Anthropos: Anthropos, 96.2001

Anthropos, 96.2001

Bibliographic Data

Journal

Structure Type:: Journal

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistent identifier:: BV043334262

Title:: Anthropos

Place of Publication:: Fribourg

Publisher:: Ed. St. Paul

Year of Publication:: 1906

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Domain:: Social and cultural anthropology > General overview

Journal Volume

Structure Type:: Journal Volume

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711750

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711750

Persistent identifier:: 1510221856924

Title:: Anthropos, 96.2001

Year of Publication:: 2001

Call Number:: LA 1118

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Journal Issue

Structure Type:: Journal Issue

Title:: Bd. 96, 2001, Heft 1

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Anthropos 96.2001: 3-28 Chokwe Masks and Franciscan Missionaries in Sandoa, Belgian Congo, ca. 1948 Constantine Petridis Abstract. - It is not widely known that, in the first half of tlle 20th century, Belgian missionaries of the Order of Saint rancis gathered important data on Chokwe peoples, in what Is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This article discusses a selection of mostly unpublished field photographs Chokwe masks, made by Father Marchal in the village of andoa, Katanga Province, in 1948. After a brief history of ranciscan missionary activity in the former Belgian Congo, an attempt is made to identify the different mask characters shown In Marchal’s photographs. The central section of the article famines a detailed report by Marchal’s fellow missionary ather Borgonjon on a Chokwe initiation ritual for adolescent °ys, which constitutes an important context for masking. The conclusion addresses some methodological questions in relation ° { he use of missionary photographs as anthropological and r! ^ st ° r ical documents. [Democratic Republic of the Congo, °kwe, masks, missionaries, photography] Constantine Petridis, Ph. D. in art history (Ghent 1997), is a P° s tdoctoral fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research landers, Belgium (F.W.O.-Vlaanderen), and a lecturer Ghent University; he spent two academic years at the etropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on fellowships J° m the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fund (1997-98) and the ^ e gian American Educational Foundation (1998-99). - He ds conducted library, archival, museum, and field research n the art of the Luluwa and neighboring peoples of the ernocratic Republic of the Congo; he is currently researching e life and work of Frans M. Olbrechts and the history of rican art studies. - His most recent publications include lc es in African Arts, Baessler-Archiv, and Museum Studies. Introduction The art of the Chokwe, a matrilineal Bantu- s Peaking people who live in a vast area throughout northeastern Angola, northwestern Zambia, and southern (Democratic Republic of the) Congo, is often published in surveys of African art and is well represented in museums and private collec tions. 1 Belgian missionaries belonging to the Friars Minor - or Minderbroeders, as they are called in Dutch - of the Order of Saint Francis have provid ed us with important textual and visual documen tation on the art and culture of the Chokwe and a number of related peoples in southern Congo. Although the writings of the Fathers Ambroos Delille and Johannes-Franciscus Borgonjon have been referred to by such scholars as Hermann Baumann, Merran McCulloch, and Victor Turner, these sources remain largely unknown. 1 2 * 1 As demonstrated here by the titles listed under the Re ferences Cited, the ethnonym Chokwe is spelled in many ways. The same is true for the spelling of the name of their language, which, in Katanga, is called Chichokwe. Following the African phonetic alphabet, the ethnonym should be spelled Cokwe, and the people refer to themselves as Tucokwe (sing. Kacokwe). In this article the common Anglicized spelling Chokwe is retained. However, in accordance with the African phonetic alphabet, the sound “ch” is transcribed as “c” in italicized vernacular terms. 2 Franciscan missionaries are perhaps better remembered for their anthropological and linguistic work among the southern Luba of Katanga. Among the best known of these missionary anthropologists are Placied Tempels, au thor of the influential “La philosophie bantoue” (1948; originally published in Dutch in 1946), Theodoor (Jacques) Theuws, who also published a number of novels under the pseudonym Antoon Bergeyck, and Servaas Peeraer, who collected a significant number of Luba objects for both the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren and the Ethnographic Collections of Ghent University.

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