| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-11-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 10.3 in | | Width: | 7.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 41.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
In this first major study of its kind, Blier pushes African art history to a new height of cultural awareness. This book will be of crucial interest to anyone fascinated by African, African American, and Caribbean art; the African diaspora; and the traditions of voudou and vodun.
Industry Reviews
The popular conception of voodoo includes drums in the night, pincushion dolls, and magical tales of zombies and ghouls. In scholarly contrast, Blier has examined vodun which West African residents of Togo and Benin define as the forces of powers that govern the world and the lives of all who reside there through an exhaustive analysis of bochio, the small wooden sculptures invested with a host of attributes and powers by their makers and owners. Amply illustrated and copiously footnooted, this study provides a fascinating view of a belief systems carried to the New World by West African slaves. Written as an art historical exploration of the bochio sculptures, this book will also be a valuable research base for readers interested in religion and cultural interchange between Africa and the Americas. For academic collections. David McClelland, Temple Univ. Lib., Philadelphia
Merullo
Blier (African art and architecture, Harvard U.) examines the artworks of contemporary vodou cultures of southern Benin and Togo in West Africa and related traditions of Haiti, New Orleans, and historic Salem, Massachusetts. She employs psychological, anthropological, and art historical approaches to explore the contrasts inherent in vodun arts, and examines the relation between art and the slave trade, the significance of the body in sculpture, and indigenous perceptions of the psyche. Includes color and b&w photos. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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