The African was not alone in recognizing the spirit of life that surrounded him.The power and beauty of nature is on display in every region of planet earth.
Yet, upon first contact with Africans, Europeans failed to see the beauty inherit in the Africans reverence for nature.
The belief that "everything is alive or "everything has a soul" helped to foster a conservationist mentality in most parts of the continent. Flora and fauna were not abused or overly exploited. Saying a prayer before slaughtering an animal or cutting down a tree were rituals that created a spiritual accountability. Humans acknowledged their place as custodians of the land.
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this is so true. I had never really thought of myself as having an interest in african art.
ReplyDelete(let me preface with a disclaimer, if it really even matters)I am white and the concept of being interested had just never entered
my mind (not b/c of being racist-i'm not) but just because my mind
had not been exposed to this avenue
before- a new concept that was unexplored as it were. Like someone who never had considered eating tacos (bad example since i love them)because they from america. Anyways, I was at the new orleans jazz fest and there was a stone carver there with peices he had brought in from somewhere in africa and I was blown away. the work was incredible. I shouldn't be surprised given how advanced the culture and the length of history of Africa was but it was like someone pulling the curtain back and showing me something rare and beautiful that I had never noticed. Thanks for the blog and the questions/exploration you are asking the rest of us to join in on.