Death and Display : Kuba Funerary Art from the Congo River Basin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Corbey, Raymond.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kuba (African people).

Art, Kuba.

Congo River Valley--Antiquities.

Congo River Valley.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, 2024.

Summary:

During funerals of nobles in the Kuba kingdom (Democratic Republic of Congo), visitors used to theatrically offer so-called bongotols to the deceased and the mourning family. These highly appreciated valuables were either positioned under the corpse to support it or displayed on top of it. In addition to their religious meaning they displayed the status and wealth of both givers and takers. Visitors would receive similar items in return. Afterwards the bongotols were stashed until, on occasion of a next burial, they would continue their cycles of gift and counter gift among the titled Kuba aristocracy. Death and display brings ethnographic research and archival sources to bear on these intriguing heirlooms. Their rich iconography offers a kaleidoscope of traditional Kuba sociality, cosmology and ritual.

Contents:

Intro

Introduction: Kuba Funerary Art

The liana pattern

The woot motif

More designs

Miniature ritual items

Miniature weapons

Miniature pendants

Anthropomorphic forms

Zoomorphic forms

Varia

Appendix

Archival sources

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Blank Page.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

9789464262148

9464262141

OCLC:

1428264418