hollywood icons, local demons exhibition of works by mark anthony

7/27/2019 Hollywood Icons, Local Demons exhibition of works by Mark Anthony

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Review: Hollywood Icons, Local Demons

Author(s): Dominique MalaquaisReviewed work(s):

Hollywood Icons, Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark AnthonyHollywoodIcons, Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark Anthony [Catalog] by MichelleGilbert

Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 102, No. 4 (Dec., 2000), pp. 870-877Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/684219

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MUSEUMANTHROPOLOGY

Exhibit Review EssaysHollywoodIcons, LocalDemons

DOMINIQUEALAQUAISColumbiaUniversityHollywood Icons, Local Demons: Ghanaian PopularPaintingsby Mark Anthony. WidenerArtGallery,Trin-ityCollege,Hartford,CT:January 1-March31, 2000(re-view venue);Kansas City Gallery of Art, UniversityofMissouri,KansasCity, September8-October27, 2000;ChicagoCulturalCenter,Chicago,July14-September 5,2001; Lowe Art Center,Syracuse University,Syracuse,NY:December10-January 5,2002 (pending unding).Hollywood Icons, Local Demons: Ghanaian PopularPaintingsby Mark Anthony.MichelleGilbert.Hartford,CT:TrinityCollege,2000.72 pp.

Whatis local? Whatis global?And where do the twomeet?Forsomeyearsnow,thesequestionshave beenmat-tersof central oncern orstudents f sub-Saharanulture.Recentsymposia ponsored y theCenter orInternationalStudiesandResearch C.N.R.S.-C.E.R.I.)n ParisandtheCenterfor Social Researchon Africa(C.O.D.E.S.R.I.A.)in Dakar;1manifold alksgivenat theFall2000meetingoftheAfricanStudiesAssociation,publications n as wide arangeof topicsas agriculturenddeforestation,conomicstrategiesandsustainable evelopment,hepoliticsof de-mocratization,good governance,individual and groupidentity,architecture,ettlementpatterns,and the role ofNGOs in Africa southof theSaharaaddress hesekey is-sues.2In studiesof materialculture, oo, there is talk ofthesequestions, houghperhapsnotas muchas onewouldhope.3Whereresearch ncontemporaryrt sconcerned,greatdealremains o be done.Thoughsomeseminal extshave been publishedand exhibitionsorganized hatex-plore nteractions etween helocal and heglobal npaint-ing, sculpture,and masquerade,4he approach n manystudiesof artsouthof the Sahara emainsa fairlystraight-forward,dichotomousaffair:"tradition"nd"modernity"tend o bepresented sdistinct ntities,more ikelyto standinoppositiono oneanotherhan o meet.

Hollywood cons,LocalDemons,an exhibitionmountedby anthropologistMichelleGilbert,offersa welcomeres-pitefrom hisgeneral tateof affairs. n thisshow,subtitledGhanaianPopularPaintingsbyMarkAnthony,Gilbert i-multaneously rawsuponand movesbeyondthe workofsuchkey figuresof Africanistarthistoryas SusanVogel(who,at the Center or AfricanArt,which she founded nthemid-1980s,mounted hefirstmajorexhibitionof con-temporaryub-Saharanrt n theUnitedStates),JohannesFabian(best knownfor his work on Congolesepopularcultureandpainting),andBogumilJewsiewicki,perhapsthe finest writertodayon contemporary opularculturesouthof the Sahara.Contentandpresentation othmakeHollywood cons,LocalDemonsa must-see.As its subtitlesuggests,the exhibitionfocuses on thework of one artist:a GhanaianpainternamedMarkAn-thony.Today n his 50s,MarkAnthony a pseudonymheartist hoseearly nhiscareer)s thebest-known reator fa highly specificgenre:paintings hatadvertiseperform-ancesby itinerantroupesof actorsand musiciansn urbanandvillagesettings hroughoutontemporaryGhana.Thetroupesthemselvesare called concertparties; heirper-formancesarereferred o as concerts.Concertsarecom-plex, multifaceted vents thatdrawupona wide rangeofart forms:music,stand-up omedy,vaudeville,slapstick,and dramaticheater.Typically,the performance eginsaroundeight or nine in the evening.Extensiveintroduc-tions focusedonthemusiciansnvolvedare ollowed,untilmidnight,by a concertn thesense thatWesternaudiencesmightunderstandheterm,by a series of songs,that s, ac-companiedby instrumentsuchas electrickeyboards ndguitars,drumsand maracas.Musicalnumbersare inter-spersedwith okes,puns,andhumorous tories.Followingthis,a playis performed,whichmay last untildawn.Theplay, as Gilbertdescribes t in the beautifully llustratedcatalog thataccompanies he exhibition, s "a multi-act[performance]hatcombinesvaudeville,moralitydramaand Christianrevivalistsermon"(p. 1). The concert is

