Primitive - Like a Diamond
primitive (pr m -t v)
adj.
Not derived from something else; primary or basic.
Of or relating to an earliest or original stage or state; primeval.
Being little evolved from an early ancestral type.
Characterized by simplicity or crudity; unsophisticated: primitive weapons.
Anthropology. Of or relating to a non-industrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity: primitive societies.
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Even in the most complimentary light, applying the word Primitive to anything a culture, an art form, a musical style is a generalization that ignores thousands of years of growth. Its a western word that was used on the assumption that technological advancement is the only form of human evolution in short: I have a gun, you have a spear, therefore Im better than you. Primitive implies little complexity, even accuses of crudeness in life and work. Particularly in Africa, Australia and the Americas, however, the indigenous peoples have thousands of years of evolution behind them, and this shows in the complexity of their art, music, and spirituality. Like a pure diamond grown from coal, primitive cultures look uncomplicated at a glance, but are truly the product of eons of complex development.
When the industrialized British Empire finally became more than vaguely aware of Africa in the late 18th century, it was the first time theyd ever experienced a group of cultures so unimaginably different to their own. Happily drunk on their own industrial superiority, the English explorers and colonists first impression was that they had discovered a continent still in the most primal stage of its development, and they were fascinated by it. Traders brought back hundreds of carved statues, masks and other works, and along with stories of exotic music and dance, these helped spread a popular image of the romanticized savage throughout England. Here was when several wrong assumptions about African culture took hold.
Firstly, western society considered African art primitive because it was seen purely as functional masks for dances, statuettes for morals and religion, etc. rather than the western aesthetic of Art for Arts sake. The truth was, there was no separation of art from the people at all in tribal life artworks often had a function because beautiful things were so deeply ingrained in the culture that they were part of events, and events occurred around the art. Though the role of the artist in a particular people could vary greatly in Mali, artists lived apart in guilds and castes, whereas in Gabon and Nigeria, art was something everyone in the group had a hand in the art itself was ingrained deeply into everyday life. A mask was there to be experienced in a dance; jewellery worn for display; statuettes pleased the eye and played various moral roles. The difference was that in African society, beauty was not something held at a distance; it was a part of life, not a reflection of it.
Another common misconception related to the way that the different artistic skills, from carving and metalwork to Mbira playing (a really unique instrument, the closest description being a tiny dulcimer played with the thumbs), were passed down in the form of tradition. The argument was that because of the way the techniques were learned, there was no room for individual expression, and therefore no growth. This is kind of like saying that Picassos works were exactly like Cezannes because thats where he based his early style. Most styles of African music, for example, were polyphonic, meaning a string of different melodies were played or sung together, creating a gut wrenching fullness of sound. Songs were sung in a cyclic fashion a particular phrase was repeated and each time the participants would add and change something to the melodies. So skills and style didnt just grow and expand over time, they could grow and expand within a single song! Thus African art and music, while learned as a tradition, relied almost entirely on individual and group improvisation.
Archaeological work in various parts of Africa, such as the uncovering of various shrines in Ife (South-West Nigeria), now give us a clear picture of a long heritage in African art. Bronze figures and terracotta carvings found in this particular area have been dated back as far as 1100 AD, and clearly demonstrate a long history of cultural development when compared to the modern styles of Nigeria. In the face of this and other evidence, it is no longer possible to consider African art as primitive or basic, but rather highly evolved along a path that was naturally completely separate from the European tradition.
Its amusing to see how this African tradition has influenced western art since. The early cubist paintings by Braque and Picasso mainly depicted nude women, and the simplified shape and line used to depict their faces bore a startling resemblance to African masks. Expressionists later on adopted the way the human form was naturalized in African depictions, and such fusions of style were important in the development of modern art.
Primitive is a label that has been wrongly applied many times throughout the western history of colonization, simply because we tended to degrade things that we didnt understand. And while Primitive is a term that still has certain acceptance to broadly group the artistic and musical traditions of many indigenous cultures, it is nice to think that weve outgrown that form of understanding. We can stop looking at a diamond like it is still an ancient lump of coal.
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Posted In Antique Diamonds at
9:45 PM
