Africa and the Near East
| This course investigates technological processes of artifact production in the material culture of ancient and contemporary traditional societies in Africa and the Near East. In the last decades, an interdisciplinary interest has emerged to explore the symbolic aspects of materials and technologies. The concept of Òtechnological styleÓ is used to explore the cultural processes of the making of things as the main constituent of their symbolism, meaning and style. We will explore this avenue of thought in approaching case studies drawn from archaeological and ethno-archaeological work on Africa and Western Asia. While ethnographic studies will be used to explore social relations behind skilled craftsmanship and technologies of production, comparative evidence will be drawn from the archaeology of the Near East. This involves both architectural monuments such as Neo-Assyrian palaces or the reed mudhif of Marsh Arabs, and artifacts such as Phoenician ivories or the Afro-Portuguese brasswork of Benin. Formation and circulation of craft knowledge, cultural biography of artifacts, constitution of cultural identities and collective memory through material processes, materiality and representationality of artifacts will be central in class discussions. |