The Essential Gourd. Art and History in Northeastern Nigeria.

Gutes Ex.; Einband gering berieben. - INTRODUCTION -- BACKGROUND, Geography, Ethnography, Languages, History and Art HISTORICAL NOTES, Archaeology, Linguistics -- AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF GOURD USE -- DOMESTIC CONTEXT, SOCIAL AND SACRED -- CONTEXTS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN -- SOCIAL AND SACRED CONTEXTS, -- AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF GOURD DECORATION -- Techniques, Designs and their Meaning -- TECHNIQUES, Pyro-engraving, Pressure-engraving, Carving, Painting, Dyeing, Additive materials DESIGNS, Pyro-engraving, Pressure-engraving MEANINGS, -- THE GA'ANDA -- Gourd Decoration from a Sociocultural Perspective -- SETTING, GOURD PRODUCTION AND DECORATION, ARTISTS AT WORK, THE INTEGRATION OF GA'ANDA ARTS AND THEIR MEANINGS, -- DECORATED GOURDS AND HISTORY -- THE GA'ANDA HILLS, THE GONGOLA-HAWAL VALLEY, POTISKUM PLAINS, UBA PLAINS, BENUE-GONGOLA VALLEY, -- GOURDS AND MODERN CHANGE -- Tradition vs New Directions. // This publication includes material drawn from two independent field research projects in north-ern Nigeria separated by a ten-year interval. The majority of the gourds illustrated and discussed were field-collected by Barbara Rubin Hudson between 1969-1971. She conducted research among groups who still actively practiced this art and focused specifically on techniques, styles of decoration, and meanings of design systems. Her intensive concentration on this single category of production has yielded precise information about artists, innovations, and relationships across ethnic boundaries. In 1980-1982, Maria Berns worked among many of the same groups; however, calabash decoration was only one component of a larger project aimed at documenting the entire range of arts produced by the little-known groups living in the region. Linguistic, ethnographic, and historical data were used to correlate the distribution of these arts within the Lower Gongola Valley to a reconstruction of the ethnohistory of their producers. A number of gourds also were collected during Berns' field investigations. This project had its genesis in the donation by Barbara Rubin Hudson of 214 decorated gourds to the Museum of Cultural History. Dr. Hudson's generosity to the Museum and her contributions to this catalogue are greatly appreciated. A second donation of 61 gourds from the same area by Linda and Bruce Friedman provided an excellent complement to the initial acquisition. (Vorwort) ISBN 0930741090