Appendix 2: Methods in the Study of African Aesthetics

Damme, Wilfried van

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Appendix 2: Methods in the Study of African Aesthetics

Wilfried van Damme

The Language of Beauty in African Art

What kinds of data form the foundation of scholarly knowledge about the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures?

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Wilfried van Damme

PublisherArt Institute of Chicago

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22992

Appendix 2: Methods in the Study of African Aesthetics

Wilfried van Damme

What kinds of data form the foundation of scholarly knowledge about the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures? Which types of information are considered valid, and what procedures are used to produce bodies of reliable data? As with every form of knowledge construction—especially in the humanities—methodologies and their underlying epistemologies present varied and debated issues in Africanist aesthetics. This overview briefly introduces readers to the main methods used in studying the aesthetic in sub-Saharan contexts; more detailed and critical analyses of these research procedures have been provided elsewhere.1The methods used to investigate the aesthetic in African cultures are presented and analyzed in Van Damme 1996, chap. 6 (171–204). The epistemological assumptions on which these methods rest are discussed in Van Damme 1996, chap. 5 (135–70).

Scholars frequently start by systematically documenting people’s aesthetic preferences in local art forms, usually the visual arts, with an emphasis on sculpture. Various empirical procedures may serve this purpose, notably aesthetic ranking tests. This method typically involves asking individuals to rate a series of examples of a particular local art form according to personal preference. Evaluators are then asked to elucidate the reasons behind their predilections. This procedure may lead to establishing the visual properties that meet with aesthetic approval or disapproval in a given sociocultural setting. It may also entail recording the verbalized criteria that people apply in evaluating aesthetic objects and events. Ideally, the investigator is also able to document any reasons that critics adduce for the aesthetic importance of these standards in a given context. This type of empirical research often serves as the baseline for various forms of more focused inquiry into aesthetic issues.

Researchers are usually careful to include individuals of different walks of life in their efforts to establish the aesthetic predilections, criteria, and opinions of a cross-section of the population. Some students ask specifically whether aesthetic outlooks are gendered, differ among artists compared to nonartists, or are otherwise differentiated in a population (notably in terms of age and education). Even so, consensual (that is, transsegmental) aesthetic preferences, standards, and views are commonly reported.

Some scholars focus their attention on the producers of art in order to gain an impression of a given African culture’s aesthetic values and thought. In addition to documenting artists’ opinions about such matters, they may examine the training artists receive and give, and investigate their working methods. Some researchers have apprenticed themselves to African artists in support of their attempts to understand the aesthetic objectives and principles that guide the creation of art.2Examples include art historians Pieter Jan Vandenhoute (see Vandenhoute 1945, 886–87); Patrick R. McNaughton (see McNaughton 1988, xiv–xv); and Henry J. Drewal (see Drewal 1990, 33). Sporadically, they turn to local sages in order to learn about the aesthetic in a particular culture.3The most notable example is Barry Hallen’s work on Yòrùbá aesthetics (Hallen 2000). Hallen also published one of the very few systematic discussions of methodology in studying the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures (Hallen 1979).

One common line of more focused research consists of examining people’s aesthetic vocabularies. This type of study often proceeds from the evaluative concepts and articulated standards of appraisal that surface in aesthetic preference research. Such inquiries may focus on the semantic ranges of key aesthetic terms and the various sociocultural domains in which they are applied. They may also study these terms’ relationships with other crucial concepts in a given culture’s system of thought, such as those concerning morality and ontology. This type of research on how the aesthetic is conceptualized and integrated into a culture’s worldview frequently involves investigating the ways in which the aesthetic is talked about in proverbs, poems, stories, legends, and myths.4The prospects and problems of studying aesthetics in Africa through analyses of the verbal arts are discussed in Van Damme 2000a. The most extensive examination to date to use conceptually contextualized verbal data to understand the aesthetic in an African tradition is Abiodun 2014. African scholars, building on their intimate knowledge of language and worldview within their native cultures, have made in-depth lexico-semantic analyses of aesthetic concepts and have examined how these concepts feature in the semantic webs of local forms of thought.

In addition to analyzing the conceptual integration of relevant terminology, some scholars examine the sociocultural integration of the aesthetic in a given African community. They address the roles it plays in such settings as morality, religion, politics, education, and entertainment.

The data that African and Western investigators have produced on aesthetic matters in individual sub-Saharan traditions have also been the subject of comparative analyses. Such synthetic studies were pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when relevant data were still sparse.5In a 1967 essay, Harris Memel-Fotê compared linguistic data concerning the aesthetic in various West African languages and considered other sources of comparative interest as well; see Memel-Fotê 1967. The first chapter of Robert Farris Thompson’s African Art in Motion, which systematically gathered the disparate materials available in the early 1970s, ranges more widely over sub-Saharan Africa and is more centered on ethnographic data; see Thompson 1974. See also Thompson’s more focused comparative analysis of concepts of “coolness”—conceived as an aesthetico-moral category—in various African languages and cultures (Thompson 1973a). The steady increase of published information in the years to follow enabled scholars to produce more substantive comparative analyses in the second half of the 1980s. These efforts, like The Language of Beauty in African Art, tended to highlight commonalities in African aesthetic predilections and views.6Vogel 1986; Van Damme 1987; and Stêphan 1988. Susan Mullin Vogel had earlier compared Baule and Yòrùbá aesthetics; see Vogel 1979. Loretta R. Reinhardt compared Mende, Baule, and Yòrùbá aesthetic criteria; see Reinhardt 1975, 142–48. Differences in aesthetic preferences between sub-Saharan traditions have been systematically analyzed as well.7Van Damme 1996.

1 The methods used to investigate the aesthetic in African cultures are presented and analyzed in Van Damme 1996, chap. 6 (171–204). The epistemological assumptions on which these methods rest are discussed in Van Damme 1996, chap. 5 (135–70). »

2 Examples include art historians Pieter Jan Vandenhoute (see Vandenhoute 1945, 886–87); Patrick R. McNaughton (see McNaughton 1988, xiv–xv); and Henry J. Drewal (see Drewal 1990, 33). »

3 The most notable example is Barry Hallen’s work on Yòrùbá aesthetics (Hallen 2000). Hallen also published one of the very few systematic discussions of methodology in studying the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures (Hallen 1979). »

4 The prospects and problems of studying aesthetics in Africa through analyses of the verbal arts are discussed in Van Damme 2000a. The most extensive examination to date to use conceptually contextualized verbal data to understand the aesthetic in an African tradition is Abiodun 2014. »

5 In a 1967 essay, Harris Memel-Fotê compared linguistic data concerning the aesthetic in various West African languages and considered other sources of comparative interest as well; see Memel-Fotê 1967. The first chapter of Robert Farris Thompson’s African Art in Motion, which systematically gathered the disparate materials available in the early 1970s, ranges more widely over sub-Saharan Africa and is more centered on ethnographic data; see Thompson 1974. See also Thompson’s more focused comparative analysis of concepts of “coolness”—conceived as an aesthetico-moral category—in various African languages and cultures (Thompson 1973a). »

6 Vogel 1986; Van Damme 1987; and Stêphan 1988. Susan Mullin Vogel had earlier compared Baule and Yòrùbá aesthetics; see Vogel 1979. Loretta R. Reinhardt compared Mende, Baule, and Yòrùbá aesthetic criteria; see Reinhardt 1975, 142–48. »

7 Van Damme 1996. »

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