Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin

By Paula Ben-Amos, Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick

"Benos-Amos opens for the reader richly detailed adn nuanced vistas into the intellectual and cultural history of one of the major kingdoms of precolonial West Africa." -- African Studies Review

"The wealth of historiographic resources, the command of relevant literature, the ethnographic research and prudent use of oral traditions give this work a high degree of . . . intellectual excitement. . . . a landmark in the field." --Warren d'Azevedo

Making use of archival and oral resources in this extensively researched book, Paula Girshick Ben-Amos questions to what extent art operates as political strategy. How do objects acquire political meaning? How does the use of art enhance and embody power and authority?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253335035
• ISBN13: 9780253335036
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

BENIN, PORTRAIT OF AN ANCIENT KINGDOM

Letter to Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, author of "Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin." Your book, "Art Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin", is superb. I'm not a reviewer so the much I can see is that you lead us, the reader, easy and firmly across the ancient history of a Kingdom with her obas, uzamas, ezomos, iyases, chiefs -- and give us a handy list of the obas from Ehengbuda to...