African Art

What term refers to the use of geometrical shapes as indicators of gender difference in early art?

Displaced Symbolism

What are the three main types of Ancient
Saharan Rock Art?

Large Fauna Style (c.10,000-8,000 BCE), Archaic Style (c.8,000-5,000 BCE),
Pastoralist Style (c.5,000-2,000 BCE)

What term refers to the avoidance of figural
imagery in Islamic Art?

Aniconism

What does the architectural term Sahn
refer to in the design of Mosques?

Rectangular courtyard surrounded by covered walkways

What does the architectural term Minaret
refer to in the design of Mosques?

Tower used to call the faithful to prayer

What does the architectural term Mihrab
refer to in the design of Mosques?

The sacred niche in the Qibla wall pointing towards Mecca

Which of the following ethnic groups are North African desert traders who still traverse and live in the Sahara?

Tuareg

What is the correct order of these geographical regions of Africa running from North to South?

Maghreb, Sahara, Sahel

Which object commemorates the unification of Egypt and signals the start of the dynastic period?

The Palette of Narmer

Who was the first architect in history to be known by name?

Imhotep

What term is used to describe the Egyptian method of depicting the human body on a two-dimensional surface?

Twisted Perspective

Why did Egyptian Kings sometimes choose to marry their sisters, committing royal incest?

1. To copy the Egyptian creation story, adding to their assertion of God like status as rulers

2. Because Egyptian society was matrilineal, power was passed down generationally through the female body, not the male

3. To maintain the purity of blood-lines

What is the name of the center of Christianity in Ethiopia, home to rock-cut Churches including St. George?

Lalibala

What are 3 differences between the Egyptian
Pyramids at Giza and the Nubian Pyramids in Meroe?

1. Meroe Pyramids are much smaller in size

2. Meroe Pyramids have much steeper sides

3. Meroe Pyramids were built 2000 years later

What is distinctive about ancient terracotta sculptures from the central Sudan that complicates the assumption that they were made by women, as was the case with most ceramics traditionally?

The subtractive process used to make them

What are the three main categories of
terracotta sculpture from the Central Sudan?

1. Nok

2. Bura

3. Sao

What are the 3 criteria used to define a
“small-scale society”?

1. Obtaining the Necessities of life by means of
   relatively simple technology

2. Population is relatively low, both in numbers
   and in density

3. Relatively limited amount of social, economic
   and political specialization

What does “homeostatic” mean when referring to the functions of art in small scale societies?

Slowing down rates of change and managing patterns of succession

What is a Gerewol, as practiced by the Fulani?

An annual festival celebrating male beauty

How is the cicatrization process manipulated to ensure a keloid scar is produced?

Rubbing substances into the wound to stop it healing properly

Why can scarification practices in Africa be considered “Bipolar Ritual Symbols” to use Victor Turner’s phrase?

Because they often involve the concurrent activation of:
- A Sensory Pole by arousing strong and immediate
bodily sensations
- An Ideological Pole by arousing deeply held social
values and complex conceptual meanings

What is the term used to identify farmers in Southernwestern Mali who resisted Islam, derived from the word for ‘pagan’?

Bamana

What is the purpose of Toron palm tree sticks on the exterior of the Jenne Mosque?

To serve as an in-built scaffolding system for the annual re-mudding festival

What is the name of age grade society masks in Mali used to promote and celebrate good farming?

Ci Wara

What is the job of ‘Griots’ in Mali?

Epic praise singing and storytelling in order to keep an oral history alive, in place of written records

What is a ‘Boli’ & how is it used by Bamana secret societies?

A Boli is a sacred object housed in a community shrine that is
treated like an altar. About the size of a small child, they take an
ambiguous and uncertain animal form that stresses that powerful
forces remain opaque and ominious to the uninitiated. Sacrificial
materials create a crusty surface, visualizing that the spiritual
force being honored has been well-fed.

Name 6 of the main mask shapes/types used in Africa

Face Mask
Helmet Mask
Helmet Crest
Cap Crest/Forehead Mask
Headdress Mask
Plank Mask
Shoulder Mask

What is a Rite of Passage and what are the 3 phases involved?

“A process of ritualistic death and rebirth accompanying changes in status or life-
phase”
Separation – Transition - Incorporation

What is name of the group that lived in and around the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali before the Dogon?

Tellem

Which of the following is a famous quality of Dogon sculptural practice that can be connected to the work of western sculptors like Michelangelo and Rodin?

Sculptural formlessness, arresting the liberation of a figure from the medium

Why do so many artistic forms produced by the Dogon exhibit signs of androgyny or bisexualism?

Because they depict primordial ancestors and serve as retrieval vehicles for a lost sense of origin

What was the general area around Ghana called by European Traders and Explorers before the Independence era?

Gold Coast

Which of the following is the most sacred and important symbol of Asante authority?

The Golden Stool

What is the name of the most famous Yoruba carver who lived from 1875 to 1938 and produced a wide range of royal commissions?

Olowe of Ise

What are the principles underlying Yoruba conceptions of beauty?

Yoruba aesthetics are premised on the balancing of outer and inner
beauty, and on the ‘mean’ achieved through the resolution of
extremes/opposites:
• Midpoint Mimesis, Visibility, Shining Smoothness, Positioning, Delicacy,
Emotional Proportion, Roundness, Protrusions, Sinister Bulges, Pleasing
Angularity, Straightness, Symmetry, Ephebism

Give 3 reasons why ‘Great Men Move Slowly’ according to the famous Asante Royal proverb

-Because good leaders make carefully deliberated
decisions rather than rash, impulsive judgements
- Because of the burdens of leadership
- Because of the weight of the gold jewelry and
cloth worn in public symbolizing the wealth of the
kingdom

When do you possess a spirit spouse according to the belief system of the Baule?

You always have one because you are already married from the moment of birth

Name three things that your spirit spouse can be understood to represent or symbolize

- Your ideal partner
- Everything your real-life partner is not
- Your own alter-ego
- A scapegoat for any misfortunes that befall you
- An external manifestation of your private dreams and
fantasies that remain out of reach
- A visualization of the psychological consequences of
shifting notions of status and success attendant to the
conditions of modernity

What material are necklaces and crowns worn by Benin Kings and high ranking advisers made out of ?

Coral

Why do Benin Royal Heads have a hole in them?

So that an elephant tusk carved with stories of the King’s reign can be inserted

Which of the following animals are symbolic of the Oba in Benin?

Mudfish

In which year did the British sack the Kingdom of Benin in the Punitive Mission interrupting 900 years of kingship?

1897

What is the name of the Benin God of the Sea?

Olokun