The Art of Tradition
The Art of Tradition
Inspired by initiation ceremonies and masked performances, artists in Casamance depict these rituals in their art. This chapter analyzes how these works of art are given various, contradictory meanings depending on the context in which they are shown. It shows how the depiction of secret rituals is part of the widely shared sense that such rituals will eventually vanish in the process of ‘modernization’. It is feared that such ‘traditions’ come to signify ‘locality’, even if they are not capable of producing it. However, in spite of the modernist expectation that rituals will disappear in the onslaught of ‘modernization’, they do in fact have a future as ‘traditions’ and continue to escape their contextualization.
Keywords: initiation, masked performance, artworks, secret rituals
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
