Art of Being Tuareg is the counterpart of a traveling museum exhibition of the same name, which recently debuted at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History until February 25, 2007. Future tour locations and dates include the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University from May 30, 2007, to September 2, 2007, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art from October 10, 2007, to September 2, 2008.
The editors, who also are the curators of the exhibition, state that the publication is one of only a few of its kind written in English. They explain that it is unique in its foci on "the evolution of a Tuareg ethos through time and the consideration of how ’modernity’ has impacted the process of Tuareg self-invention" (12). The exhibition also is unique in that it is the first on Tuareg art in the United States. Taken together, the publication and exhibition are intended to correct misconceptions and stereotypes of Tuareg people and to provide a "comprehensive view of what it is to be Tuareg" (10).
The book consists of ten chapters written by American, European, and Tuareg scholars in anthropology, ethnomusicology, political science, art history, and jewelry design. Contributors examine aesthetic aspects of Tuareg life in several African countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and Libya, but giving strong preference to Niger. Dividing the chapters are photo essays on such topics as the Sahara, indigenous beliefs and Islam, everyday Tuareg objects, and personal beautification and grooming, among others. Throughout the book are numerous large color photographs taken both in the field, where art is seen primarily in African contexts, and in the museum, where the fine visual details of objects are highlighted.
The authors derive their comprehensive view from examinations of ways in which roles of the social group or "caste" called inadan (smiths and artists) have changed along with a larger evolution within parts of Tuareg society from nomadic to agro-pastoral to sedentary living. Attention is given to the outward characteristics of art objects as well as to the mechanics and technical considerations of construction, Tuareg notions of beauty and symbolism, and various social and cultural contexts enveloping art construction and use. Meanings that Tuareg people associate with different types of metal, along with manifestations of the aesthetic of movement, are especially interesting and are discussed throughout.
The book favors physical objects--amulets, jewelry, household items, and weapons, among others--but does give some room to verbal art and music. Themes in oral poetry, including war, love, the pastoral lifestyle, humor, and economy are discussed in relation to Tuareg cultural values and identity. The chapter on acoustic and electric music concerns epic poetry and competitive love songs, music for spiritual healing ceremonies and camel races, rebellious martial music, and a number of musical instruments.
One of the most stimulating chapters follows members of a single inadan family through several decades of art production, an approach that successfully situates theoretical abstractions within contexts of individual lived experiences. Readers learn of decision-making processes necessary to survive and prosper in the face of major changes including the spread of Islam, adverse shifts in international and national politics, and contact with new types of clientele and consumer tastes in sedentary, urban environments.
The authors seek to elucidate the essence of Tuareg identity by examining inadan (whose social origins apparently were from outside Tuareg culture), and while the discussions do include some information on non-inadan Tuareg (particularly regarding reasons why they tend to look down on inadan), the inclusion of further ethnographic research on non-inadan Tuareg could have helped lend perspective to the inadan voices presented. And because droughts, famines, and other crises have contributed to sociocultural transformations among Tuareg people, more attention could have been devoted to helping readers link those events and changes. Despite such questionable but occasional characterizations of Tuaregs as "a happy people," for example, as well as rather authoritative presumptions about what "they [Tuareg people] do not realize," the work succeeds in offering a fascinating introduction to Tuareg history and expressive culture. Africanists from many disciplines should find it useful.
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[Review length: 686 words • Review posted on March 13, 2007]