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Artists in Liberia and the United States: a Comparative View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Karen L. Field
Karen L. Field
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas
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Extract

In summary, six striking parallels have been found between the artist archetypes in Liberia and the United States, each of which appears to be rooted in some structural similarity between the two societies at the material and social levels. The structural factors which have been suggested as pivotal in determining the nature of the artist archetype have included: (1) the atypicality of the carver/artist/s labour process via-à-vis that of other workers; (2) the development of an alternate value profile congruent with that atypical process; (3) the need for itinerancy/migration to ensure a large enough market for self-support; (4) dependence on the élite class for patronage; (5) relative economic insecurity; and (6) a definition of the product which necessitates solitary labour. These factors combine to create in the general public the image of the artist described earlier.

Some carvers and artists may appear to exhibit the traits imputed to them, and even ‘play into’ their expected image; but this phenomenon can be explained without invoking some innate ‘artistic temperament’ or transcultural ‘artist's rôle’. Rather, we can conclude that carvers and artists, like other human beings, are subject to specific material and social constraints that shape their own consciousness and that of their public. Though individuals make art, it is as true of art as of history, that ‘they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 1982 , pp. 713 - 730
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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