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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | One Tribe, One Style? Paradigms in the Historiography of African Art |
| Author: | Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield |
| Year: | 1984 |
| Periodical: | History in Africa |
| Volume: | 11 |
| Pages: | 163-193 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Nigeria Africa |
| Subjects: | Idoma art history art styles History and Exploration Architecture and the Arts Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171633 |
| Abstract: | In European art history, the dominant paradigms have coalesced into entities such as 'The Baroque' or 'Mannerism' which are largely ontological models used to simplify the otherwise intractable complexity of European art styles and movements. In African art history, the dominant paradigm has derived not from art history itself, but from anthropology, and has manifested itself most clearly in the 'one tribe - one style' model. In this paper the author attempts to trace the development of this conceptual model and the subsequent failure to dislodge it which other, more heuristically-derived ones, despite the recognition that it is no longer adequate. With the Idoma of central Nigeria as example the author argues that the old 'one tribe - one style' model does not elucidate the complexity of Idoma art. Other models which have emerged in recent years in the fora of rival explanations did not fit either, but led the author to explore in more general terms what has not only been his experience but that of many art historians, namely a refusal to categorize and a retreat to atomistic explanation when faced with a paradigm which clearly fails to work. Map, Notes. |
