Includes bibliographical references (pages 252-253).
Contents:
the contribution to come, from Africa. The aesthetic code and the dialectic of symbolism -- Art as a code of meaning -- Who is the self? -- The law of relationship -- Redefining religion -- From mechanistic to aesthetic thinking -- The place of our being -- The spirit medium -- Symbol of the staff -- Symbolic weapons -- Technologies of the sacred -- Great Zimbabwe -- Shrines of the Matobo Hills -- The contemporary art of Zimbabwe -- the contribution to come, from Africa.
Summary:
This book is an in-depth look at the historical art of the three cultures of Zimbabwe: the Shona, Ndebele, and Tonga. It traces how art, in a historical African context, is never separated from life, but remains an existential tool of meaning embedded in daily life itself. Consequently, art is found in sacred and functional items, in interiors, fashion, personal gestures, and communal events. Art functions differently in this context, for it is the language of the symbol, a language that reconciles the interrelationship of the human psyche to others and to the universe itself. The book opens a window onto Africa's symbolism, confirming that the mind naturally computes according to two parallel codes: the outer code of sensory awareness, and the inner code of subjective awareness. And tracing the workings of sub-Saharan Africa's aesthetic code, ubiquitous to all her cultures, is to reveal Africa's symbolism as a parallel language of philosophical expression. That is the story of this book. More than two hundred images of Zimbabwe's historical art, taken during a window of time when it was still possible to find it, reveal how art is expressed across life as the language of spiritual and cultural meaning and a way of ensuring that such meaning was never far from individual awareness.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.