The Asante People

Through out the course of our class, art and art objects from many different cultures have helped us better understand the spiritual and political stability of these certain groups. Many art forms are used through out different areas of the world but the cultures we looked at semester have specific and unique qualities to them in which it shows us the variety with in their culture. One group of people who strongly use art and art objects in their culture is the Asante People.

The Asante people of South and Central Ghana have very artistic looks based on the objects they have and the clothing they wear which also shows their status is society. The rulers of the Asante wear a special cloth called Kente, which is colored in greens, blues, and gold. Leaders also have flywhisks, which show the authority of the ruler. The usage of elephant tail and gold is what makes this item a huge status symbol. The Asante members also wear an excessive amount of

The Yoruba people are an ethnic group located in various parts of Nigeria in which art forms play a huge role in their spiritual and political lives. The Yoruba are diversed and urbanized compared to other cultures and there is no set ruler of their political structure yet they have many autonomous rulers who are in charge of each city-state. The Yoruba people have numerous amounts of art pieces and many objects are placed on shrines to honor the gods and the ancestors. Sculptures are made out of wood, brass, and sometimes terracotta. Each on of these city-states have artistic specialist who are trained in an apprentice like setting where techniques are taught for aesthetic purposes. Additional important arts in their culture include pottery, weaving, beadworking and metalsmithing. The Yoruba art, which is most famous are the life like terracotta and brass heads that sculpted to an idea of idealized naturalism.