Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin City (review)

This seminal book on the urban shrines of Benin City, Nigeria, is a densely composed work of anthropology. Gore adds an important study of Benin shrine arts to the corpus of available research, hitherto concentrated primarily on court arts. The text provides a foundation for future scholars 'to understand and account for this dynamism and diversity of visual traditions' (p. 202). Gore compiled the book after multiple visits from 1989 to 1998, with 20 months engaged in intensive research between 1990 and 1992.

The introduction presents the main themes of the text. Gore utilizes Arthur Danto's concept of 'artworlds' (1964), as a 'means to explore the visual and performative world of urban contemporary shrine configurations' (p. 6). Eight chapters follow. The first provides an excellent summary, though perhaps unnecessary, of the history of the Edo kingdom of Benin and contact with Europeans. Gore's deconstruction of the complex historiography of Benin studies, provided in the first chapter and revisited in the last, is a strength of the text. He relies heavily on A. F. C. Ryder, R. E. Bradbury, J. Egharevba and Paula Girshick Ben-Amos - to mention just a few of the numerous anthropologists who have researched Benin. He is critical of the overdependence upon European documentation and of attempts to assign stylistic trajectories in art.

The second chapter broadly defines different kinds of household, urban and community shrines in villages surrounding the city, and the relationship between them and the oba, or king. The materiality of the shrine is central to constructing the artworld, for the placement of objects in the assemblage signifies social and ritual relationships. Sculptures representing the deities are part of this artworld assemblage. The role of the priests (ohen) and the agency of the spirits are introduced in this chapter, and further explored in Chapter 3, which outlines the organization of the ohens and their shrines along with their strategies to increase status and reputation.

Chapter 4 conveys the variety of backgrounds and different paths that led some of the ohens to priesthood. As an art historian I found Chapter 5 to be the most intriguing. Gore provides the life histories of several artists who produce works for the urban shrines. Of interest is the interactive approach between the ohen, spirit world and the artist. The artist makes sacrifices to the deities of the shrine and negotiates payment with the ohen - who initially directs the artist, perhaps by designating the pose. While the artist crafts the clay sculptures, the ohen adds certain medicines. Furthermore, the ohen decides which colours are to be applied to the final work and whether alterations are needed. It is vital that the artist avoid the danger of incorporating his or her own features. In order to avoid harm by the spirit, the artist must dress and act differently to conceal his or her identity.

Gore points to the fluidity of the artist's trade: practitioners are not attached to a particular guild or location in the contemporary situation. Patronage has also altered to include a wider elite circle than one confined to the court and chiefly institutions. The styles of different sculptors are not compared or discussed, and the lack of correlating illustrations within the text make it difficult to find a visual matching Gore's discussion.

Chapters 6 and 7 explore specific aspects of the performative artworld of the urban shrines - the first investigates songs and the second scrutinizes the use of the red tail feather of the African gray parrot, which adorns the heads of the ohens as a marker of their initiated status. This artefact is symbolic of the conceptual implications of privileged access to power and knowledge. Gore states in the Introduction that the imagery of the red feather 'has implications for other artefacts and also for the more customary objects of Benin art history such as, for example, the plaques and other leaded brasses' (p. 7).

Gore utilizes the...