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the culture of carving and the carving of culture: content and context in artisan status among the Ashanti
Author(s) -
SILVER HARRY R.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1980.7.3.02a00030
Subject(s) - carving , ideology , context (archaeology) , sociology , materialism , exploit , competition (biology) , aesthetics , order (exchange) , social science , law , history , epistemology , visual arts , business , art , political science , archaeology , politics , ecology , philosophy , computer security , finance , biology , computer science
Materialist and symbolic explanations of cultural institutions are weighed in an effort to determine which best explains the unusual status of master wood‐carvers in Ashanti. Technical skills and unique privileges mark the carver's position within the social order in a manner resembling the Western concept of professionalism. From an economic standpoint, these mechanisms limit competition and allow carvers to exploit existing markets with maximum efficiency. Yet such explanations fail to elucidate why certain peculiar features of this status assume the particular forms they do. The answer lies in “thick” description and analysis of the status's larger socioideational context—specifically in the analogous structural and symbolic qualities which carvers share with Ashanti noblewomen in their relationship with important chiefs. [symbolism, ideology, social organization, economics, ritual, art]