Orí: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture

Lawal, Babatunde

doi:10.1086/jar.41.1.3630272

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This may be true of Marquesan art, but it is demonstrably not the case where two or more art styles co‐exist in a community. Lawal's study of three Yoruba art styles for representing the head includes good examples (Lawal 1985). The difference between silhouette and geometric art among the Yolgnu, or ‘X‐ray’ and geometric infill in Western Arnhem Land rock art, is partly a matter of stylistic convention but it also relates importantly to the kind of information the art is intended to convey (Morphy 1991: 176‐80; Taylor 1996: 224‐38).…”

Section: Construing Indexes and Iconsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Art and Agency: A Reassessment

Layton

2003

Royal Anthropological Inst

110

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In his book, Art and agency, Alfred Gell presents a theory of art based neither on aesthetics nor on visual communication. Art is defined by the distinctive function it performs in advancing social relationships through 'the abduction of agency'. Art objects are indexes of the artist's or model's agency. This article examines Gell's use of agency, particularly in relation to the ritual art that is central to his argument. Focusing on Gell's employment of Peirce's term 'index' (out of his triad of index, icon, and symbol), I note that Peirce's approach deflects attention from signification towards the link between art works and the things to which they refer. I consider what Peirce meant by abduction, and conclude that while Gell makes a good case for the agency of art objects he does not explain the distinctive ways in which art objects extend their maker's or user's agency. Gell lacked the time to make detailed revisions before publication and I acknowledge that, given more time, he might have revised some parts of the book.

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Section: Construing Indexes and Iconsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Art and Agency: A Reassessment

Layton

2003

Royal Anthropological Inst

110

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“…Jackson points explicitly to the malleability of destiny: "although people often speak of divine will or ancestral influence in terms of implacable fate, it is always human choice which, in practice, determines the particular course of a person's destiny" (199). Similarly, Babatunde Lawal (1985) writes that, in Yoruba thought, personal destiny (ori) is conceived as a potentiality, its actualization hinging on individuals' active participation-a point recalled inBoris Nieswand's (2010) contemporary work with West Africans in Berlin, where a specific Christian charismatic imaginary of "enacted destiny" sees human and divine agencies merging to realize God's inscrutable plans (cf. Guinness's concept of "corporeal destiny").…”

Section: Acting Within Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

For an anthropology of destiny

Elliot

Menin

2018

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

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This preface develops an argument for a comparative anthropology that takes the concept of destiny as a fertile laboratory for anthropological thought. The articles in this collection show how destiny's distinguishing heuristic feature may be what we call "malleable fixity": a paradoxical juxtaposition of images of temporal and historical fixity with a practical reckoning and openended self-reorientation. Exploring the radically different ways in which destiny is evoked, enacted, and (re)theorized locally, we argue that an anthropology of destiny is, at its heart, the comparative study of diverse temporal orderings of human-as well as divine and cosmic-action.

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“…She instead links her priesthood directly to Jesus whose phenotypical features typify the 'whiteness' of Christianity and the African modernity it has come to represent (Meyer 1998; see also Keane 2007 for further discussion on how Christian and modernity leads to distancing from cultural practices considered 'fetish'). In one of my interviews, I referred to an aspect of her message where she talked about predestination using the vocabulary of Yoruba conception of Ori, the head (Abiodun 1994b;Lawal 1985;Makinde 1985). She interrupted me, 'Everything I preach is from the Bible.'…”

Section: The Ghost and The Ase In Iya Efunsetan's Faith Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

The Ghosts of Performance Past: Theatre, Gender, Religion and Cultural Memory

Adelakun

2017

Religion and Gender

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This article studies the phenomenon of ghosting in religious performance through an examination of a famous Yoruba actress, Iyabo Ogunsola (Iya Efunsetan). Ogunsola once played the role of a 19th century historical character, Efunsetan Aniwura, on stage at a remarkable period of Yoruba history thus embedding her life and career trajectory with that of the culture. Iya Efunsetan has currently transited to an Aladura church leader and a gospel performer. Building on works by theatre/performance scholars who have studied how previously staged performances haunt the re-enactment of performances in another place, time, and context, I examine the religious aspect of the phenomenon of ghosting as it relates to Ase, Yoruba concept of metaphysical force. While Iya Efunsetan cannot shake off the ghosts of her theatrical past, I note that she mobilizes the Ase of her embodied theatrical history fame to authenticate herself as a religious leader.

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Orí: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture

Cited by 27 publications

References 11 publications

Art and Agency: A Reassessment

Art and Agency: A Reassessment

For an anthropology of destiny

The Ghosts of Performance Past: Theatre, Gender, Religion and Cultural Memory

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