User:Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy)/African art

Thoughts about African art, because frankly our article sucks. The Met's TOAH tops us in almost every way here...


 * "By country" is not the way to go...
 * Why do we have "African folk art"? Is this even a real term?!?
 * Category:African art

The problems of historiography and anthropology

 * Limitations of how African art has been approached in the past: "Ife bronzes? Naturalistic art? It must be by White people... let's see... Atlanteans! Lost tribe of Israel!"
 * Is it "Art" with a capital A? Regardless of aesthetic merit, should it be treated as such? Is our definition of art too narrow? (I think it is, but this is an encyclopedia- as I see it art is essentially "non-functional material culture". Ah, but they say, African "art" includes functional objects! Well, they didn't have to embellish those objects, did they? That aspect of the object that displays intention beyond utility, that capacity for symbolic thought, whether it's trying to make the object something else or more essentially itself (think "truth to materials"), that's art.)

Organization
By region... authors like Garlake exclude Northern Africa from their surveys for various reasons...


 * North, South, East, West, and Central.

East Africa

 * Nubia
 * Kush
 * Aksum
 * Later: the Swahili

West Africa

 * Niger river
 * Jenne-Jeno
 * Nok
 * Various others, poorly understood
 * West African forests
 * Igbo-Ukwu
 * Yoruba: Ife and others
 * Later: Benin

South Africa

 * Rock art
 * After the Bantu migration
 * Lyndenburg heads
 * Great Zimbabwe


 * Nok culture
 * Benin art