Death and Display

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-94-6426-212-4
Verlag: Sidestone Press

Buch, Englisch, 222 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 210 mm x 280 mm, Gewicht: 788 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Corbey, Raymond

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction
2. The liana pattern
3. The woot motif
4. More designs
5. Miniature ritual items
6. Miniature weapons
7. Miniature pendants
8. Anthropomorphic forms
9. Zoomorphic forms
10. Varia

Appendix
References
Acknowledgements

Über Autor(innen)

Corbey, Raymond
Prof. Dr. Raymond Corbey:

Raymond Corbey is an anthropologist at the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, the Netherlands. His recent research focuses on the ritual art and the cosmologies of various peoples of New Guinea, Insular Southeast Asi