932
Bibliographia
Anthropos 71.1976
le grand raïs, Hailé Selassié, le chef prestigieux adoré de son peuple (p. 130). Ce qui
peut-être ne datera pas avant quelque temps, c’est le jargon gauchiste ou gauchisant de
bien des chapitres; «Serait-on armé d’une méthode scientifique d’analyse aussi féconde
que la dialectique marxiste ... qu’on l’appliquerait en vain à une réalité que l’on ignore
totalement» (p. 25, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, directeur de l’UNESCO et préfacier); le
colonialisme ou capitalisme impérialiste responsable de tous les maux du sous-développe-
ment; l’influence néfaste des multinationales. Ainsi Bézy citant F. Perroux; «Le marché
commun est le fruit du capitalisme des monopoles» (p. 273).
L’écologie (sa base géologique et la climatologie), problème fondamental (et pas
seulement au Sahel) pour l’avenir, n’est pas traitée (aucun reproche à faire à ce sujet
aux colonialistes), comme sont omis d’autres sujets essentiels; mais on nous donne une
table des taux de change pour 1974. Léon de Sousberghe
Dark, Philip J. C. An Introduction to Benin Art and Technology, ix-114 pp. in 4°.
With 206 pp. and 2 maps. Oxford 1973. Clarendon Press. Price: £ 8.50.
This essay’s merit and originality, as compared to others on the same topic, is
based on a broad analysis both of handicrafts and techniques of the various Benin’s
arts and crafts. Very interesting is also chapter 2, about the problem of the Western
view on some principal forms of Benin art.
The volume is divided in 5 chapters, followed by numerous and well selected
plates which facilitate the understanding of the text. The first chapter deals with the
chronology of Benin art. In this context the statement on the famous royal heads which
the author divides into five different types or styles, each connected with a different
king, appears very important. In his stylistical analysis Dark examines, together with
the form, also the decoration on the base of such heads and he attributes the most
naturalistic one to the early period (about 1300), still under the Ife influence. This hypo
thesis also reflects the opinions of other scholars. The full florescence of this art was
realized after the Portuguese landing, above all because afterwards plenty of brass was
imported to Nigeria which previously had been very scarce, at the point that, according
to Dark, before 1475 the pieces were continuously melted down in order to obtain the
material for casting new ones.
Very useful appears also the analysis of the famous plaques; the author singled
out some 980 of them, analysing the subjects they represent and their different importance
for the Edo inhabitants of Benin on one hand, and for W'estern culture on the other.
For the former they have a decorative value (they covered the pillars of at least one of
Oba’s palaces, the divine king of Benin) and also a memorial one, while for Westerners,
besides the historical and artistical values, they constitute a sort of a visual encyclo
paedia of Benin culture, at different periods.
The second chapter, as already stated, is about the Western view of Benin art,
seen also through a careful analysis of the work of different scholars about the topic.
According to Dark, the enormous appreciation this art enjoyed in Europe since the very
moment it was known (after 1897, the year of the famous British punitive expedition)
depended on the fact that it was the least exotic and closest one in style to those appre
ciated in Europe at that time.
In the third chapter the author analyses the context of Benin art, i. e. its meaning
and use for the Edo people.
In the fourth chapter attention is given to the artist and his production and to
the various categories of arts and crafts: brassworkers, smiths, carvers, carpenters,
architects and sculptors in mud, potters, leatherworkers, weavers and costume and
bead work makers.
The fifth chapter examines the designs and designing, and their tendency, earlier
naturalistic (but not realistic) and later on progressively stylized, as observed on the
different pieces.