African Royal Court Art by Michelle Coquet; Jane Marie ToddReview by: Alexander LopasicThe Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 668-669Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2661196 .

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668 BOOK REVIEWS

Bennett's career, the others are retrospective accounts from the 1990s. Throughout, Bennett's critical commentary focuses primarily on the central conceptual category of 'classic anthropology': the idea of 'culture'. From his earliest essays on historical reconstruction by means of trait distribution and on the influence of researcher's values on culture and personality analysis, through later essays on the limitations of the culture concept in interdisciplinary research, the difficulties of applying the culture concept in archaeology, the reification of culture as 'superorganic' in the work of A.L. Kroeber, and the problems of 'ideology and intervention', Bennett pursues his conceptual and method- ological critique, and while it is clear that he retains a qualified commitment to the culture concept's utility, he is convinced that it is 'impossible to understand or explain human behavior by knowledge of culture alone' (p. 233).

Evincing only a limited knowledge of the growing literature on the history of American anthropology, Bennett's later essays are essen- tially products of his own experience of that his- tory, focusing usually on people he knew personally, and augmenting critique with anec- dote in a reminiscent voice that sometimes rings just a bit out of present temporal tune (as in an essay on Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead as "'famous lady anthropologists"'). Six of the ear- lier essays are accompanied by 'supplements' dealing with subsequent developments. Here and elsewhere Bennett displays an occasionally sympathetic but often critical attitude towards 'post-classic' and 'postmodern' anthropology. All in all, the volume offers a provocative and illuminating perspective on American anthro- pology in the 'classic' period.

GEORGE W STOCKING JR.

Untiversity of Chicago

COQUET, MICHELLE. African royal court art; translated by Jane Marie Todd. x, 181 pp., illus., col. plates, map, bibliogr. Chicago, London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998. ?43.95

It is certainly interesting that the author of his book is French, as it was the monarchy of Louis XIV which became the model for splendour and luxury for European royalty. Here, the author, Michele Coquet, an anthropologist, links up and emphasizes the splendour of traditional African courts, something not usually associated with the African continent and its kings and

rulers. Coquet reconstructs the important rela- tionship between traditional African art, known even to very modest villages, and the African states, many of which developed their own sym- bols of power and splendour not usually expected from peoples who have been described until recently as 'backward' and 'simple'. In Coquet's case, this is really an extension of her previous book on African textiles, as, after all, some of the splendid clothes worn by African chiefs became a part of that court representa- tion.

What is particularly important here is the use of many utilitarian objects which later devel- oped into real objects of art and part of the court culture. They are closely related to the art tradi- tion known even in small village communities ofWest and Central Africa. It is also the appreci- ation of such objects and, indeed, art in general which gives African court art special importance as it becomes even more appreciated and valued. The author is quite right to relate power and wealth, and Benin in West Africa and the Kuba in Central Africa are very good examples. In both of these kingdoms, the monarch is not only the most powerful but also the richest indi- vidual, using his wealth to support a large court; many courtiers giving some of them art objects, specially made for the king, as a sign of recogni- tion. The court artists thus enjoyed a high social position, though the artistic tradition is much more modest, perceived in an African village.

I find the discussion about royal chairs of the Bajokwe (Chokwe) in Southern Zaire very revealing. These are a people well known for their stylized sculpture, with its strong and dra- matic expression. The heads of their ceremonial staffs are particularly good examples of that dra- matic expression, and are highly polished which gives them an almost metallic effect.

The Bajokwe are an important example of a people who became rich through trade with Europeans, in rubber, slaves and arms. It is not surprising that making chairs, based on seven- teenth-century Portuguese chairs, with a number of little scenes adorning them, became popular. Such chairs were specially used by the wealthy Bajokwe chiefs. Some of them depicted the Bajokwe myth of origin, giving their mythology a direct connexion with the Bajokwe chieftaincy and the beauty of their highly expressive, even aggressive, artistic expression. Ceremonial chairs are a symbol of power, and the Bajokwe chiefs had their chairs carried for them. These chairs represent a good combina- tion of a utilitarian object with the highly artistic and symbolic expression of African chiefship, and its insignia of sovereignty.

