Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

O espectro da arte

2002; Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia; Issue: vol. 6 (1) Linguagem: Inglês

10.4000/etnografica.2851

2182-2891

Nuno Porto,

Urban and sociocultural dynamics

Traditional art is one of the primary resources for contemporary state oriented and urban discourses about the construction of Angola as a coherent nation. Material culture, classified both as art and as Angolan, is either intentionally created to objectify the nation under the cultural practices of urban, educated ruling élites, or diffusely participates in the process as it is incorporated to popular culture. At the same time, however, the same artifacts are used to objectify the contest voiced by groups that reclaim their own ethnic specificity in the cultural mosaic they claim Angola to be. If it is taken for granted that the crafting of nationalism is at stake, none of the contenders, however, defer to question the notion of art. This paper examines the problem of art in the context of Cokwé art and the assertion of contemporary Cokwé ethnicity. Concentrating on the liaisons between the Dundo Museum of the old Diamonds Company of Angola, and the current National Museum of Anthropology of Luanda, the paper explores the continuities in concepts and practices between colonial and postcolonial notions of art.