Essay On Cultural Encounters

Culture is the features and the characteristics of a group of people. Culture can be seen through the language, beliefs, religion, and even through art. It can be heavily influenced by different factors. The most important factor that affects culture is cultural encounters. Cultural encounters occurs when two different cultural identities interact with each other. Cultural encounters can take diverse forms. For example, when philosophical and political traditions meet together, or two different religions meet, or two countries or two group of people with different traditions interact with each other. However, in cultural encounters societies and the individuals can be influenced, and many ideas as well as beliefs can be changed. For example,

Benin arts were received differently during the time, from the beginning by Portuguese, to British and then by the modern artists. Benin arts are the artworks that produced in Benin Kingdom which was known as Edo Empire and now is Nigeria. The cultural encounters between Benin artworks and Europeans took diverse forms, from the trade to the conquest. The first encounter was in the15th century with Portuguese. It was built on the trading merchandises such as ivory carving. The Portuguese 's admiration of Benin arts encouraged the growth of the production of ivory carvings that were made for European market. Manillas were used as a currency for exchanging goods between Portuguese and Benin. Manillas were melted and reused in brass sculptures which were exclusively made for the royalty. Trading proves that there was a good relationship between Benin and Europeans at that time. During the15th and 16th, Portuguese were impressed of Benin arts. In Benin, Portuguese were new clients, so Benin produced more ivory carvings for them. Benin was aware of the different culture of Europa, so they changed the themes of their arts to suit Portuguese 's taste. For this reason we can see Benin artworks with European style are displayed on the British