Flash of the spirit: African and Afro-American art and philosophy

Description

Relying on more than twenty years of wide-ranging field research, distinguished Yale professor Robert Farris Thompson describes the specifically Yoruba, Kongo, Dahomean, Mande, and Ejagham artistic, philosophic and religious influences on the sculpture, painting, architecture, textiles and ideography of people of African descent in the western hemisphere (the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Colombia and Brazil, among other places). A revolutionary work of astonishing scope and depth, Flash of the Spirit illumines and celebrates human accomplishments connecting black Atlantic worlds. As Professor Thompson himself puts it: "I hope, in opening these lines of inquiry, that the identification and explanation of some of these mainlines, intellectually perceived and sensuously appreciated, will provide a measure of the achievement of African civilizations in transition to the West, a documentation of one of the great migration styles in the history of the planet." Flash of the spirit Acknowledgments Contents Introduction ONE Black Saints Go Marching In: Yoruba Art and Culture in the Americas TWO The Sign of the Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art and Religion in the Americas THREE The Rara of the Universe: Vodun Religion and Art in Haiti FOUR Round Houses and Rhythmized Textiles: Mande-Related Art and Architecture in the Americas FIVE Emblems of Prowess: Ejagham Art and Writing in Two Worlds Notes Index About the author