AmericanAnthropologist 02(4):870-882. Copyright? 2001,AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation


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M U S E U M A N T H R O P O L O G Y

advertised y huge signboards, ver a meterand a half inheightandwidth,seton thegroundandpropped pagainstwalls,trashbins,andelectricposts.The signs, paintedonplywood n brilliant namelcolors,arecalledcartoons.Forany one play, three to five boardsare usually created.Commissionedby the troupes, hey depictkey scenes orideas fromtheplay;aboveorbelow theimage,usually nbrightwhite or bloodredblockletters,appearshenameofthe bandthatwill be providing heevening'smusicalen-tertainment nd, in smallercursive,the title of the play(Figure1).Hollywood cons,Local Demons is the first exhibitionever held in the United States of Ghanaian oncert car-toons. On its own, the materialwouldbe fascinating.Itbecomes all the more so at the handsof Gilbert.Withseemingeffortlessness-in fact,ajudiciousbalanceof ex-planatoryabels, neither too telegraphicnor too wordy,contextual hotographs,nd musicalambiance-the showrenders ccessible o aforeignpublicworks t wouldother-wise likely misunderstand. articularlyuccessfulis thesimple,attimes almost aconicpresentationf the cartoonsin thegallery pace.Rather hanhangthepieces,museum-style,Gilberthaspositioned hem astheywouldappear na street n Accra orAkuapem: eaningagainsta wall,atopsmall woodenblocks(extensionsof theplywoodboards).Whatthis means in practical ermsis that the museumviewerencountersheimagesatprecisely he sameheight

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~ aFigure 1. MarkAnthony. Signboardadvertisinga concertentitled"InThis World,If You Do Not Allow Your Brother o Climb,YouWill Not Climb" (Ama Wonyonko Antwa Akron a .. .). Photographby DavidStansbury.

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Figure 2. Street Scene. Passersby on a street in Ghana survey asignboard paintedby Mark Anthony, advertisinga concert to beperformed hatevening. Photograph y MichelleGilbert.

andangleaswouldapasserby n a Ghanaiantreet Figure2). Important s well are the fact that the imagesare notshown in a specific order.This too is as it would be inGhana.Though everalboardsareproducedo advertiseplay,eachdepictinganimportantcene oridea,viewersona city streetrarelyhave the occasionof seeing all of theboards n a row,one scenefollowinganotheras wouldbethe case in theplayitself. Thisstateof affairs eavesmuchto the viewer's imagination.Multiple interpretationsrepossible, dependingon his/herbackground,beliefs, andframeof mind.For themuseum-goer,hesame s true.In-deed,the idealwayto visit thisshow is to walkthroughtonce withoutreading he labelsat the panels'sides,thenpass through secondtime,with Gilbert'sexplanations sa guide.The wealth of ideas and perceptionsone takesaway, some conflicting,otherssurprisingly omplemen-tary, s remarkable.Remarkables well are thehybridnatureof theimagesdepictedon the signboards,he fluiditywith which theseimagesweave nto andout of oneanother, nd,onceagain,the seemingease with which the ideas underlying heseimagesarepresentedo theviewerby Gilbert. nfew con-textscouldone encounteruch a seamless nterminglingfsources,forms,and ideas as one does in these paintings.Cultural nd deologicalborders eem to fallaway,result-ing in scenes that aresimultaneously urrealandbeliev-able.The endproducts properly aptivating: meldingofthe local and the global, the present and the past, themythicandtheeveryday hatputsto shameMadisonAve-nue'smost maginativealesploys.The hybridityof the paintingsreflectsthat of the con-certs themselves.From the momentone enters the per-formancearena,Gilbert xplains, t becomesclear hatoneis in an environmentwhere the mostextraordinaryormsand ideascan meet.Fora Westerner,perhaps he easiestwayof approachinghismixandcomplexityof genres s toconsider hemusicperformed tconcerts.During hefirst


