Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

ascribes male beauty to physical aptitude. Distended breasts, a signifier of having nursed a child or many
children, are a common signifier of beauty across many African cultures (see figures 6-8). Peoples of Mali,
such as the Bamana, peoples of Nigeria and Benin such as the Yoruba, and peoples that live in more central
Africa, such as the Kongo, all have produced female figures with elongated breasts that represent fertility,
child bearing, and subsequently, beauty. This beauty is also indicative of a woman’s power in society, as
only the woman is able to bear children and insure the continuance of the community and culture.
Figure 6: Gwandusu,
Bamana. 13 th -15 th
century.
Figure 7: Pfemba.
Kongo, Late 19 th early
20 th century.
For African men, the ability to strike fear into the heart of the enemy at war is certainly something
to venerated and respected, but not in the same way that feminine beauty is to be venerated and respected.
The exclusion of the gender dialectic from the works of Aristotle suggests a much more stringently
patriarchal society than do the inclusion of womanly ideals in many African art pieces.
The largest difference between the traditional African art aesthetic and the Western art aesthetic is
in regards to the purpose of art. Art, in the Western world, is something abstracted from purpose. Art
objects are set apart from the objects of day to day existence. While the written works of Aristotle allude to
beauty as being contingent on physical functionality, the representation of this beauty in itself has no
purpose other than to represent beauty. In contrast, many African art forms are not recognized as art forms
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Figure 8: Shango
figure, Yoruba.