How does the original context or use inform our understanding of its symbolism?
My figure is a nyeleni, a form used by the Jo as a “representation of the physical qualities desired in young, marriageable women” (van Damme 2000). Its use, therefore, what not only aesthetic, but also educational, showing both young boys what they should be looking for in a marriage, and showing young girls what they should strive to look like. The concept of the figure as a type of idealized shrine explains the abstractness, the natural impossibilities of the body, and the absent level of realism.
In what ways do features of your work add to our understanding of its meaning?
The aspects of the female form that the Jo appear to value are “projecting breasts jutting buttocks, and slim waists… the elongated, pole-like middle part of the torso,” and others (van Damme 2000). Because this is something of a symbol and a teaching tool, everything is therefore exaggerated; this helps our understanding to be more comprehensive, because nothing is subtle, and very little is left to the imagination.
How does the local meaning(s) differ from its later colonial and post-colonial meanings?
If this figure were used as a teaching tool to young girls today, it would be highly criticized and extremely controversial. At the same time, however, modern magazine covers and fashion shows promote a remarkably similar body image, with the exception of large hands and feet and a conical navel. Therefore, the local meaning and post-colonial meanings of this figure are, interestingly enough, not extremely different.
List c.5 questions that you would like to have asked the artist, patron, or user.
--Where would this figure be kept?
--How many would be in an average home?
--When would it be used as a teaching tool? In what contexts? Who does the teaching – parents or teachers?
--Who would make them? Was it a ceremonial process?
--What determines the thickness of certain appendages – legs, arms, neck? What determines the style of the coiffure? Is it preferential or thematically significant?
New Sources:
http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/pdfplus/3821074.pdf
African Verbal Arts and the Study of African Visual Aesthetics
http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/pdfplus/1506006.pdf
Blooms
http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/pdfplus/3336610.pdf
Sculpture
http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/pdfplus/3336576.pdf
Human Ideal
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