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872 AMERICANNTHROPOLOGISTVOL.102, No. 4 * DECEMBER000

few hoursof the show,a widerangeof musicalgenresareplayed, including reggae, funk, Congolese and NorthAmericanrhythms,punctuatedby interludesof break-dancing.Once the playbegins,the genreschange.Adowa(songsof thedominantAkanethnicgroup), uneraldirges(alsoAkan),Christian ymns,and,most mportantly,igh-life tunesare the musicof choice.The originsof highlife-underscore nd bring addedcomplexityto this mix ofstyles.Bornin the 1920s,highlifeis the musicparexcel-lence of Ghana.Its sourcesare numerousand multina-tional: t derives roma blendof osibisaba,rhythmsntro-ducedby theFantepeopleof southernGhana originatorsalsoof thefirstconcertparties),Caribbeanaiso andwest-ern Europeanfoxtrots, dagomba (a Liberian musicalform),and ashikoandgoombe(genreshailing rom SierraLeone).ContemporaryighlifeaddsCongoleseguitar iffsanddancemusic to the mix. Individual roups ntroducefurthernfluencesstill, makinghighlifean ever-evolvingform.Onemusician,EricAgyeman, s known ora typeofhighlifehe invented alledsikyi,basedonmedleyssungbyAshantimusicians o the beatof a percussive nstrumentcalledthepremprensua.n the 1970s,severalgroups rav-eled to West Germany,producing herea high-tech ormknownas "Burgher ighlife."Some groupssing in Eng-lish, othersin Fanteand relatedAkan languages;manyswitchbackand orthandmayhave severalversionsof thesame song, to be used in differentcircumstances, eforedifferentypesof audiences.Theoriginsof theplaysthemselvesareequallydiverse.Thegenre,Gilbertnotes,reachesbackto theearly1900s.Early sources included Akan tales centered aroundamythiccharacter y thename of Ananse,a tricksterigureconcerningwhom multiplestoriesare told, songs sung,andproverbsdevised.Otherearly nfluences ncludedna-tivity plays organizedby Christianmissionaries,Holly-wood movies brought o Ghana n the 1920sand 1930s,starringCharlieChaplinandAl Jolson,Americanvaude-villeacts,and,oddlyenough rom heperspective f view-ers in theyear2000,"blackface"minstrel hows.Overthedecades,new influenceshave been introducedhathavepromptedmportant hangesin the genre.Once an eliteform of entertainment,oncertshave become a popularmedium,attendedprimarily y low-incomeruraldwellersandfirst-generationrbanmigrants.As a result,the lan-guagein whichthey arepresentedhas changed:whereasEnglishwasoriginallyhetongueof choice,todayconcertstend o bemultilingual, arryingeveral ernacularonguesto accommodate s broada rangeof viewersas possible.As the classcompositionof audienceshaschanged, o toohasthelengthof theperformances. arlyconcerts astedafew hours;present-dayhowscommonly ast all night, npart o providea havenforyoungtraders ndmarket olk(thebulkof thepublic),whotypicallyhavenohomeinthecity. Longerhourshave also been instituted o competewithother ormsof entertainment,uchasprerecordedll-

musicdanceand light shows and video presentations fpopularoreignmovies.Video shows, the exhibitionunderscores,have had apowerfuleffect on concertpartyimagery.Many of thecharactersne seespainted n thesignboardshatadvertisethe performancesredrawn romforeignfilms showninvideo formaton sheets or on the sides of buildingsinmakeshiftneighborhoodinemas.Particularly opular reimageshailingfromhorror, ciencefiction,andcavemanmovies:depictionsof the living dead (mummieswhosewrappedcottonbandagesare coming unwound,decom-posingcorpsesandskeletons);monstersvariousand sun-dry(Godzilla-andJurassicPark-likebeings,viscouscrea-tures from the black lagoon, animal-headedmen andzoomorphic reatureswithmultiplehumanheads,disem-bodiedtorsosequippedwithflipperswherehandsshouldappear ndgapingmouthswhereonewouldexpect o seeanavel); and King-Kong,Yeti and Medusa-likefigures(Figures3 and4). Sourcesfor these imagesvarywidely,fromMichaelJacksonvideos(oneMarkAnthonycorpse-in-motion ooks for all the world like an escapee fromJackson's1980s"Thriller"),o Japaneseelevisionserials,Indianmusicalfilms (so popular n Ghanathat, in theNorth, oungwomenhavetaken o wearing aris),Nigerianhorror-cum-moralityideosthatfeatureanimals inkedto

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Figure 3. MarkAnthony.Signboardadvertisinga concertwith musicperformedby SuperYaw Ofori's famousband.In thebackground fa blood-soaked decapitationscene, a figure of death wrappedinbands of mortuary ottonappears,as if bursting orthfrom a screen-ing of The Curseof theMummy.Photographby David Stansbury.


