Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin [Hardcover]

Paula G. Ben-Amos (Author), Ben-Amos (Author), Paula Girshick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

"Benos-Amos opens for the reader richly detailed adn nuanced vistas into the intellectual and cultural history of one of the major kingdoms of precolonial West Africa." — African Studies Review

"The wealth of historiographic resources, the command of relevant literature, the ethnographic research and prudent use of oral traditions give this work a high degree of... intellectual excitement.... a landmark in the field." —Warren d'Azevedo

Making use of archival and oral resources in this extensively researched book, Paula Girshick Ben-Amos questions to what extent art operates as political strategy. How do objects acquire political meaning? How does the use of art enhance and embody power and authority?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The wealth of historiographic resources, the command of relevant literature, the ethnographic research and prudent use of oral traditions give this work a high degree of ... intellectual excitement... a landmark in the field." - Warren d'Azevedo

About the Author

Paula Girshick Ben-Amos is Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University. She is author of The Art of Benin and co-editor (with Arnold Rubin) of The Art of Power/The Power of Art: Essays in Benin Iconology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253335035
• ISBN-13: 978-0253335036
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > History > Africa > Benin

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BENIN, PORTRAIT OF AN ANCIENT KINGDOM, March 13, 2000

By 

JOSE LUIZ P DA COSTA (BRAZIL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin (Hardcover)

Letter to Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, author of "Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin." Your book, "Art Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin", is superb. I'm not a reviewer so the much I can see is that you lead us, the reader, easy and firmly across the ancient history of a Kingdom with her obas, uzamas, ezomos, iyases, chiefs -- and give us a handy list of the obas from Ehengbuda to Akengbuda, and teach us how they were, through the art they left behind. You make ease to understand the Civil War and different behave of various obas and chiefs. As well their relation with the spiritual world. When you refer to Father Monteleone, and the cloths "made in five or, at the most, six months" on pg. 41, using Ryder, you touch in a subject that has connection with Brazil. In the book "A enxada e a lança", (The Hoe and the Spear), the Brazilian writer Alberto da Costa e Silva depicts a panel of Africa, before the Portuguese's arrival (he starts his book on Africa's prehistory), and refers (pg. 526)to Pano da Costa (Cloth from the Coast - Ijebu), largely exported from Benin to Brazil on the first half of Eighteenth Century. It seems, later on, when the slave traffic has ended, and commerce between Bahia (Brazil) and West Coast was very strong, industrialized Pano da Costa, produced in Brazil has turned itself into a largely disputed merchandise all over the Coast, including in Benin . And moreover, in your book you teach us how to see and comprehend the bronzes, plaques, heads, in metal, ivory, clay and wood. Is all absolutely perfect. If one want to have a spotless ideas, in 177 pages, about the Kingdom of Benin, in your book one will find it. So, I indeed have enjoyed your book.

José Luiz Pereira da Costa Brazil e-mail: [e-mail]