Wild Spirits, Strong Medicine

Book excerpt: "Wild Spirits, Strong Medicine: African Art and the Wilderness explores African concepts of the nature/culture, wilderness/village dichotomy as it is expressed through works of art. The opposition between nature and culture, one of the fundamental organizing principles of African cosmologies, is an old topic in anthropological discourse. It has, however, never been closely examined in African art. African ideas about the qualities of the wilderness and the village give us insights into African concepts of civilization. These ideas are explored through a sifting of past research and current studies on the subject, and the inclusion of related works of art"--Jacket.