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MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGY 873

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Figure 4. MarkAnthony.In a signboardpaintedby Anthony,a fiercesupernaturaleingwithimpossiblypendulousbreasts eeksto throttlethe heroineof a play entitled"InThis World,If You Do Not AllowYour Brother to Climb, You Will Not Climb" (Ama WonyonkoAntwa Akron a ...). Nearby, a skeleton skulks. A noose (in theforeground)andcemetery(in the rear)add to the forebodingatmos-phereof the painting.Photograph y David Stansbury.

theworldof evil (whichatthewhimof theirownerscanbemadeto vomitmoney),andawe-inspiringwaterdivinitiesknownasMamiWata.5Also fundamentalsa sourceof concertmageryarede-pictionsdrawn romChristianconography.n GhanaasinNigeria,over the past decade,revivalistandPentecostalchurcheshaveemergedas a powerful ocialforce.Inpoli-ticsthey playaprevalentole:

Electoral ommissionostersorthe1996Presidentiallec-tions Gilberteports]ortrayedvoter lanked yahorned,fangedandred-faced evilwitha fistfullof moneybeingchallengedya haloedGhanaianngel xhortinghevoter o"vote our oice."Gilbert998:63-64]Indailylife theyappear mnipresent. logansdrawn romthegospelof born-againChristianityppear nthesides oftrucksand buses. Prayermeetingsare held in schools,buildingsunderconstruction,ndparkingots;theybringtogether housandsof worshipers, rawnby the fire-and-brimstoneermonsof preacherswhose churchesbearsuchnamesas "DeeperLife Bible"and "MovingMountainsFoundationsCentre."Fromthe realmof fundamentalistChristianityome a widerangeof images.Particularlyom-mon aredepictions f angelsbearingwordsandscabbards,shields andtrumpets,eering,horn-bedecked evils, and

preachers wathed n the white robesand red sashes ofPentecostalworship Figures5 and6). Justas the imagesborrowed rom video introducea strongelementof theglobalin concertpartyrepresentations,o too do the fig-uresdrawn romrevivalistChristianconography:hePen-tecostaland charismatic hurches hat haveburgeonednAnglophoneWest Africaoverthepast enyears,noteGil-bertandotherswho have studied he phenomenon,havestrongnternationalinks, otheUnitedStates,Europe,andAsia.6Theimagesdrawn rom his vastpoolof foreignsourcesareemployed n concertpartypaintingn waysthatareatonce highly originaland, for the unacquainted iewer,properlymind-boggling.No onefigureortypeof depictionis incorporateds is. All aretransformed,n termsof bothappearanceand content,put to wholly unexpectedandrichly maginativeuse. Theyserveto bring o life visuallya worldof themind,a pantheon f deitiesgreatandsmallthatplaykeyroles n theplotsof concertperformanceset,previously,hadneverbeendepicted.Gilbert rticulateshepointas follows:

TheAkanhaveno figuralmagesof their emoteSupremeBeing (Onyame)equatedn playsandsermonswiththeChristianod];andwhilethere s no absence f anthropo-morphicmageryin hearts ftheAkan nd elatedeoples],theyresistmaking ffigiesasthe ociof supernaturalower.

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Figure 5. MarkAnthony.Above a figure drawnfromIndiancine-maticgenres,an angel appears,his righthand thrust orth.He seemsto issue from the disembodiedhand of God Himself. Disconcert-ingly, as Gilbertnotes, angels in MarkAnthony's paintingsare al-most invariablyCaucasian.Photographby DavidStansbury.


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874 AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST VOL. 102, No. 4 * DECEMBER 000

Figure 6. MarkAnthony.Signboardadvertisinga play entitled "TheJudgementDay." A Pentecostalminister,dressedin the white robeand red sash of his faith, ministers to a less-than-attentive lock:severalparishioners leep (one man is slumpedin the first row); awoman counts money; two couples fondle. Concertplots, Gilbertnotes, commonly focus on the misbehavior of allegedly devoutChristians nd the misdeeds(orworseyet, the ties to theDevil and toevil forces more generally)of corruptmen of the cloth. Photographby DavidStansbury.

