Social Realities Affecting Art in Yoruba Culture

FAIN: FA-11796-77

Henry J. Drewal
University of Wisconsin, Madison (Madison, WI 53715-1218)

To explore the social realities (as opposed to abstract concepts of social structure) which affect the life of art objects in one quarter of the Yoruba town of Ilaro, Nigeria, West Africa. Specific procedures involve l) the systematic documentation of all objects in the quarter, 2) detailed biographical data on caretaker (s) of the objects and 3) film documentation of the ritual contexts of the objects. Study thus considers Yoruba culture as a dynamic whole. This kind of micro-analysis explores the variables which characterize fluid systems and thus provides a method and a perspective significant for the analysis of processes of continuity and change in African art.