Out of Time, Out of Place: Primitivism and African Art

Meredeth Turshen

doi:10.18533/journal.v6i9.1251

Abstract

<p>This article debates the proposition that artistic production mirrors humanity’s maturation from primitive superstition to scientific rationality. This effort sits at the intersection of demography, political economy and aesthetics. According to traditional demographic theory, primitive peoples are caught in a poverty trap of high birth rates, a condition inimical to industrialization, well-planned urbanization, universal education, women’s emancipation and cultural production. The analysis focuses on three dynamics: the demographic effects of mass migration on creativity: the trajectories of declining populations and their places in cultural hierarchies; and slavery and colonialism’s reduction to penury of skilled artists in pre-industrial societies. The method interrogates self-reinforcing trends of the canons of demography, political economy and aesthetics and the resulting concurrence on the path of progress, which assumes that art is a reflection of liberal historical advancement. The overarching argument of the article is that by setting the criteria and suppressing alternative accounts of the history of African art, these canons narrow and misrepresent our global cultural legacy. Background: sub-Saharan African art is classified as “primitive” according to the canons of art history, demography and political economy. This label is problematic because it conveys faulty demographic assumptions about sub-Saharan Africa and reflects the ways in which theories of human progress reinforce analyses underlying the designation of primitive. The proposition advanced is that these canons narrow, suppress alternative accounts of the history of African art, and misrepresent our global cultural legacy.</p>

Highlights

The classification of sub-Saharan African art as “primitive” motivates my exploration of cultural production as it is influenced by the canons of art history, demography and political economy
I discuss the canons’ apparent accord that sub-Saharan African art is out of time, in both the literal sense and the figurative sense
We experience sub-Saharan African art as out of place, in the figurative sense of lost context and in the literal sense of geographical displacement

Summary

Introduction

1. Introduction The classification of sub-Saharan African art as “primitive” motivates my exploration of cultural production as it is influenced by the canons of art history, demography and political economy. I discuss the canons’ apparent accord that sub-Saharan African art is out of time, in both the literal sense (we cannot date accurately the work in most museum collections) and the figurative sense (the art is identified as prehistoric, which means it belongs to a timeless period of oral tradition).

Results

Conclusion