Those rivers and trees whose spiritual powers are tradition-ally appeased with small offerings are never represented insculpturalform. [p. 6]

This,clearly,presents problemor concertpartypainters:How .. wasMarkAnthonyoportrayupernaturallyower-ful rivers and trees that figure prominently in the concertplays? [p. 6]

Enter the images sampledby the painterfrom foreignsources,much as a musician amplessounds n a hip-hoporrapcomposition:TopaintheAkan iver nd reedeities hateaturenconcertplays,MarkAnthonyraws nWesternmageryrom lassi-calandmodernources, s well asimagesromHongKong,Japanese,ndIndian inemaand elevision.To portrayhetinymischievousorest piritswithbackwardeet of Akanfolklore alledmmotia, e transformshebearded warvesfromllustrateduropeanhildren'sairy ales longastaplein WestAfrican rade chools]. llustratedernaculardi-tionsof theNewTestamentavailablen any marketplace]andpicturesn Rosicrucianndother ccult iteratureafa-voriteof thepolitical lass n many ub-Saharanountries]mayalso nfluence...his[work].p.6]These variousglobal images, revised and articulatedanewby MarkAnthony,enter he local worldof theplayand ts audience o a rangeof different nds.By and arge,theplotsfocuson local concernsandpersonages: ompeti-

tionand ealousy npolygamousmarriages;hecomplexitiesof life at the courtof Akan chiefsandkings;thepowerofsorcery;heplaceof the ancestorsasaman)and esserdei-ties (abosom)in the daily existence of humanbeings."[P]resent-dayocalpoliticsandeconomics, ragmentationof the extended amily,changingpatterns f inheritance,underemploymentf urban outh,andconflicting elationsbetween 'tradition'amanne]andthe Christian hurchesand Islam"areconcernsas well (p. 14),though hey maynot be treated n as director straightforwardmannerasthe foregoingsuggests.Stock charactersncludethe line-ageelder abusuapanyin), heQueenMother a womanoftheroyal amily,thoughnotnecessarily he ruler'smotherproper),the spirit medium (okomfo),the Mallam, orlearnedmanof Islam,andthe Christian riest.Ajoker fig-ure,present ince the earliestdays of concertparties, s astaplein virtuallyall performances.The plays do more,however,thanaddresssuch characters nd issues alone."[T]heyd[o]not comeaboutmerelyas a response oques-tions andconditions,"Gilbertnotes,"theyalso ask ques-tions andcreateconditions" Gilbert1998:63).In doingso, they producenew discourses andtherebyemergeasactive orces n the constructionf contemporary hanaiansociety.Withthepaintings reated o advertise heplays,a simi-lar state of affairs obtains.The signboardsborrowfromand, n so doing,address deasof "otherness"nd"moder-nity."Ultimately,however, heydo muchmore.Theusesto which the monsters and ghouls, devils, angels, andpreachers reputbyMarkAnthonyradicallyransformheimagessampledand so bring ntoplaya discourse-com-mentary,questions,reflections-on the nature and themeaningof the images borrowed.Other"modernities,"other ormsof "otherness"recreated. ndeed, defy any-one who sees thisexhibition verto look at aStevenSpiel-bergor an"AlienResurrection"ilm in the samemanner she or shemighthave before.One of thegreat trengths f Gilbert's xhibit s its abil-ity to show the paintingsandthe playsthey reference nlightof thesecomplexconcernsyet,at the same ime,to re-maingrounded, lways, n the works hemselves.Analysisis neverallowed o detract romthenarrativewealthor theformalqualitiesof thepaintings-two key factors,Gilbertpointsout, n the successof MarkAnthonyasanartistanda businessman.Simply put,concerttroupescome to himrather han to others who ply a similar radebecausehispaintingsattractcrowds. They are excellent advertise-ments.ThatMarkAnthony,almostcertainlya formallytrained rtist p. 8), holds thathis is a giftfromGod ratherthan heproduct f anylearning xperienceorapprentice-ship no doubt adds to his mystique,keepinghis prices(oftena full quarter f the fundsexpended o produceaconcert)quitehigh.Noteworthy s well is Gilbert'sability o underscorehecomplexityof cartoonproduction.Labelsaccompanying


