Makishi
Mask Characters of Zambia
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Fowler Museum of Cultural History,U.S.
Published:16th Jan '07
Should be back in stock very soon
Reveals the beauty and complexity of the remarkable masquerade traditions of the peoples who live in and close to northwestern Zambia
Reveals the beauty and complexity of the remarkable masquerade traditions of the Chokwe, Mbunda, Lunda, Lwena/Luvale, and Luchazi peoples who live in the 'Three Corners' region of northwestern Zambia, northeastern Angola, and southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Makishi: Mask Characters of Zambia, Manuel Jordán reveals the beauty and complexity of the remarkable masquerade traditions of the Chokwe, Mbunda, Lunda, Lwena/Luvale, and Luchazi peoples who live in the “Three Corners” region of northwestern Zambia, northeastern Angola, and southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The distinct yet overlapping mask types and styles used by these groups reflect their continual interaction and demonstrate the constant reformulation of visual and performance genres. Relations among peoples of the “Three Corners” are further complicated by recent refugee flows, and the masquerades that Jordán considers and vividly illustrates in his field photographs reflect histories of compromise and creative tension, as well as contemporary struggles for survival.
While exquisite masks drawn from the Fowler Museum's collections demonstrate long use, Jordán shows how new characters can be created within earlier categories, so that basic dramatic plots are preserved while reference is made to new technologies, foreign encounters, and the dynamics of social interaction in a rapidly changing world. In many ways, as the author astutely argues, the masks are a performative mechanism used to explain, cope with, and, often enough, celebrate life's most difficult transitions and transformations. Makishi vibrantly documents the ability of theater to perpetuate tradition while providing an adaptive leading edge.
With Jordan's knowledgeable text, the work is not only an idea companion to the Fowler Museum masks, but also a concise anthropological study of African tribal masks.
* Henry BerISBN: 9780974872971
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 363g
84 pages