Philosophy of Art in Ewe Vodu Religion

Abstract

This study examines Anlo-Ewe indigenous knowledge systems and the extent to which they inform and explain the scope and significance of the visual arts as employed in Vodu religion and spirituality. The thesis further explores the particular ways in which artistic expression and local aesthetic norms are articulated in everyday modes of being-in-the world in order to sustain arguments on the significant place of the visual arts in Anlo-Ewe Vodu religion and spirituality. One of the major premises and conclusions of this thesis is that religious and ritual contexts often constitute significant sites for discoursing and exhibiting artistic-aesthetic preferences—these sites have been largely underrepresented in studies on Ewe society, history and culture. A growing number of contemporary art historians recognize and attempt to explain the integration of indigenous worldview and spirituality as part of the larger sociocultural universe in which artisticaesthetic expressions are encountered; this study builds significantly on this trend of scholarship in African art history. The thesis demonstrates and at the same time argues for a deeper understanding of not only the ways in which religious and artistic-aesthetic expressions are closely interrelated, but also the specific ways in which they are dialogically connected to and rooted in indigenous ontologies and knowledge systems. Analytical perspectives draw on several disciplinary sites, including methods of art history, oral history and debates in cultural anthropology, linguistics, religious studies, critical theory and postcolonial studies. Field methods and techniques of research emphasize qualitative approaches with visual ethnography, ethnographic interviews, oral history, direct observation, practice-based research and autoethnography as the primary modes of data collection and analysis. The theory and practice of the autoethnographic research encouraged constructive but critical engagement of personal biographical, experiential and deeply reflective moments as integral parts of the total interpretive framework. Drawing additionally on techniques of purposive, simple random sampling techniques and stratified further (e.g., along gender, age, type of shrine or religious house, etc.) the investigation identifies and underscores the relevance of indigenous philosophical outlook, knowledge systems, and everyday lived experiences in understanding the aesthetic dimensions of the visual arts in Anlo-Ewe Vodu religion and spirituality. Key findings and conclusions build on emergent perspectives and methodologies of African religious traditions and expressive art forms that privilege contextual-functional and “art-for-life’s sake” understanding, including spheres of religion and spirituality. Additionally, the thesis provides major correctives based on a set of indigenous perspectives and practices (in the areas of aesthetics, philosophy, visual arts and religious traditions) and which caution former and lingering usages and misguided perceptions rooted in notions of the “fetish,” “primitive,” etc. Since the religious contexts of Anlo-Ewe Vodu represent a complex of rituals that integrate the various art forms, the analysis argues that the Vodu tradition is best understood as a synesthetic whole involving the visual, corporeal, motional, sonicaural (music dance, costume, gesture), and related affective domains of creativity; Anlo-Ewe examples sustain and elaborate on those of other African contexts. In sum, this work represents a major contribution to the identification and interpretation of the visual arts in African religious contexts, with emphasis on local aesthetic constructs and philosophical traditions and in relation to visuality as embodied tradition.