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MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGY 875the boards indicate that things are not as simple as onemight imagine. Commonly, the artist has but a very roughsense of the play's overall plot:

[C]artoonsllustratecenes from a playbased on a writer'soractor'ssummaryof theplot to the artist.As either he band-leader,musicianor writermay providethe artistwith roughsketches of what should be depicted,the multiple perspec-tives involvedin the actual creationprocessmay be highlycomplex,as indeed s therelationship etweenorality,musicandvisualrepresentation.his also means hat hepainter...may haveonly a vagueidea of the actualstory-line. Gilbert1998:65]Imagination, in this context, and a broad knowledge offorms upon which to drawcount for much.The one weakness of Gilbert's exhibition is one thatmay be unavoidable-the product of presenting in a mu-seum works meant to appearin a distinctly more interac-tive setting. As she herself pointsout, the paintings, like theplays, are but one aspect of a vast, complex, and intercon-nected whole. Showing one without the other(s) resultsin atruncated,and in certainsenses unsatisfactory,experience.When the show was in the planning stages, Gilbertreports,there was some talkof bringingan entiretroupeto performin conjunction with the opening (personal communication,April 2000). This, however, presented significant prob-lems. A U.S. audience, most involved (Ghanaian andAmerican alike) agreed, would find the length of the per-formance-an entire night-off-putting. A shortenedshow would of course have been possible but would havebeen little more than an ersatz creation. Language pre-sented a furtherdifficulty. While, in recent years, the citi-fied bourgeoisie has taken to watching shorter, English-version concert performances broadcast on Ghanaiantelevision (an innovation that allows the educated, whootherwise have tendedto shun "real"concerts, to enjoy thispopular genre from the privacy of their living rooms), thetypes of concerts that Mark Anthony's paintings advertiseare not English-language events. In the United States,hours upon hours of translationwould have been neces-sary, much of which would have been incomprehensible inany event for non-Akan audiences, as the plays rely heav-ily on puns, word games, and ethnicjokes thatonly a pub-lic well-versed in Ghanaianpopularculturecould possiblygrasp.7Had a concert been held in tandem with the exhibition,U.S. viewers would have found that aplay in the context athand bears little resemblance to what American audiencesmight expect:

Concertsareperformed n improvised tagesin communityhalls or out of doors in the courtyards f largefamilycom-pounds. The stage itself often consists merely of woodenboards estingontopof benchesorconcreteblocks; heback-dropcurtains ixed to a stringmaybe paintedorsimplybe apiece of ordinarywax-printcloth [worn as wrappersby

women].Thestage s shallow;actorsoften sitfacingtheaudi-ence, rising only to speak into the microphone.[Gilbert1998:75]The exhibition's viewers can experience neither timenor space as would their concert counterparts.Insofar asshe can, Gilbertseeks to provide a sense of these two fun-damental factors-a sense of what we aremissing-but, inthe end, the museum, as locus and institution,foils her. Inall other senses, she and the show she has mounted proveimmensely successful.

NotesAcknowledgments. Fortheinsightstheywere kindenoughto offer me as I waswriting hesepages,I wish to thankRomainBertrand,BartLegum,andRuthMarshall-Fratani.1. "La guerre entre le local et le global: societ6, Etats,systemes" C.N.R.S.-C.E.R.I.,Paris):May2000;"Histoire ul-turelledupresent"C.O.D.E.S.R.I.A.,Dakar):1998-2000.2. To cite but a few examples:Berger(1998) (on environ-mentalissues); Dowswell (1989) (agriculture);FairheadandLeach(1998) (deforestation); oseph(1999) (governanceanddemocratization);Manzo 1992)(politicsofdominationandre-sistance);Onimode(1995) (urbaneconomies); SembojaandTherkildsen1995)(NGOs);Werbner ndRanger 1996) (iden-tity);andYasand 1996)(sustainable evelopment).3. Of particularnterestare thefollowing:a compilationofessaysentitledAfricanMaterialCulture, ditedbyMaryJoAr-noldi, ChristraudGeary, and Kris Hardin(1996); JohannesFabian's Momentsof Freedom:Anthropologyand PopularCulture (1998); and a monographon material culture inCameroonbyFrenchanthropologistean-PierreWarnier,L'es-prit d'entrepriseau Cameroun(1996). Noteworthyas well,