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BOOK REVIEWS 669

Of the five chapters into which the book is divided, the chapter on insignia of sovereignty and court objects I found particularly good, as it emphasizes the superbly made objects which became symbols of royal dignity and splendour. It is a pity, therefore, that two important publi- cations on African kingdoms and power sym- bolism are missing from the fairly extensive bibliography I am referring to T. Istam: The king of Ganda, 1944, a first-class comparative study of African kingdoms, and W Schilde: 'Die afrikanische Hoheitszeichen', Z. Ethnol. (ZFE), 1929, an excellent comparative study on African symbols of power.

ALEXANDER LoPASIc

University of Reading

FAI3RE, DANIEL. L_Europe entre culttures et nations (Miss. Patrim. ethnol., Coll. Ethnol. 10). xii, 342 pp., bibliogrs. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de I'Hamme, 1996. 159 FF

This volume grew from a European colloquium at Tours in December 1993, bringing together researchers from western and eastern Europe. The central themes addressed were patrimony (corresponding to 'cultural heritage'), identity and nation. As Fabre himself explains in the introduction, far from being separate, these notions need to be considered in relation to each other. The definition of 'ethnological patri- mony' is seen as strictly connected to the con- struction and development of the 'nation'. The same can be said of 'identity' especially when considered, as it is in this book, through the lens of the 'production of the other: the foreigner'. Despite these theoretical premisses, the volume is subdivided into three major areas of discus- sion: 'identities and patrimonies', 'images of belonging and national bond' and 'the social production of the foreigner'.

One noteworthy characteristic common to most of the articles is the role given to specific national and regional histories in affecting rela- tions between heritage, nation and identity. This is particularly true of papers in section 1: here, a number of contributions emphasize the role of specific historical legacies in defining and man- aging ethnological patrimony at different stages. The analysis proceeds from the 'specificity of the French situation' with its shifting dialectic between local and national (Bromberger) shaping the institutionalization of patrimony according to different phases of the construction of national identity (Pomian), to other trajecto-

ries such as those of Spain (Garcia) and Italy (Clemente). Broader in scope and context is Chiva's theoretical attempt to assess the ideo- logical risks that ethnologists and an ethnology of Europe may encounter and must overcome.

The second section is less focused, yet not uninteresting. Topics covered range from con- temporary ideas of nationhood in Hungary (Zempl6ni) to naturalist and genealogical metaphors informing social construction of the notion of 'belonging' (Comas D'Argemir). Two other articles link theoretical approaches of famous anthropologists with national contexts. Barth's biography and theory of ethnicity is dis- cussed in connexion with longstanding Norwegian cultural relativism (Tambs-Lyche); conversely, Fabian provides a comparison between van Gennep's and Mauss's unfinished contributions to the study of the national ques- tion by considering processes of constant 'nationalization' of French culture and society (cf J. Llobera, 'Anthropological approaches to the study of nationalism in Europe', in The anthropology of Europe (eds) J. Llobera et al.,Oxford: Berg 1994).

Section 3 focuses on the social production of the foreigner. This 'construct' is admirably well explained as emerging from different historical stages of urban France's immigration and socio- economic development (Althabe). Readers can move coherently into a French translation of Stolke's comparative critique of 'the new rhetorics of exclusion in Europe'; and finally, to an interesting analysis of the ambivalences sur- rounding the production and consumption of 'mass exoticism' (Gallini). The conclusion offers some suggestions for reinforcement of the dialogue between the different 'ethnologies of Europe'.

It is difficult to do justice to the wide range of topics covered in this volume. Indeed, such variety is both the strength and the weakness of the book. On the one hand, it assembles a rich, informative selection of papers which will appeal to different sorts of readers. On the other hand, those who expect a more system- atic and sophisticated theoretical discussion of the specific relationships between the book's key themes may find the whole collection uneven. However, scholars interested in nationalism, ethnicity, representation of the other, collective memory and the politics of cultural heritage will surely find something of interest to them in some if not all of the con- tributions.

BRUNO RicciO

University of Sussex

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