thoughtheydo not deal withAfricaspecifically,areArjunAp-padurai'sTheSocial Life of Things:Commodities n CulturalPerspective(1986) andModernityat Large:CulturalDimen-sions of Globalization 1996)andWarnier'sConstruirea cul-turemateirielle1999).4. Barber 1987);Drewal 1996);EnwezorandZaya(1996);Fabian 1996);Jewsiewicki(1995, 1999);Jules-Rosette1984;Kasfir(1992, 1999);Nunley (1987); Oguibe (1997); Phillipsand Steiner (1999); Hassan(1995); Steiner (1994); Strother(1998);Vogel (1991), interalia.5. AnthropologistsBrianLarkin 1997)andRuthMarshall-Fratanihave conductedextensive researchon movies of thistype nNigeria.Similar ilms,Gilbert pp.4 and31) andanthro-pologist Birgit Meyer (1997) note, are now being made inGhana as well. Mami Wataare a subjectof interest n manycountries of West and CentralAfrica, from SierraLeone toCameroon and the DemocraticRepublicof the Congo. (OnMamiWata,see Drewal1996.)6. "The trand fAmerican harismaticChristianityhatem-phasizesdemonicbeings(e.g.,LesterSumrall,KennethHagin,GordonLindsay,FrankHammond)"Gilbertnotes, "hasbeenparticularlynfluential nGhana"p. 16).ForadditionaldataonPentecostal,charismatic, ndrevivalistchurches n Ghana, eeMeyer(1995, 1998a,1998b).7. The text of one play, "Whena Royal Dies, He is TakenHome,"performedn 1997,appearsntranslation,withcopious


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876 AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST VOL.102, No. 4 * DECEMBER00(

(andoftenfascinating) xplanatorynotes,at theend ofGilbert'scatalog (pp.35-69).ReferencesCited

Appadurai,Arjun, d.1986 The Social Life of Things:Commodities n CulturalPerspective.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.1996 ModernityatLarge:CulturalDimensionsof Globali-zation.Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress.Arnoldi,MaryJo,Christraud eary,and KrisHardin, ds.1996 AfricanMaterialCulture.Bloomington: ndianaUni-versityPress.Barber,Karin1987 PopularArts n Africa.AfricanStudiesReview30(3):1-78.

Berger,Amelie,ed.1998 Twice Humanity: mplications or Local and GlobalResourceUse. Uppsala,Sweden: NordicAfricaInstitute,Forum orDevelopmentStudies.Dowswell, Christopher .,ed.1989 FeedingtheFuture,AgriculturalDevelopmentStrate-gies forAfrica. Geneva:Centre or AppliedStudies n In-ternationalNegotiations.Drewal,Henry1996 MamiWataShrines:Exotica and the Constructionfthe Self. In AfricanMaterialCulture.MaryJo Arnoldi,ChristraudGeary, and Kris Hardin,eds. Pp. 308-333.Bloomington:ndianaUniversityPress.Enwezor,Okwui,andOctavioZaya1996 ColonialImagery,Tropesof Disruption:History,Cul-tureandRepresentationn theWorksof AfricanPhotogra-phers.In In/Sight:AfricanPhotographers,940to thePre-sent.New York:S. R.GuggenheimMuseum.Fabian,Johannes1996 Rememberinghe Present:PaintingandPopularHis-tory n Zaire.Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress.1998 Moments of Freedom:Anthropologyand PopularCulture.Charlottesville: niversityPressof Virginia.Fairhead, ames,andMelissaLeach1998 ReformingDeforestation:GlobalAnalysesandLocalRealitieswith Studies nWestAfrica.London:Routledge.Gilbert,Michelle1998 Concert Parties:Paintingsand Performance. ournalof Religion n Africa28(1):62-92.Hassan,SalahM.1995 TheModernistExperiencen AfricanArt:Visual Ex-pressionsof the Self andCross-Cultural esthetics.Nka:Journal f Contemporary fricanArt2:30-33, 72.Jewsiewicki,Bogumil1995 CheriSamba:TheHybridity f Art.Westmount,Que-bec: GalerieAmradAfricanArtPublications.1999 A CongoChronicle:PatriceLumumban UrbanArt.New York:Museum or AfricanArt.

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Jules-Rosette,Bennetta1984 The Messages of TouristArt: An AfricanSemioticSystem in ComparativePerspective.New York:PlenumPress.Kasfir,SydneyL.1992 AfricanArt andAuthenticity:A Text witha Shadow.

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Ainu: Spirit of a NorthernPeopleROBERT . SAYERS

Arlington,VAAinu: Spirit of a Northern People.NationalMuseumofNatural History, SmithsonianInstitution,Washington,DC,April30, 1999-January, 2000.

Ainu: Spirit of a NorthernPeople. WilliamW.Fitzhughand ChisatoO. Dubreuil,eds. Washington,DC: ArcticStudiesCenter,NationalMuseum of NaturalHistory, ncollaborationwithUniversityof WashingtonPress,1999.415 pp.Ainuhistorytselfhasahistory,nd tis notstraightforward.

Richardiddle,Ainu: pirit faNortherneople p.67)Itseemsthat ittleaboutheAinupeoplesof northerna-pan is straightforward.heiroriginsand language,theirhistory,and theirplace in contemporaryapanese ocietyarestill in dispute.A formerseafaringpeople,they oncecommandeda large territoryknown as Ainu MoshirstretchingromnorthernHonshuup throughHokkaido oSakhalinand the Kurile Islands.Today Hokkaido,thenorthernmost f Japan'sfour main islands,remains theAinu's principalhomeland.Approximately 5,000 indi-vidualsself-identifywith the community hrough ormalregistration;many imes thatnumber represumedo haveblended ntothe largerJapanesepopulation, othforeco-nomicreasonsandto avoid thediscriminationndsocialstigma hathaveshadowedheirnumberorcenturies.Scholarlynterestn theAinubeganalmost mmediately

followingthe MeijiRestoration f 1868,whichpermittedforeignersimitedaccessto Japan'snorthernegion.Moti-vated npartby racial heories hatattributed inuoriginsto a remnantCaucasian opulation,heseearlyresearcherssoughtto documentAinulifewaysandmaterial ulture nthe expectation hat their subjectswould soon "vanish"intohistory.Sucheffortsculminatedn groupsof Ainu be-ing "exhibited"n AmericaandEngland arly nthetwen-tiethcentury.By 1915,however, nterestn Japan'snorth-em peoplehadwaned,owingpartly o the pressof worldevents andpartlyto the feeling thatassimilationhad al-

readydone ts work.Ofcourse, he Ainudid not vanish.Asthepresent xhibition, o-curated yWilliamFitzhugh ndChisatoO. Dubreuil,makesclear,a growing ndigenouspeoples movementhas strengthened nd energizedthegroup n the modemperiod.At thesametime,theopeningof the formerSoviet Union to archaeologists nd otherscholarshas fosteredrenewed nterest n Ainuoriginsandculturehistory.Ainu: Spiritof a NorthernPeople was bornin largemeasureoutof a diplomatic ontretemps. ill Fitzhugh,tseems,had wantedto includethe Ainu, whose seal- andwhale-hunting, hamanism,and art suggest connectionswith othernorthernpeoples, in an earlierArcticStudiesCenterexhibition,Crossroadsof Continents:CulturesofSiberiaandAlaska.His Russianpartners t thetime,how-ever, lackedformal relationswith Japanand fearedthatsuch an inclusionwould resurrectunpleasantCold Warhistory,namely, he finalexpulsionof AinupeoplesfromSakhalinandthe Kuriles n 1945.It was an "unfortunateomission,"Fitzhughconcedes,that ikely wouldnothaveoccurredn thepost-Soviet ra.The exhibitionwas inspiredas well by aninventoryofAinu materialsnEuropean ndNorthAmericanmuseumsconductedby Japaneseanthropologistsnd museumspe-cialists.Surveysbetween1990and 1996(coordinated yYoshinobuKotaniof Nagoya University) dentifiedap-proximately ,200 ethnological pecimensandassociatedarchivalholdings n natural istoryandartmuseumsn theUnited States and Canada.In additionto uncoveringawealthof significantnew materials,he surveyteamdis-covered hatWesternholdingswereoften olderandbetterdocumented hanAinu collectionsin theirown country.According o Fitzhugh, primary bjective, herefore,wasto "getthe Americanstuff' out in public.In all, aboutaquarterof the nearly 250 artifacts n Ainu: Spiritof aNorthernPeople,as well as thephotographs ndarchivalfilm footage,derivefrom Smithsonian ollections.Withafew exceptions thearchaeologicalpecimens, enrepaint-ings, and modem artworks,which Japanese nstitutionssupplied), he remainderamefromotherNorthAmerican

hollywood icons, local demons exhibition of works by mark anthony

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